1931 United Kingdom general election

1931 United Kingdom general election

← 1929 27 October 1931 1935 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	76.4%, 0.1%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Arthur Henderson John Simon Party Conservative Labour National Liberal Alliance National National Leader since 23 May 1923 1 September 1931 5 October 1931 Leader's seat Bewdley Burnley (defeated) Spen Valley Last election 260 seats, 38.1% 287 seats, 37.1% Did not contest Seats won 470[note 1] 52 35 Seat change 210 235 35 Popular vote 11,377,022 6,339,306 761,705 Percentage 55.0% 30.6% 3.7% Swing 16.9% 6.5% New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Herbert Samuel Ramsay MacDonald David Lloyd George Party Liberal National Labour Independent Liberal Alliance National National Leader since October 1931 24 August 1931 1931 Leader's seat Darwen Seaham Caernarvon Boroughs Last election 59 seats, 23.6% Did not contest Did not contest Seats won 33 13 4 Seat change 26 13 4 Popular vote 1,346,571 316,741 106,106 Percentage 6.5% 1.5% 0.5% Swing 17.1% New party New party
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the 1931 General Election
Prime Minister before election Ramsay MacDonald Labour Prime Minister after election Ramsay MacDonald National

The 1931 United Kingdom general election was held on Tuesday 27 October 1931 and saw a landslide election victory for the National Government which had been formed two months previously after the collapse of the second Labour government.^[1] Collectively, the parties forming the National Government won 67% of the votes and 554 seats out of 615. Although the bulk of the National Government's support came from the Conservative Party and the Conservatives won 470 seats, National Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald remained as Prime Minister. The Labour Party suffered its greatest defeat, losing four out of every five seats compared with the previous election, including the seat of its leader Arthur Henderson. Ivor Bulmer-Thomas said the results "were the most astonishing in the history of the British party system".^[2] It is the most recent election in which one party (the Conservatives) received an absolute majority of the votes cast, and the last UK general election not to take place on a Thursday. It would be the last election until 1997 in which a party won over 400 seats in the House of Commons.

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