1892 United Kingdom general election

The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury again win the greatest number of seats, but no longer a majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won 80 more seats than in the 1886 general election. The Liberal Unionists who had previously supported the Conservative government saw their vote and seat numbers go down.

1892 United Kingdom general election
4–26 July 1892 (1892-07-04 – 1892-07-26)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Marquess of Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone
Party Conservative & Lib. Unionist Liberal
Leader since April 1881 April 1880
Leader's seat House of Lords Midlothian
Last election 393 seats, 51.4% 191 seats, 41.8%
Seats won 314 272
Seat change 79 80
Popular vote 2,028,586 1,958,598
Percentage 47.0% 45.4%
Swing 4.4% 3.6%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Justin McCarthy John Redmond
Party Irish National Federation Irish National League
Leader since 1891 1891
Leader's seat North Longford Waterford City
Last election Part of IPP Part of IPP
Seats won 72 9
Seat change 72 9
Popular vote 224,528 67,119
Percentage 5.2% 1.6%
Swing New party New party
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election

Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative

 Prime Minister after
election

William Ewart Gladstone
Liberal

Despite being split between Parnellite and anti-Parnellite factions, the Irish Nationalist vote held up well. As the Liberals did not have a majority on their own, Salisbury refused to resign on hearing the election results and waited to be defeated in a vote of no confidence on 11 August. Gladstone formed a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support.

The Liberals had engaged in failed attempts at reunification between 1886 and 1887. Gladstone however was able to retain control of much of the Liberal party machinery, particularly the National Liberal Federation. Gladstone used the annual NLF meetings as a platform to consolidate various Liberal causes, particularly the Newcastle meeting of 1891, which gave its name to the radical Newcastle Programme. This programme placed Irish Home Rule first, followed by Welsh and Scottish disestablishment, reduction in factory work hours, free education, electoral reform, land reform, reform or abolition of the House of Lords, and the removal of duties on basic foods. This programme would later be disowned by the party leadership following the Liberal defeat in the 1895 election (Haigh 1990, p. 259).

Results
↓ 
271 72 9 314 4
Liberal INF INL Conservative & Lib. Unionist
UK General Election 1892
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Conservative & Lib. Unionist Lord Salisbury 606 314 21 100 −79 46.87 46.99 2,028,586 −4.4
  Liberal William Ewart Gladstone 535 271 98 19 +79 40.44 45.37 1,958,598 +0.2
  Irish National Federation Justin McCarthy 85 72 +72 10.75 5.20 224,528 N/A
  Irish National League John Redmond 44 9 +9 1.34 1.55 67,119 N/A
  Independent Labour N/A 9 3 3 0 +3 0.45 0.51 22,198 N/A
  Ind. Conservative N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.13 5,556 N/A
  Independent Liberal N/A 6 1 1 0 +1 0.15 0.08 3,572 N/A
  Scottish Trades Councils Chisholm Robertson 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.05 2,313 N/A
  Independent Nationalist N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.05 2,180 N/A
  Scottish Parliamentary Labour Keir Hardie 3 0 0 0 0 0 0.04 1,866 N/A
  Social Democratic Federation H. M. Hyndman 2 0 0 0 0 0 0.02 659 N/A
  Independent N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 137 N/A
Total votes cast: 4,317,312.[1]

Voting summary
Popular vote
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 46.99%
Liberal
 
 45.37%
Irish National Federation
 
 5.20%
Irish National League
 
 1.55%
Independent Labour
 
 0.51%
Independent Conservative
 
 0.13%
Independent Liberal
 
 0.08%
Others
 
 0.17%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 46.72%
Liberal
 
 40.60%
Irish National Federation
 
 10.75%
Irish National League
 
 1.34%
Independent Labour
 
 0.45%
Independent Liberal
 
 0.15%

See also

Notes
  1. All parties shown.

References
  • Blaxill, Luke. From: The War of Words: The Language of British Elections, 1880-1922 (2020) pp. 81-123.
  • Cawood, Ian (2010), "The 1892 General Election and the Eclipse of the Liberal Unionists", Parliamentary History, 29 (3): 331–357, doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2010.00137.x
  • Cawood, Ian (2013), "The Unionist 'Compact' in West Midland Politics 1891–1895", Midland History
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1974), British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, Macmillan
  • "From the archive, 26 July 1892: Britain's first Asian MP elected", The Guardian, 26 July 2013, retrieved 2 May 2018
  • Haigh, Christopher, ed. (1990), The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521395526
  • Lloyd-Jones, Naomi (2020). "The 1892 general election in England: Home Rule, the Newcastle programme and positive Unionism". Historical Research. 93 (259): 73–104. doi:10.1093/hisres/htz009.
  • Pelling, Henry (1967), Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910
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