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The 1924 UK general election was held on 29th October 1924. The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin performed dramatically better, in electoral terms, than in the 1923 general election and obtained a large parliamentary majority. Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, lost 40 seats. The election also saw the Liberal Party, led by Herbert Henry Asquith, lose 118 of their 158 seats which helped to polarise British politics between the Labour Party and Conservative Party.
The Conservative landslide victory and the Labour defeat in this general election has been, in part, attributed to the Zinoviev letter, which was published in the Daily Mail four days before the election. However, it is difficult to demonstrate that this had a major impact on the election result. In fact, the Labour vote actually increased by around one million popular votes in comparison to the 1923 general election, which suggests that the letter may not have lost Labour any significant electoral support. However, the increase in the number of popular votes for the Labour Party may be due, in part, to the party putting up eighty-seven more candidates than they did in the previous year's general election.
It is widely speculated that because Labour managed to form its first government in January 1924 and the Zinoviev letter helped to stir up anti-socialist fears in Britain many traditional anti-socialist Liberal voters switched their support to the Conservative Party. This partly helps to explain the poor performance of the Liberal Party in the general election. However, the party also suffered from finance difficulties which allowed the party to only contest 339 seats, a lack of distinctive policies after the Conservative Party dropped their support for protected trade, and poor leadership under Herbert Henry Asquith.
[edit] Results
| UK General Election 1924 |
| Party |
Candidates |
Seats |
Gains |
Losses |
Net Gain/Loss |
Seats % |
Votes % |
Votes |
+/- |
| |
Conservative |
534 |
412 |
|
|
+ 154 |
|
46.8 |
7,418,983 |
+8.8 |
| |
Labour |
514 |
151 |
|
|
- 40 |
|
33.3 |
5,281,626 |
+2.6 |
| |
Liberal |
339 |
40 |
|
|
- 118 |
|
17.8 |
2,818,717 |
-11.9 |
| |
Constitutionalist |
12 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
+ 7 |
|
1.2 |
185,075 |
+1.1 |
| |
Communist |
8 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
+ 1 |
|
0.2 |
51,176 |
+0.1 |
| |
Sinn Féin |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.2 |
34,181 |
N/A |
| |
Independent |
7 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.2 |
25,206 |
-0.1 |
| |
Labour (NI) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.1 |
21,122 |
N/A |
| |
Scottish Prohibition |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.1 |
14,596 |
0.0 |
| |
Independent Liberal |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
3,241 |
-0.1 |
| |
Independent Labour |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
1,775 |
-0.1 |
| |
Independent Conservative |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
517 |
-0.1 |
| |
Nationalist (NI) |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
- 2 |
|
0.0 |
0 |
-0.4 |
Total votes cast: 15,856,215. All parties shown. The only Irish Nationalist candidate was elected unopposed. The Conservatives include the Ulster Unionists.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
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