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1955 United Kingdom general election in England

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The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 26 May 1955 to elect 630 members of the House of Commons, of which 511 constituencies were in England. It was called immediately after Anthony Eden succeeded Sir Winston Churchill as prime minister in order to strengthen the position of the Conservative Party in the Commons where it enjoyed only a slender majority.

1955 United Kingdom general election in England
← 1951 26 May 1955 1959 →
All 511 English seats in the House of Commons
256 seats needed for English majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Anthony Eden Clement Attlee Clement Davies
Party Conservative Labour Liberal
Leader since 7 April 1955 25 October 1935 2 August 1945
Leader's seat Warwick and
Leamington 		Walthamstow West Montgomeryshire
Last election 271 seats, 48.8% 233 seats, 48.8% 2 seats, 2.3%
Seats won 293 216 2
Seat change Increase22 Decrease17 Steady
Percentage 50.4 46.8% 2.7%
Swing Increase1.6 Decrease2.0% Increase0.4%

The Conservative Party recorded a second consecutive victory over the Labour Party. It was the first time since 1935 that the Conservative Party won a greater share of the vote over the Labour Party. It is also to be noted that the 50.4% voteshare recorded by the Conservatives remains the largest share of the vote recorded by any party in a post-war general election. The 46.8% voteshare recorded by the Labour Party in England has been exceeded by the party only once since then- in the 1966 general election.[1]

It was also the first of 18 general elections held under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the first general election whose television coverage is existent. At the same time, it was the fifth and the last election in which the Labour Party was led by Clement Attlee.

Result Table

[edit]
Party Seats won Net change in seats Total votes (in millions) Voteshare Change in voteshare
Conservative 293 Increase22 11.17 50.4% Increase1.6%
Labour 216 Decrease17 10.36 46.8% Decrease2.0%
Liberal 2 Steady 0.57 2.7% Increase0.4%
Parliament seats
Conservative
 
 57.33%
Labour
 
 42.27%
Liberal
 
 0.39%

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Harmer, Emily (2021-10-06), "The Candidates: Making the House (of Commons) Their Home?", Women, media and elections, Policy Press, pp. 21–57, doi:10.1332/policypress/9781529204940.003.0002, ISBN 978-1-5292-0494-0, retrieved 2024-10-17

Further reading

[edit]
  • Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK.
  • "1955: Eden given mandate", BBC News, 5 April 2005
  • Birch, A.H., Campbell, P. and Lucas, P.G., 1956. The popular press in the British general election of 1955. Political Studies, 4(3), pp.297-306.
  • Butler, David E. (1956), The British General Election of 1955.
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