United Kingdom general election, 1922

United Kingdom general election, 1922

15 November 1922
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	73.0%, 15.8%
First party Second party   Leader Bonar Law J. R. Clynes Party Conservative Labour Leader since 23 October 1922 14 February 1921 Leader's seat Glasgow Central Manchester Platting Last election 382 seats, 38.4%[lower-alpha 1] 57 seats, 21.5% Seats won 344 142 Seat change 38 85 Popular vote 5,294,465 4,076,665 Percentage 38.5% 29.7% Swing 0.1% 8.9%   Third party Fourth party   Leader H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George Party Liberal National Liberal Leader since 30 April 1908 7 December 1916 Leader's seat Paisley Caernarvon Boroughs Last election 36 seats, 13.3% 127 seats, 12.6%[lower-alpha 2] Seats won 62 53 Seat change 26 74 Popular vote 2,601,486 1,355,366 Percentage 18.9% 9.9% Swing 5.9% 2.7%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election Bonar Law Conservative Appointed Prime Minister Bonar Law Conservative

The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was the first general election held after most of Ireland left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by the Conservatives led by Andrew Bonar Law, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by J. R. Clynes, and a divided Liberal Party.

This election is considered a realigning election, with the Conservative Party going on to spend all but eight (comprising the second Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald, and Clement Attlee's six years as Prime Minister) of the next forty-two years as the largest party in Parliament, Labour emerging as the main competition to the Conservatives, and the Liberal Party falling to third-party status, never to return.

Background

The Liberal Party were split between the "National Liberals" following David Lloyd George, who had been ousted as Prime Minister the previous month, and the "Liberals" following former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. The Conservatives had been in coalition with the National Liberals led by David Lloyd George until the previous month, at which point Bonar Law had formed a Conservative majority government.

Although still leader of the Liberal Party and a frequent public speaker, Asquith was no longer a particularly influential figure in the national political debate, and he had played no part in the downfall of the Lloyd George coalition. Most attention was focused on the new and most recent Prime Ministers. Asquith's daughter Violet Bonham-Carter, a prominent Liberal Party campaigner, likened the election to a contest between a man with sleeping sickness (Bonar Law) and a man with St Vitus Dance (Lloyd George).^[1]

Some Lloyd George National Liberals were not opposed by Conservative candidates (e.g. Winston Churchill, who was defeated at Dundee nonetheless) whilst many leading Conservatives (e.g. former leaders Sir Austen Chamberlain and Arthur Balfour and former Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead) were not members of Bonar Law's government and hoped to hold the balance of power after the election (comparisons were made with the Peelite group—the ousted Conservative front bench of the late 1840s and 1850s); this was not to be, as Bonar Law won an overall majority.

Some Liberal candidates stood calling for a reunited Liberal Party whilst others appear to have backed both Asquith and Lloyd George. Few sources are able to agree on exact numbers, and even in contemporary records held by the two groups, some MPs were claimed for both sides. It was the first election where Labour surpassed the combined strength of both Liberal parties in votes and seats.

By one estimate, there were 29 seats where Liberals stood against one another. This is thought to have cost them at least 14 seats, 10 of them to Labour, so in theory a reunited Liberal Party would have been much closer to, and perhaps even ahead of, Labour in terms of seats. However, in reality the two factions were on poor terms and Lloyd George was still hoping for a renewed coalition with the Conservatives.^[2]

Neither of the leaders of the two main parties would get to enjoy their success in the election for very long; within less than a month of the election, Clynes was defeated in a leadership challenge by former Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, while Law would only last a little over seven months as Prime Minister before being forced to step down due to a terminal illness, resulting in Stanley Baldwin succeeding him as both party leader and Prime Minister.

Party platforms

The Conservative Party offered continuity to the electorate. Bonar Law's election address stated:

The crying need of the nation have this moment ... Is that we should have tranquility and stability both at home and abroad so that the free scope should be given to the initiative and enterprise of our own citizens, for it is in that way, far more than by any action of the Government that we can hope to recover from the economic and social results of the war.^[3]

The Labour Party proposed to nationalise the mines and railways, to impose a levy on financial capital, and to revise the peace treaties. It promised a higher standard of living for workers, higher wages, and better housing.^[4]

Results

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the 1918 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 1922. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1922
• United Kingdom general election, 1922 (Scotland)

Notes

References

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979