1923 United Kingdom general election

1923 United Kingdom general election

6 December 1923
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.1% ( 1.9 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 23 May 1923 21 November 1922 30 April 1908 Leader's seat Bewdley Aberavon Paisley Last election 344 seats, 38.5% 142 seats, 29.7% 115 seats, 28.8% Seats won 258 191 158 Seat change 86 49 43 Popular vote 5,286,159 4,267,831 4,129,922 Percentage 38.0% 30.7% 29.7% Swing 0.5 pp 1.0 pp 0.9 pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons following the 1923 general election
Prime Minister before election Stanley Baldwin Conservative Prime Minister after election Ramsay MacDonald Labour

The 1923 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 December 1923. The Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won the most seats, but Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. H. Asquith's reunited Liberal Party gained enough seats to produce a hung parliament. It is the most recent UK general election in which a third party won over 100 seats (158 for the Liberals) and the most narrow gap, of a "mere" 100 seats, between the first and third parties since. The Liberals' percentage of the vote, 29.7%, has not been exceeded by a third party at any general election since.

MacDonald formed the first ever Labour government with tacit support from the Liberals. Rather than trying to bring the Liberals back into government, Asquith's motivation for permitting Labour to enter power was that he hoped they would prove to be incompetent and quickly lose support. Being a minority, MacDonald's government only lasted ten months and another general election was held in October 1924.

Overview

In May 1923, Prime Minister Bonar Law fell ill and resigned on 22 May, after just 209 days in office. He was replaced by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Baldwin. The Labour Party had also changed leaders since the previous election, after J. R. Clynes was defeated in a leadership challenge by former leader Ramsay MacDonald.

Having won an election just the year before, Baldwin's Conservative Party had a comfortable majority in the House of Commons and could have waited another four years, but the government was concerned and the Conservatives were divided. Baldwin felt the need to receive a mandate from the people, which, if successful, would strengthen his grip on the Conservative Party leadership and allow him to introduce tariff reform and imperial preference as protectionist trade policies over the objections of the free trade elements of his party.

Oxford historian and Conservative MP John Marriott depicts the gloomy national mood:

The times were still out of joint. Mr. Baldwin had indeed succeeded in negotiating (January 1923) a settlement of the British debt to the United States, but on terms which involved an annual payment of £34 million, at the existing rate of exchange. The French remained in the Ruhr. Peace had not yet been made with Turkey; unemployment was a standing menace to national recovery; there was continued unrest among the wage-earners, and a significant strike among farm labourers in Norfolk.

Confronted by these difficulties, convinced that economic conditions in England called for a drastic change in fiscal policy, and urged thereto by the Imperial Conference of 1923, Mr. Baldwin decided to ask the country for a mandate for Preference and Protection.

Parliament was dissolved on 16 November and the result backfired on Baldwin, who lost a host of seats to Labour and the Liberals, resulting in a hung parliament. A reformation of the Conservative-Liberal coalition which had governed the country from 1918 to 1922 was not practical, as Baldwin had alienated both of the two most prominent Liberals, Asquith and David Lloyd George.

Aftermath

Faced with the decision of whether to support a minority Conservative or Labour government on an issue-by-issue basis, Asquith ultimately chose to support the Labour government. This decision was influenced by Lloyd George's faction, which was strongly opposed to collaborating with Baldwin, and the belief amongst the Liberals as a whole that Labour's electoral success was largely due to the previous split within the Liberal Party. Asquith anticipated that a Labour government would reveal Labour's policies as impractical, thereby enabling the Liberals to surpass them in the subsequent election. Consequently, the Liberals joined forces with Labour to defeat Baldwin's King's Speech, leading to the fall of his government and allowing Labour to form its first government.

Results

1923 United Kingdom general election

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	Stanley Baldwin	536	258	23	109	−86	41.95	38.0	5,286,159	−0.5
	Labour	Ramsay MacDonald	427	191	64	15	+49	31.06	30.7	4,267,831	+1.0
	Liberal	H. H. Asquith	457	158	86	43	+43	25.69	29.7	4,129,922	+0.9
	Nationalist	Joseph Devlin	2	2	0	0	0	0.3	0.3	43,835	N/A
	Independent	N/A	6	2	0	1	−1	0.325	0.3	36,802	−0.5
	Communist	Albert Inkpin	4	0	0	1	−1		0.2	34,258	0.0
	Belfast Labour	David Robb Campbell	1	0	0	0	0		0.2	22,255	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	4	0	0	1	−1		0.2	17,331	0.0
	Independent Liberal	N/A	4	1	1	1	0	0.1	0.1	16,184	0.0
	Constitutionalist	N/A	1	0	0	1	−1		0.1	15,500	0.0
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	1	0	0	3	−3		0.1	15,171	−0.8
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	1	0	0	0		0.1	12,877	0.0
	Irish Nationalist	N/A	2	1	0	0	0	0.2	0.1	10,322	N/A
	Christian Pacifist	N/A	1	1	1	0	0		0.0	570	N/A

Total votes cast: 13,909,017. Turnout: 71.1%.

Votes summary

Popular vote Conservative   38.01% Labour   30.68% Liberal   29.69% Others   1.62%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Conservative   41.95% Labour   31.06% Liberal   25.69% Others   1.30%

Constituency results

For a full list of the results by constituency, see Constituency election results in the 1923 United Kingdom general election.

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the 1922 election.
  • In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
  • In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1923. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

From		To		No.	Seats
	Communist		Liberal	1	Battersea North
			Conservative	1	Motherwell
	Labour		Labour (HOLD)	125	Aberdeen North, Ayrshire South, Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street, Derby (one of two), Dundee (one of two), Edinburgh Central, Fife West, Govan, Hamilton, Houghton-le-Spring, Workington, Plaistow, Forest of Dean, Burnley, Nelson and Colne, Preston (one of two), Ince, Platting, Westhoughton, Wigan, Salford North, Newton, St Helens, Holland with Boston, Deptford, Woolwich East, Morpeth, Broxtowe, Nottingham West, Kingswinford, Leek, Smethwick, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Hemsworth, Leeds South East, Normanton, Rother Valley, Rothwell, Wentworth, Abertillery, Bedwellty, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool, Caerphilly, Gower, Ogmore, Rhondda East, Rhondda West, Glasgow Gorbals, Manchester Gorton, Cannock, East Ham South, Walthamstow West, Leicester West, Wallsend, Hanley, Bradford East, Don Valley, Aberdare, Silvertown, Midlothian South & Peebles, Derbyshire North East, Spennymoor, Seaham, Consett, Leigh, Whitechapel and St Georges, Wansbeck, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Dunfermline Burghs, Renfrewshire East, Renfrewshire West, Rutherglen, Dumbarton Burghs, Glasgow Bridgeton, Crewe, Clay Cross, Ilkeston, Blaydon, Jarrow, Poplar South, Stepney Limehouse, Pontefract, Sheffield Hillsborough, Sheffield Attercliffe, Sheffield Brightside, Leeds South, Doncaster, Barnsley, Batley and Morley, Colne Valley, Wrexham, Llanelli, Aberavon, Merthyr, Neath, Swansea East, Norfolk North, Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire, Stirlingshire West, Lanarkshire North, Glasgow Maryhill, Glasgow Camlachie, Bothwell†, Coatbridge, Glasgow Springburn, Glasgow Tradeston, Glasgow St. Rollox, Glasgow Shettleston, Linlithgow, Durham, Stratford, Eccles, Farnworth, Manchester Ardwick, Oldham (one of two), Bow and Bromley, Camberwell North, Edmonton, Tottenham North, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Bradford Central, Pontypridd†
			Liberal	12	Accrington, Bermondsey West, Burslem, Carnarvonshire, Dewsbury, Elland, Gateshead, Keighley, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Newcastle upon Tyne West, Rochdale, Stirling and Falkirk
			Conservative	2	Cathcart, Sedgefield
	Independent Labour		Liberal	1	Anglesey†
	Scottish Prohibition		Scottish Prohibition	1	Dundee (one of two)
	Nationalist		Nationalist	2	Fermanagh and Tyrone (both seats)
	Irish Nationalist		Irish Nationalist	1	Liverpool Scotland
	Liberal		Labour	5	Bethnal Green North-East, Derby (one of two), Huddersfield, Leeds West, Mansfield
			Liberal (HOLD)	45	Greenock, Paisley, Leith, Edinburgh East, Chesterfield, Kingston upon Hull South West, Lambeth North, Wolverhampton East, Middlesbrough West, Penistone, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire, Orkney and Shetland, East Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire, Galloway, South Molton, South Shields, Spen Valley, Combined Scottish Universities (one of three), Aberdeen and Kincardine Central†, Forfarshire, Fife East, Edinburgh West, Dumfriesshire, Bedfordshire Mid, Birkenhead East, Tavistock, Dorset North, The Hartlepools, Harwich, Isle of Wight, Kingston upon Hull Central, Preston (one of two), Bootle, Horncastle, Bethnal Green South-West, Great Yarmouth, Nottingham Central, Oxford, Taunton, Chippenham, Westbury, Bradford South, Louth, Walsall
			Conservative	7	Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine, Penrith and Cockermouth, Belper, Derbyshire West, Worcester, Holderness, Grantham
	National Liberal		Labour	19	Kirkcaldy Burghs, Glasgow Partick, Kilmarnock, Berwick & Haddington, Bristol East, Bristol North, Dartford, Bolton (one of two), Leicester East, Shoreditch, Southwark North, Southwark South East, Norwich (both seats), Northampton, Wellingborough, Lichfield, Shipley, Swansea West
			Liberal	27	Caithness and Sutherland*, Inverness*, Ross and Cromarty*, Western Isles, Banff*, Montrose Burghs*, Argyll*, Stockport (one of two), Cornwall North*, Stockton-on-Tees, Bristol South*, Blackburn (one of two), Heywood and Radcliffe*, Oldham (one of two)*, Stretford, Camberwell North-West*, Hackney Central, Southwark Central*, Stoke*, Denbigh, Flintshire*, Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire*, Carnarvon*, Brecon and Radnor*, Combined English Universities (one of two)*, Camborne
			Independent Liberal	1	Cardiganshire
			Christian Pacifist	1	University of Wales
			Conservative	6	Moray and Nairn, Kinross and West Perthshire, Romford, Middleton & Prestwich, Sheffield Park, Norfolk South West
	Independent Liberal			2	Eye, Cambridge University (one of two)
	Independent		Independent	2	Mossley, Harrow
	Speaker		Speaker	1	Halifax
	Conservative		Labour	40	Dunbartonshire, Lanark, Midlothian & Peebles North, Reading, Birkenhead West, Barnard Castle, Leyton East, East Ham North, Essex SE, Maldon, Upton, Gravesend, Manchester Clayton, Salford South, Salford West, Warrington, Liverpool Edge Hill†, Greenwich, Kennington, Hammersmith North, Finsbury, Hackney South, Islington South, Islington West, Stepney Mile End, Rotherhithe, St Pancras North, St Pancras South East, Norfolk South, Kettering, The Wrekin, Frome, Ipswich, Coventry, Enfield, Tottenham South, Willesden West, Wakefield, Rotherham, Cardiff South
			Liberal	69	Perth, Edinburgh North, Luton, Abingdon, Newbury, Aylesbury, Wycombe, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Altrincham, Stalybridge and Hyde, Wirral, Penryn and Falmouth, St Ives, Barnstaple, Plymouth Devonport, Tiverton, Torquay, Totnes, Chelmsford, Stroud, Thornbury, Basingstoke, Portsmouth Central, Hemel Hempstead, Sevenoaks, Blackpool, Darwen, Lancaster, Lonsdale, Manchester Blackley, Manchester Exchange, Manchester Moss Side, Manchester Rusholme, Manchester Withington, Royton, Liverpool Wavertree, Liverpool West Derby, Southport, Bosworth, Harborough, Leicester South, Gainsborough, Hackney North, Brixton, Islington East, Stoke Newington, King's Lynn, Norfolk East, Hexham, Nottingham East, Shrewsbury, Bath, Bridgwater, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Sudbury, Chichester, Nuneaton, Rugby, Finchley, Willesden East†, Devizes, Salisbury, Cleveland, Middlesbrough East, Bradford North, Sowerby, Cardiff East
			Conservative (HOLD)	226	Cambridge University (one of two), Combined English Universities (one of two), Oxford University (both seats), London University, Combined Scottish Universities (two of three), Aberdeen South, Ayr Burghs, Ayrshire N & Bute, Glasgow Central, Hillhead, Pollok, Kelvingrove, Edinburgh South, Windsor, Buckingham, Cambridge, Chester, Eddisbury, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Northwich, Wallasey, Cumberland North, Westmorland, High Peak, Exeter, Honiton, Plymouth Drake, Plymouth Sutton, Dorset South, Dorset West, Darlington, Sunderland (both seats), Colchester, Epping, Ilford, Leyton West, Southend, Walthamstow E, Bristol Central, Bristol West, Cheltenham, Cirencester and Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Aldershot, Fareham, New Forest & Christchurch, Petersfield, Portsmouth North, Portsmouth South, Winchester, Hereford, Leominster, Bewdley, Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster, Hitchin, St Albans, Watford, Ealing, Hornsey, Twickenham, Wood Green, Brentford and Chiswick, Hendon, Spelthorne, Uxbridge, Acton, Howdenshire, Kingston upon Hull East, Kingston upon Hull North West, Ashford, Bromley, Canterbury, Chatham, Chislehurst, Dover, Faversham, Gillingham, Hythe, Isle of Thanet, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn (one of two), Chorley, Fylde, Rossendale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, Hulme, E Toxteth, Everton, Liverpool Exchange, Fairfield, Kirkdale, Walton, West Toxteth, Waterloo, Widnes, Melton, Brigg, Grimsby, Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford, Balham and Tooting, Chelsea, Clapham, Dulwich, Fulham East, Hampstead, Holborn, Lewisham East, Lewisham West, Kensington South, Fulham West, Hammersmith South, Islington North, Kensington North, Battersea South, City of London (both seats), Norwood, Paddington North, Paddington South, Putney, St Marylebone, St Pancras South West, Streatham, Wandsworth Central, Westminster Abbey, Woolwich West, Daventry, Peterborough, Newcastle upon Tyne North, Tynemouth, Bassetlaw, Nottingham South, Rushcliffe, Newark, Henley, Ludlow, Oswestry, Yeovil, Burton, Stafford, Stone, Tamworth, Bilston, Wolverhampton West, Bury St Edmunds, Woodbridge, Chertsey, Croydon North, Croydon South, Epsom, Farnham, Guildford, Kingston upon Thames, Mitcham, Reigate, Surrey East, Wimbledon, Brighton (both seats), East Grinstead, Eastbourne, Hastings, Horsham and Worthing, Lewes, Rye, Aston, Deritend, Erdington, King's Norton, Ladywood, Yardley, Sparkbrook, Birmingham West, Edgbaston, Handsworth, Moseley, Warwick and Leamington, Swindon, York, Richmond (Yorks), Scarborough and Whitby, Thirsk and Malton, Barkston Ash, Ripon, Ecclesall, Hallam, Skipton, Leeds North East, Sheffield Central, Monmouth, Llandaff & Barry, Cardiff C, Bournemouth, Hertford, Bedford, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire South, Southampton (both seats), Buckrose, Peckham, Banbury, Lowestoft, Pudsey and Otley, Leeds North, Leeds Central, Newport (Monmouthshire), Bodmin, Saffron Walden, Stourbridge, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Birmingham Duddeston, Stockport (one of two), Clitheroe, Ormskirk, Bolton (one of two)
	Ind. Conservative		Conservative	3	Westminster St George's, Richmond (Surrey)*, Dorset East
	UUP		UUP	11	Antrim (both seats), Armagh, Belfast East, Belfast North, Belfast South, Belfast West, Down (both seats), Londonderry, Queen's University of Belfast

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1923 United Kingdom general election
• 2019 United Kingdom general election, the next UK general election after 1923 to be held in December.
• 1923 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

References

Sources

• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
• Doerr, Paul W. (1998), British foreign policy 1919–1939, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0719046718
• Marriott, J. A. R. (1948), Modern England: 1885–1945

Further reading

• Cook, Chris P. (1969), "Wales and the General Election of 1923", Welsh History Review, 4 (4): 393–4
• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1975), British General Election Manifestos, 1900-74
• Irwin, Douglas A. (1995), Industry or Class Cleavages over Trade Policy? Evidence from the British General Election of 1923 (PDF), National Bureau of Economic Research
• Self, Robert (1992), "Conservative reunion and the general election of 1923: a reassessment", Twentieth Century British History, 3 (3): 249–273, doi:10.1093/tcbh/3.3.249
• Smart, Nick (1996), "Baldwin's Blunder? The General Election of 1923", Twentieth Century British History, 7 (1): 110–139, doi:10.1093/tcbh/7.1.110

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 8 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

• 1923 Conservative manifesto
• 1923 Labour manifesto
• 1923 Liberal manifesto