United Kingdom general election, 1931

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Ramsay MacDonald

Stanley Baldwin

Arthur Henderson

The UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the total number of votes cast.

The 1931 general election was held in the middle of the Great Depression, and by 1931 Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government had reached deadlock over a response to the crisis. The Labour Cabinet were not willing to make the cuts that the civil service advised them to make. MacDonald was encouraged to form a National Government to deal with the financial crisis. This government included politicians from all of the main parties. The Conservatives argued that the new government should seek a mandate from the electorate. The decision of MacDonald to form a coalition with the Conservative Party had led Labour to expel him. He was replaced as leader by Arthur Henderson. MacDonald and a small group of supporters then reformed as the National Labour Party. The split in the Labour party persuaded Macdonald that a quick election was necessary. The Liberals opposed the calling of an election. Their leader, David Lloyd George urged his colleagues to withdraw from the National government. However, the majority of Liberals, led by Sir Herbert Samuel decided to remain in the National government. One of the main issues was the Conservatives wish to introduce protectionist trade policies. This not only divided the government from the opposition but also divided the parties in the National government. The Liberal Nationals under Sir John Simon were happy to support the Conservative trade policies. The Liberals led by Samuel and Lloyd George preferred to campaign in defence of free trade.

Due to the previous Labour government's failure to tackle the economic crisis, the Labour vote fell sharply, and the Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, won a huge majority, although the prime minister of the resulting National Government was still Ramsay MacDonald.

The Liberals lacked the funds to contest their usual number of seats, but won almost as many as the Labour Party.

[edit] Results

UK General Election 1931
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net Gain/Loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Conservative	470			+ 210	76.4	55.0	11,377,022
	Labour	52			- 225	8.5	30.8	6,339,306
	Liberal	33	16	7	+ 9	5.2	6.5	1,346,571
	National Liberal	35	10	3	+ 7	5.7	3.7	761,705
	National Labour	13	13	0	+ 13	2.1	1.5	316,741
	Independent Liberal	4	0	-1	- 1	0.7	0.5	103,528
	National Govt supporter	4	4	0	+ 4	0.7	0.5	100,193
	Irish Nationalist	2	0	1	- 1	0.3	0.4	72,530
	Communist	0	0	0	0	0	0.3	69,692
	New Party	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	36,377
	National Independent	2	2	0	+ 2	0.3	0.2	33,468
	National (Scotland)	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	20,954
	Independent Labour	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	18,200
	Scottish Prohibition	0	0	1	- 1	0	0.1	16,114
	Independent	1	0	3	- 3	0	0.0	10,789
	Liverpool Protestant	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	7,834
	Agricultural Party	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	6,993
	Independent Nationalist	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,134
	Independent Liberal	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,578
	Plaid Cymru	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,050
	Commonwealth Land	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,347