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United Kingdom general election, 1945
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United Kingdom general election, 1945
← 1935 5 July 1945 1950 →
← outgoing members
elected members →
All 640 seats in the House of Commons
321 seats needed for a majority
Turnout
72.8% ( 1.7%)
First party
Second party
Leader
Clement Attlee Winston Churchill
Party
Labour Conservative
Leader since
25 October 1935 9 October 1940
Leader's seat
Limehouse Woodford
Last election
154 seats, 38.0% 386 seats, 47.8%
Seats won
393 197
Seat change
239 189
Popular vote
11,967,746 8,716,211
Percentage
47.7% 36.2%
Swing
9.7% 11.6%
Third party
Fourth party
Leader
Archibald Sinclair Ernest Brown
Party
Liberal Liberal National
Leader since
26 November 1935 1940
Leader's seat
Caithness and Sutherland (Defeated) Leith
(Defeated)
Last election
21 seats, 6.7% 33 seats, 3.7%
Seats won
12 11
Seat change
9 22
Popular vote
2,177,938 686,652
Percentage
9.0% 2.9%
Swing
2.3% 0.8%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.
(Insert shows results in the Parliamentary County of London. Map excludes Northern Ireland)
Prime Minister before election
Winston Churchill
Conservative
Appointed Prime Minister
Clement Attlee
Labour
1931 election
MPs
1935 election
MPs
1945 election
MPs
1950 election
MPs
1951 election
MPs
The 1945 United Kingdom general election was held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, because of local wakes weeks.[1] The results were counted and declared on 26 July, to allow time to transport the votes of those serving overseas.
The result was an unexpected landslide victory for Clement Attlee's Labour Party, over Winston Churchill's Conservatives.[2] It was the first time the Conservatives had lost the popular vote since the 1906 election; they would not win it again until 1955. Labour won its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 12.0% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election.
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 Campaign
3 Results
4 Result: detail
4.1 Votes summary
4.2 Seats summary
4.3 MPs who lost their seats
5 Seats changing hands between parties
6 Reasons for Labour victory
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Background[edit]
Held less than two months after VE Day, it was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended during the Second World War. Clement Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party, refused Winston Churchill's offer of continuing the wartime coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan. Parliament was dissolved on 15 June.
Campaign[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017)
The Labour Party ran on promises to create full employment, a tax-funded universal National Health Service, the embracing of Keynesian economic policies and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the campaign message 'Let us face the future'.
The Conservative manifesto included the granting of Dominion Status to India, mass house building, rent tribunals, an expansion of social security benefits and a "comprehensive health service".
Results[edit]
The caretaker government led by Churchill was heavily defeated; the Labour Party under Attlee's leadership won a landslide victory, gaining a majority of 145 seats.
The result of the election came as a major shock to the Conservatives,[3] given the heroic status of Winston Churchill, but reflected the voters' belief that the Labour Party were better able to rebuild the country following the war than the Conservatives.[4] Ralph Ingersoll reported in late 1940 that, "Everywhere I went in London people admired [Churchill's] energy, his courage, his singleness of purpose. People said they didn't know what Britain would do without him. He was obviously respected. But no one felt he would be Prime Minister after the war. He was simply the right man in the right job at the right time. The time being the time of a desperate war with Britain's enemies".[5] Henry Pelling, noting that polls showed a steady Labour lead after 1942, explained the long-term forces that caused the Labour landslide. He pointed to the usual swing against the party in power; the Conservative loss of initiative; wide fears of a return to the high unemployment of the 1930s; the theme that socialist planning would be more efficient in operating the economy; and the mistaken belief that Churchill would continue as prime minister regardless of the result.[6]
Though voters respected and liked Churchill's wartime record, they were more distrustful of the Conservative Party's domestic and foreign policy record in the late 1930s. Labour had also been given, during the war, the opportunity to display to the electorate their domestic competence in government, under men such as Attlee as Deputy Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison at the Home Office and Ernest Bevin at the Ministry of Labour.[citation needed] Churchill and the Conservatives are also generally considered to have run a poor campaign in comparison to Labour; Churchill's statement that Attlee's programme would require "some form of a Gestapo" to implement is considered to have been particularly poorly judged.[7]
This was the first election in which Labour gained a majority of seats, and also the first time it won a plurality of votes. The election was a disaster for the Liberal Party; it lost all its urban seats, while its leader Archibald Sinclair lost his rural seat of Caithness and Sutherland. According to Baines, the defeat marked its transition from being a party of government to a party of the political fringe.[8] The Liberal National party fared even worse, losing two-thirds of its seats and falling behind the Liberals in seat count for the first time since the parties split in 1931. This was the final election that the Liberal Nationals fought as an autonomous party, as they merged with the Conservative Party two years later, continuing to exist as a subsidiary party of the Conservatives until 1968.
Future prominent figures who entered Parliament included Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Barbara Castle, Michael Foot and Hugh Gaitskell. Future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan lost his seat, returning to Parliament at a by-election later in the year.
Result: detail[edit]
↓
393 197 12 11 27
Labour Conservative Lib LN Oth
UK general election 1945
Candidates
Votes
Party
Leader
Stood
Elected
Gained
Unseated
Net
% of total
%
No.
Net %
Labour Clement Attlee 603 393 242 3 + 239 61.4 47.7 11,967,746 + 11.7
Conservative Winston Churchill 559 197 14 204 −190 30.8 36.2 8,716,211 −11.6
Liberal Archibald Sinclair 306 12 5 14 −9 1.9 9.0 2,177,938 +2.3
Liberal National Ernest Brown 49 11 0 22 −22 1.7 2.9 686,652 −0.8
Independent N/A 38 8 6 0 +6 1.3 0.6 133,191 +0.5
National N/A 10 2 2 1 +1 0.3 0.5 130,513 +0.2
Common Wealth C. A. Smith 23 1 1 0 +1 0.2 0.5 110,634 N/A
Communist Harry Pollitt 21 2 1 0 + 1 0.3 0.4 97,945 +0.3
Nationalist James McSparran 3 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.4 92,819 +0.2
National Independent N/A 13 2 1 1 0 0.3 0.3 65,171 N/A
Independent Labour N/A 7 2 2 0 0 0.3 0.3 63,135 +0.2
Independent Conservative N/A 6 2 2 0 + 2 0.3 0.2 57,823 +0.1
Ind. Labour Party Bob Edwards 5 3 0 1 − 1 0.5 0.2 46,769 -0.5
Independent Progressive N/A 7 1 1 0 + 1 0.2 0.1 45,967 +0.1
Independent Liberal N/A 3 2 2 0 + 2 0.3 0.1 30,450 +0.1
SNP Douglas Young 8 0 0 0 0 — 0.1 26,707 -0.1
Plaid Cymru Abi Williams 7 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 16,017 —
Commonwealth Labour Harry Midgley 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 14,096 N/A
Independent Nationalist N/A 4 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 5,430 N/A
Liverpool Protestant H. D. Longbottom 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 2,601 —
Christian Pacifist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 2,381 N/A
Democratic Norman Leith-Hay-Clark 5 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 1,809 N/A
Agriculturist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 1,068 —
Socialist (GB) None 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 472 N/A
United Socialist Guy Aldred 1 0 0 0 0 — 0.0 300 N/A
Total votes cast: 24,073,025. Turnout 72.8%.[9] All parties shown. Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists. The 8 seats won by National Labour in 1935 were not defended.
Votes summary[edit]
Popular vote
Labour
47.7%
Conservative
36.2%
Liberal
9.0%
Liberal National
2.9%
Others
4.2%
Seats summary[edit]
Parliamentary seats
Labour
61.4%
Conservative
30.8%
Liberal
1.9%
Liberal National
1.2%
Others
4.7%
MPs who lost their seats[edit]
Party
Name
Constituency
Office held whilst in power
Year elected
Defeated by
Party
Conservative Party Major
Henry Adam Procter Accrington 1931 Captain
Walter Scott-Elliot
Labour Party
Henry Longhurst Acton 1943 Joseph Sparks
Labour Party
Sir Jonah Walker-Smith Barrow and Furness 1931 Walter Monslow
Labour Party
Sir Richard Wells, 1st Baronet Bedford 1922 Thomas Skeffington-Lodge
Labour Party
John McEwen Berwick and Haddington 1931 John Robertson
Labour Party
Sir Oliver Simmonds Birmingham Duddeston 1931 Edith Wills
Labour Party
Major
Basil Arthur John Peto Birmingham King's Norton 1941 Raymond Blackburn
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Geoffrey Lloyd Birmingham Ladywood Minister for Information 1931 Victor Yates
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Leo Amery Birmingham Sparkbrook Secretary of State for India and Burma 1911 Percy Shurmer
Labour Party
Walter Higgs Birmingham West 1937 Charles Simmons
Labour Party
Sir Edward William Salt Birmingham Yardley 1931 Wesley Perrins
Labour Party
Major
Sir Cyril Entwistle Bolton 1931 John Lewis
Labour Party
Eric Errington Bootle 1935 John Kinley
Labour Party
Violet Bathurst, Lady Apsley Bristol Central 1943 Stan Awbery
Labour Party
The Honourable Major
Lionel Berry Buckingham 1943 Aidan Crawley
Labour Party
Captain
Nigel Colman Brixton 1927 Lieutenant Colonel
Marcus Lipton
Labour Party
Colonel The Honourable
John Gretton Burton 1943 Arthur William Lyne
Labour Party
Colonel
Albert Braithwaite Buckrose 1926 George Wadsworth
Liberal Party
The Honourable
Oscar Guest Cambridge 1934 Tudor Watkins
Labour Party
Richard Tufnell Camberwell North West (contested Breconshire and Radnorshire) 1935 Arthur Symonds
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Percy James Grigg Cardiff East Secretary of State for War 1942 Hilary Marquand
Labour Party
Arthur Evans Cardiff South 1931 James Callaghan
Labour Party
Major-General
Sir Edward Spears Carlisle 1931 Edgar Grierson
Labour Party
Captain
Leonard Plugge Chatham 1935 Arthur Bottomley
Labour Party
Lieutenant Commander
Robert Tatton Bower Cleveland 1931 George Willey
Labour Party
Oswald Lewis Colchester 1929 Captain
George Delacourt-Smith
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Donald Somervell Crewe Home Secretary 1931 Scholefield Allen
Labour Party
Herbert Williams Croydon South 1932 Lieutenant Colonel
David Rees-Williams
Labour Party
Charles Peat Darlington Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions 1931 David Hardman
Labour Party
Paul Emrys-Evans South Derbyshire Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs 1931 Arthur Champion
Labour Party
Bracewell Smith Dulwich 1932 Major
Wilfrid Vernon
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Florence Horsbrugh Dundee Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health 1931 Thomas Fotheringham-Cook
Labour Party
Lieutenant Colonel
Sir John Mayhew East Ham North 1931 Percy Daines
Labour Party
Robert Cary Eccles Lord of the Treasury 1935 William Proctor
Labour Party
Frank Watt Edinburgh Central 1941 Andrew Gilzean
Labour Party
Alexander Erskine-Hill Edinburgh North 1935 George Willis
Labour Party
Thomas Levy Elland 1931 Frederick Arthur Cobb
Labour Party
Bartle Brennen Bull Enfield 1935 Enfield Davies
Labour Party
Roy Wise Smethwick (contested Epping) 1931 Leah Manning
Labour Party
The Honourable
William Astor Fulham East 1931 Captain
Michael Stewart
Labour Party
Walter Elliot Glasgow Kelvingrove 1924 John Lloyd-Williams
Labour Party
Leslie Boyce Gloucester 1929 Moss Turner-Samuels
Labour Party
Sir Irving Albery Gravesend 1924 Garry Allighan
Labour Party
Sir Walter Womersley, 1st Baronet Great Grimsby Minister of Pensions 1924 The Honourable Major
Kenneth Younger
Labour Party
Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet Hackney North Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fuel, Light and Power 1924 Henry Edwin Goodrich
Labour Party
Gilbert Gledhill Halifax 1931 Dryden Brook
Labour Party
Ronald Tree Harborough 1933 Humphrey Attewell
Labour Party
Colonel
Thomas George Greenwell The Hartlepools 1943 David Thomas Jones
Labour Party
James Wootton-Davies Heywood and Radcliffe 1940 John Edmondson Whittaker
Labour Party
The Honourable
Seymour Berry Hitchin 1941 Philip Asterley Jones
Labour Party
Colonel
Sir Lambert Ward, 1st Baronet Hull North West 1918 Kim Mackay
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Richard Law Hull South West Minister of Education 1931 Sydney Smith
Labour Party
Major
Geoffrey Hutchinson Ilford (contested Ilford North) 1937 Mabel Ridealgh
Labour Party
Thelma Cazalet-Keir Islington East 1931 Eric Fletcher
Labour Party
James Duncan Kensington North 1931 George Rogers
Labour Party
Major
John Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo Kettering Baby of the House 1940 Major
Gilbert Mitchinson
Labour Party
Sir John Wardlaw-Milne Kidderminster 1922 Louis Tolley
Labour Party
Alec Douglas-Home Lanark Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1931 Tom Steele
Labour Party
Major
William Anstruther-Gray North Lanarkshire Assistant Postmaster-General 1931 Margaret Herbison
Labour Party
John Craik-Henderson Leeds North East 1940 Alice Bacon
Labour Party
Vyvyan Adams Leeds West 1931 Thomas William Stamford
Labour Party
Major
Abraham Montagu Lyons Leicester East 1931 Terence Donovan
Labour Party
Captain
Charles Waterhouse Leicester South Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade 1924 Herbert Bowden
Labour Party
Lieutenant Colonel
Sir Assheton Pownall Lewisham East 1918 Herbert Morrison
Labour Party
Henry Brooke Lewisham West 1938 Arthur Skeffington
Labour Party
Sir Walter Liddall Lincoln 1931 George Deer
Labour Party
Colonel
Sir John Joseph Shute Liverpool Exchange 1933 Bessie Braddock
Labour Party
Sir Edmund Brocklebank Liverpool Fairfield 1931 Arthur Moody
Labour Party
Reginald Purbrick Liverpool Walton 1929 James Haworth
Labour Party
Cyril Lakin Llandaff and Barry 1942 Lynn Ungoed-Thomas
Labour Party
Major
Lawrence Kimball Loughborough 1935 Mont Follick
Labour Party
Pierse Loftus Lowestoft 1934 Edward Evans
Labour Party
John Lees-Jones Manchester Blackley 1931 John Diamond
Labour Party
Thomas Hewlett Manchester Exchange 1940 Harold Lever
Labour Party
William Duckworth Manchester Moss Side 1935 William Griffiths
Labour Party
Frederick Cundiff Manchester Rusholme 1944 Lester Hutchinson
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Malcolm Robertson Mitcham 1940 Tom Braddock
Labour Party
Alfred Denville Newcastle upon Tyne Central 1931 Lyall Wilkes
Labour Party
William Nunn Newcastle upon Tyne West 1940 Ernest Popplewell
Labour Party
Ronald Bell Newport 1945 Peter Freeman
Labour Party
Sir Thomas Cook North Norfolk 1931 Edwin Gooch
Labour Party
Somerset de Chair South West Norfolk 1935 Sidney Dye
Labour Party
Spencer Summers Northampton Secretary for Overseas Trade 1940 Reginald Paget
Labour Party
Henry Strauss Norwich Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning 1935 Lucy Noel-Buxton, Baroness Noel-Buxton
Labour Party
Lieutenant Colonel
Duncan Sandys Norwood First Commissioner of Works 1935 Ronald Chamberlain
Labour Party
The Right Honourable Air Vice Marshal
Sir Frederick Sykes Nottingham Central 1940 Geoffrey de Freitas
Labour Party
Colonel
Louis Gluckstein Nottingham East 1931 James Harrison
Labour Party
Hamilton Kerr Oldham 1931 Frank Fairhurst
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Brendan Bracken Paddington North First Lord of the Admiralty 1929 Lieutenant General
Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane
Labour Party
Major
Maurice Petherick Penryn and Falmouth Financial Secretary to the War Office 1931 Lieutenant Colonel
Evelyn King
Labour Party
John Hely-Hutchinson, Viscount Suirdale Peterborough 1943 Stanley Tiffany
Labour Party
Major
Ralph Beaumont Portsmouth Central 1931 Julian Snow
Labour Party
Major
Randolph Churchill Preston 1940 Squadron Leader
Samuel Segal
Labour Party
Captain
Edward Cobb Preston (contested Eton and Slough) 1936 Benn Levy
Labour Party
Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn West Renfrewshire 1931 Thomas Scollan
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Ronald Cross, 1st Baronet Rossendale High Commissioner to Australia 1931 George Henry Walker
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Ralph Assheton Rushcliffe Chairman of the Conservative Party 1934 Florence Paton
Labour Party
Allen Chapman Rutherglen Under-Secretary of State for Scotland 1935 Gilbert McAllister
Labour Party
The Honourable
John Grimston St Albans 1943 Cyril Dumpleton
Labour Party
Robert Grant-Ferris St Pancras North 1937 George House
Labour Party
Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd Baronet St Pancras South East 1931 Santo Jeger
Labour Party
Sir James Frederick Emery Salford West 1935 Charles Royle
Labour Party
William Craven-Ellis Southampton 1931 Ralph Morley
Labour Party
Malcolm McCorquodale Sowerby 1931 John Belcher
Labour Party
Peter Thorneycroft Stafford 1938 Stephen Swingler
Labour Party
Horace Trevor-Cox Stalybridge and Hyde 1937 Gordon Lang
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Harold Macmillan Stockton-on-Tees Secretary of State for Air 1931 Captain
George Chetwynd
Labour Party
Sir George Jones Stoke Newington 1924 David Weitzman
Labour Party
Robert Morgan Stourbridge 1931 Arthur Moyle
Labour Party
Flight Lieutenant
Ralph Etherton Stretford 1939 Herschel Austin
Labour Party
Sir Walter Perkins Stroud 1931 Ben Parkin
Labour Party
Henry Burton Sudbury 1924 Roland Hamilton
Labour Party
Samuel Storey Sunderland 1931 Richard Ewart
Labour Party
Lieutenant Colonel
Edward Wickham Taunton 1935 Victor Collins
Labour Party
Sir Derrick Gunston, 1st Baronet Thornbury 1924 Joseph Alpass
Labour Party
Sir Alexander Russell Tynemouth 1922 Grace Colman
Labour Party
Colonel The Right Honourable
John Jestyn Llewellin Uxbridge Minister of Food 1929 Flight Lieutenant
Frank Beswick
Labour Party
Irene Ward Wallsend 1931 John McKay
Labour Party
Donald Scott Wansbeck Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 1940 Alfred Robens
Labour Party
Noel Goldie Warrington 1931 Edward Porter
Labour Party
Air Commodore
William Helmore Watford 1943 John Freeman
Labour Party
Wing Commander
Sir Archibald James Welingborough 1931 George Lindgren
Labour Party
Sir Richard Pilkington Widnes Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty 1935 Maurice Orbach
Labour Party
Samuel Hammersley Willesden East 1938 Commander
Christopher Nyholm Shawcross
Labour Party
Gerald Parmer Winchester 1935 George Jeger
Labour Party
William Ernest Gibbons Bilston 1944 Will Nally
Labour Party
Francis Beech Woolwich West 1943 Henry Berry
Labour Party
Arthur Colegate The Wrekin 1941 Ivor Owen Thomas
Labour Party
Charles Wood, Lord Irwin City of York 1937 John Corlett
Labour Party
National Liberal Party Percy Jewson Great Yarmouth 1941 Ernest Kinghorn
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
William Mabane Huddersfield Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 1931 Joseph Mallalieu
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Ernest Brown Leith Leader of the Liberal National Party & Minister of Aircraft Production 1927 James Hoy
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare, 1st Baronet Norwich 1929 James Paton
Labour Party
Major
John Samuel Dodd Oldham 1935 Leslie Hale
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Leslie Hore-Belisha Plymouth Devonport 1923 Michael Foot
Labour Party
William Stanley Russell Thomas Southampton 1940 Tommy Lewis
Labour Party
William Woolley Spen Valley 1940 Granville Maynard Sharp
Labour Party
Stephen Furness Sunderland 1935 Frederick Willey
Labour Party
Lieutenant-Colonel
Sir George Schuster Walsall 1938 Major
William Wells
Labour Party
Liberal Party Sir William Beveridge Berwick-upon-Tweed 1944 Robert Thorp
Conservative Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Percy Harris, 1st Baronet Bethnal Green South West Liberal Chief Whip 1922 Percy Holman
Labour Party
The Right Honourable
Sir Archibald Sinclair, 4th Baronet Caithness and Sutherland Leader of the Liberal Party & Secretary of State for Air 1922 Eric Gandar Dower
Conservative Party
The Right Honourable
Henry Graham White Birkenhead East 1929 Frank Soskice
Labour Party
Seaborne Davies Caernarfon 1945 Lieutenant Colonel
David Price-White
Conservative Party
Lieutenant Colonel
Goronwy Owen Caernarvonshire 1923 Goronwy Roberts
Labour Party
Dingle Foot Dundee Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare 1931 Squadron Leader
John Strachey
Labour Party
Thomas Magnay Gateshead 1931 Konni Zilliacus
Labour Party
James Armand de Rothschild Isle of Ely 1929 Major
Harry Legge-Bourke
Conservative Party
Colonel The Honourable
Henry Guest Plymouth Drake 1937 Hubert Medland
Labour Party
Sir Geoffrey Mander Wolverhampton East 1929 Captain
John Baird
Labour Party
Labour Party Moelwyn Hughes Carmarthen 1941 Rhys Hopkin Morris
Liberal Party
John Eric Loverseed Eddisbury 1943 Sir John Barlow, 2nd Baronet
National Liberal Party
Daniel Frankel Mile End 1935 Phil Piratin
Communist Party of Great Britain
National Labour Harold Nicolson Leicester West 1935 Barnett Janner
Labour Party
Frank Markham Nottingham South 1935 Norman Smith
Labour Party
Commander
Stephen King-Hall Ormskirk 1939 Harold Wilson
Labour Party
Independent Labour Andrew MacLaren Burslem 1935 Albert Edward Davies
Labour Party
George Leonard Reakes Wallasey 1942 Ernest Marples
Conservative Party
Independent Conservative Captain
Alec Cunningham-Reid St Marylebone 1932 Wavell Wakefield
Conservative Party
Scottish National Party Robert McIntyre Motherwell 1945 Alexander Anderson
Labour Party
Seats changing hands between parties[edit]
This differs from the above list in including seats where the incumbent was standing down and therefore there was no possibility of any one person being defeated. The aim is to provide a comparison with the previous election. All comparisons are with the 1935 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 1945. Such circumstances are marked with a †.
Gain
Gained from
Number
Seats
Communist Labour 1 Mile End
Labour Independent Labour Party 1 Gorbals*
National Labour 8 Kilmarnock, Derby (one of two)†, Ormskirk, Leicester West, Nottingham South, Lichfield†, Leeds Central, Cardiff C
Liberal 9 Dundee (one of two), Paisley, Birkenhead East, Bristol North6, Bethnal Green South-West, Wolverhampton East, Middlesbrough West, Bradford South, Carnarvonshire
Independent 1 Mossley
National 1 Brecon and Radnor†
Conservative 182 Dundee (one of two), Kelvingrove, Dunbartonshire†, Lanark, Lanarkshire N, Renfrewshire W, Rutherglen, Edinburgh North, Edinburgh Central, Midlothian S & Peebles, Berwick & Haddington, Bedford, Reading, Buckingham, Wycombe, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Birkenhead West, Crewe, Stalybridge and Hyde, Penryn and Falmouth, Carlisle, Derby (one of two), Belper, Derbyshire South, Derbyshire West2, Drake, Sutton, Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland (one of two), The Hartlepools, Leyton East, Colchester, East Ham N, Epping, Essex SE, Ilford N (from Ilford), Maldon5, Walthamstow E, Bristol Central, Gloucester, Stroud, Thornbury, Portsmouth Central, Portsmouth North, Southampton (one of two), Winchester, Dudley, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Hitchin, St Albans, Watford, Hull North West, Hull South West, Chatham, Chislehurst, Dartford†, Dover, Faversham, Gillingham, Gravesend, Accrington, Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn (both seats), Chorley, Clitheroe, Preston (both seats), Rossendale, Bolton (both seats), Eccles, Heywood and Radcliffe, Blackley, Manchester Exchange, Hulme, Moss Side, Rusholme, Oldham (one of two), Salford North, Salford South, Salford West, Stretford, Bootle, Edge Hill, Liverpool Exchange, Fairfield, Kirkdale, Walton, Warrington, Widnes, Harborough, Leicester East, Leicester South, Loughborough, Grimsby, Lincoln, Balham and Tooting, Battersea South, Brixton, Camberwell North-West, Clapham, Dulwich, Fulham East, Greenwich, Hackney North, Hammersmith South, Islington East, Kensington North, Lewisham East, Lewisham West, Norwood, Paddington North, Fulham West†, Islington North†, Kennington†, Peckham†, St Pancras North, St Pancras South East, St Pancras South West, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth Central†, Woolwich West, King's Lynn, Norfolk North, Norfolk South, Norfolk South West, Norwich (one of two), Kettering, Northampton, Peterborough, Wellingborough, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Newcastle upon Tyne West, Tynemouth, Wallsend, Wansbeck, Nottingham Central, Nottingham East, Rushcliffe, The Wrekin, Frome, Taunton, Burton, Smethwick, Stafford, Bilston, Wolverhampton West, Ipswich†, Lowestoft, Sudbury, Croydon South, Mitcham, Wimbledon, Duddeston, Coventry East (replaced Coventry), Aston, Deritend, Erdington, King's Norton, Ladywood, Yardley, Sparkbrook, Birmingham West, Swindon, York, Cleveland, Leeds North East, Sheffield Central, Bradford North, Sowerby, Elland, Leeds West, Halifax, Bradford East, Newport, Llandaff & Barry, Cardiff E8, Cardiff S
National Liberal 17 Greenock†, Leith, Luton, Devonport4, Gateshead, Sunderland (one of two), Southampton (one of two), Oldham (one of two), Bosworth, Southwark North†, Great Yarmouth, Norwich (one of two), Newcastle upon Tyne East, Walsall, Huddersfield, Spen Valley, Swansea West
NEW SEAT 10 Eton and Slough, Ilford South, Barking, Dagenham, Hornchurch, Thurrock, Barnet, Bexley, Acock's Green, Coventry West
Independent Labour Labour 1 Hammersmith North*
Ulster Unionist 1 Belfast West
Common Wealth Conservative 1 Chelmsford*
Liberal Labour 1 Carmarthen
Conservative 2 Dorset North, Buckrose
National Liberal 2 Eye*, Montgomeryshire*
Independent Progressive Conservative 1 Bridgwater†
Independent Conservative 3 Grantham†, City of London (one of two)†, Rugby†
National Independent Conservative 1 Cheltenham7
Conservative Liberal 5 Caithness and Sutherland, Isle of Ely, Barnstaple3, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Carnarvon
Speaker 1 Daventry†
NEW SEAT 8 Bucklow, Woodford, Orpington, Blackpool North, Carshalton, Sutton and Cheam, Worthing, Solihull
Independent Conservative Conservative 1 Galloway*
Independent Liberal National Liberal 1 Ross and Cromarty1
Independent Unionist Ulster Unionist 1 Down (one of two)*
Speaker Conservative 1 Hexham*
1seat had been won by National Labour in a by-election
2seat had been won by Independent Labour candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a Labour candidate
3candidate had defected to the Common Wealth party
4candidate had moved to 'National' label
5seat had been won by Independent candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a Labour candidate
6candidate had defected to National Liberal party
7seat had been won by Independent Conservative candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a National Independent candidate
8seat had been won by Independent candidate in a by-election
Reasons for Labour victory[edit]
With the Second World War coming to an end in Europe, the Labour Party decided to pull out of the wartime national coalition government, precipitating an election which took place in July 1945. King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for ten years without an election. What followed was perhaps one of the greatest swings of public confidence of the twentieth century. In May 1945, the month in which the war in Europe ended, Churchill's approval ratings stood at 83%, although the Labour Party held an 18% lead as of February 1945.[10] Labour won overwhelming support while 'Churchill... was both surprised and stunned' by the crushing defeat suffered by the Conservatives.
The greatest factor in Labour's dramatic win appeared to be the policy of social reform. In one opinion poll, 41% of respondents considered housing to be the most important issue that faced the country, 15% stated the Labour policy of full employment, 7% mentioned social security, 6% nationalisation and just 5% international security, which was emphasised by the Conservatives. The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, proposed the creation of a welfare state. It called for a dramatic turn in British social policy, with provision for nationalised healthcare, expansion of state-funded education, National Insurance and a new housing policy. The report was extremely popular, and copies of its findings were widely purchased, turning it into a best-seller. The Labour Party adopted the report eagerly.[3] The Conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report (Churchill did not regard the reforms as socialist), but claimed that they were not affordable.[11] Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed.[4] The Conservatives were not willing to make the same concessions that Labour proposed, and hence appeared out of step with public opinion.
As Churchill's personal popularity remained high, the Conservatives were confident of victory and based much of their election campaign on this, rather than proposing new programmes. However, people distinguished between Churchill and his party—a contrast which Labour repeatedly emphasised throughout the campaign. Voters also harboured doubts over Churchill's ability to lead the country on the domestic front.[4]
In addition to the poor Conservative general election strategy, Churchill went so far as to accuse Attlee of seeking to behave as a dictator, in spite of Attlee's service as part of Churchill's war cabinet. In the most famous incident of the campaign, Churchill's first election broadcast on 4 June backfired dramatically and memorably. Denouncing his former coalition partners, he declared that Labour "would have to fall back on some form of a Gestapo" to impose socialism on Britain. Attlee responded the next night by ironically thanking the Prime Minister for demonstrating to people the difference between Churchill the great wartime leader and Churchill the peacetime politician, and argued the case for public control of industry.
Another blow to the Conservative campaign was the memory of the 1930s policy of appeasement, which had been conducted by Churchill's Conservative predecessors, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, and was at this stage widely discredited for allowing Adolf Hitler's Germany to become too powerful.[4] Labour had strongly advocated appeasement until 1938. The inter-war period had been dominated by Conservatives. With the exception of two brief minority Labour governments in 1924 and 1929–1931, the Conservatives had been in power for its entirety. As a result, the Conservatives were generally blamed for the era's mistakes, not merely for appeasement but for the inflation and unemployment of the Great Depression.[4] Many voters felt that while the war of 1914–1918 had been won, the peace that followed had been lost. Labour played to the concept of "winning the peace" that would follow the Second World War.
Possibly for this reason, there was especially strong support for Labour in the armed services, who feared the unemployment and homelessness to which the soldiers of the First World War had returned. It has been claimed that the pro left-wing bias of teachers in the armed services was a contributing factor, but this argument has generally not carried much weight, and the failure of the Conservative governments in the 1920s to deliver a "land fit for heroes" was likely more important.[4] The role of propaganda films produced during the war, which were shown to both military and civilian audiences, is also seen as a contributory factor due to their general optimism about the future, which meshed with the Labour Party's campaigning in 1945 better than with that of the Conservatives.[12] Writer and soldier Anthony Burgess remarked that Churchill – who often wore a colonel's uniform at this time – himself was not nearly as popular with soldiers at the front as with officers and civilians: he noted that Churchill often smoked cigars in front of soldiers who had not had a decent cigarette in days.[13]
The differing strategies of the two parties during wartime also gave Labour an advantage. Labour continued to attack pre-war Conservative governments for their inactivity in tackling Hitler, reviving the economy, and re-arming Britain,[14] while Churchill was less interested in furthering his party, much to the chagrin of many of its members and MPs.[10]
See also[edit]
MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1945
1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours
Attlee ministry
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "General Election (Polling Date): 31 May 1945: House of Commons debates". They Work For You.
Jump up ^ Chris Rowe (2004). Britain 1929–1998. p. 37.
^ Jump up to: a b "1945: Churchill loses general election". BBC. 1945-07-26. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Lynch 2008, p. 4
Jump up ^ Ingersoll, Ralph (1940). Report on England, November 1940. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 127.
Jump up ^ Henry Pelling, "The 1945 general election reconsidered." Historical Journal 23(2) (1980): 399–414. JSTOR: 2638675
Jump up ^ Marr, A (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Pan Macmillan Ltd. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.
Jump up ^ Baines (1995)
Jump up ^ "Voter turnout at UK general elections 1945 – 2015 – UK Political Info".
^ Jump up to: a b Dr Paul Addison (2005-04-29). "Why Churchill Lost in 1945". BBC. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
Jump up ^ Lynch 2008, p. 10
Jump up ^ 1945 General Election. Sean Spurr. HistoryEmpire.com. Accessed 4 April 2012.
Jump up ^ Burgess, Anthony (1987). Little Wilson and Big God. Heinemann. p. 305. ISBN 1446452557. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
Jump up ^ Lynch 2008, pp. 1–4
Bibliography[edit]
Addison, Paul. The road to 1945: British politics and the Second World War (London: Cape, 1975)
Baines, Malcolm. "The liberal party and 1945 general election." Contemporary Record (1995) 9(1) pp: 48–61.
Brooke, Stephen. Labour's war: the Labour party during the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 1992)
Burgess, Simon. "1945 Observed – A History of the Histories," Contemporary Record (1991) 5(1) pp 155–170; historiography
F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987
Fielding, Steven. "What did 'the people' want?: the meaning of the 1945 general election." Historical Journal (1992) 35(3) pp: 623–639. JSTOR: 2639633
Fry, Geoffrey K. "A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945," History (1991) 76#246 pp 43–55.
Gilbert, Bentley B. "Third Parties and Voters' Decisions: The Liberals and the General Election of 1945." Journal of British Studies (1972) 11(2) pp: 131–141.
Kandiah, Michael David. "The conservative party and the 1945 general election." (1995): 22–47.
Lynch, Michael (2008). "1. The Labour Party in Power 1945–51". Britain 1945–2007. Access to History. Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-96595-9. .
McCallum, R.B. and Alison Readman. The British general election of 1945 (1947) the standard scholarly study
McCulloch, Gary. "Labour, the Left, and the British General Election of 1945." Journal of British Studies (1985) 24(4) pp: 465–489. JSTOR: 175476
Nicholas, H. (1951). The British general election of 1950. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-77865-0.
Pelling, Henry. "The 1945 general election reconsidered." Historical Journal (1980) 23(2) pp: 399-414. JSTOR: 2638675
Toye, Richard. "Winston Churchill's "Crazy Broadcast": Party, Nation, and the 1945 Gestapo Speech," Journal of British Studies (2010) 49(3) pp. 655–680 JSTOR: 23265382; online
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1945 UK general election.
Catalogue of general election ephemera held at LSE Archives
Labour Wins – newspaper report from the Melbourne Argus, 27 July 1945
United Kingdom election results – summary results 1885–1979
Manifestos
Mr. Churchill's Declaration of Policy to the Electors – 1945 Conservative manifesto.
Let Us Face the Future – 1945 Labour Party manifesto.
20 Point Manifesto of the Liberal Party – 1945 Liberal Party manifesto.
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value: MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1945

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value: Eleccions al Parlament del Regne Unit de 1945 – Catalan

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