1951 United Kingdom general election in England

The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 25 October 1951 to elect 625 members of the House of Commons, of which 506 constituencies were in England.

1951 United Kingdom general election in England

25 October 1951
All 506 English seats in the House of Commons 254 seats needed for English majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Winston Churchill Clement Attlee Clement Davies Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 9 October 1940 25 October 1935 2 August 1945 Leader's seat Warwick and Leamington Walthamstow West Montgomeryshire Last election 253 seats, 43.84% 251 seats, 46.13% 2 seats, 9.39% Seats won 271 233 2 Seat change 18 18 Percentage 48.76 48.80% 2.26% Swing 4.92% 2.67% 7.13%

The Labour Government led by incumbent prime minister Clement Attlee decided to call an election just over one and half years after the previous election in February 1950, primarily because the Labour Party had won a mere majority of 5 seats in the House of Commons. In that election, the Labour Party had won less seats than the Conservative Party in the region of England despite winning a greater share of the vote.

The election produced an interesting anomaly in England as well as the nation at large - despite the Labour Party winning a greater share of the vote, the Conservative Party won an overall majority, both in the Commons and in England. This occurrence would next take place only in 2005 when the Labour Party would a win a majority of seats in England while the Conservative Party would accumulate a grater share of the vote (however, the Labour Party won a greater share of the vote than the Conservatives in the nation as a whole). This election also noted the highest ever voteshare as well as the total number of votes the Labour Party has ever recorded in any election in England as well as the nation at whole.

The narrow victory of the Conservative Party led to the return of Winston Churchill as prime minister and the start of 13 years of Conservative rule (the second longest period of one-party rule in the 20th century).

Result Table

Party	Seats won	Net change in seats	Total votes (in millions)	Voteshare	Change in voteshare
Conservative	271	18	11.62	48.76%	4.92%
Labour	233	18	11.63	48.80%	2.67%
Liberal	2		0.57	2.26%	7.13%

Parliament seats Conservative   53.55% Labour   46.04% Liberal   0.39%

Further reading

• Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK.
• Jenkin, Thomas P. (1952). "The British General Election of 1951". The Western Political Quarterly. 5 (1): 51–65
• Butler, David E. (1952), The British General Election of 1951, London: Macmillan
• Craig, F.W.S., 1975. The General Election of 1951. In British General Election Manifestos 1900–1974 (pp. 168–180). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.