United Kingdom general election, 1918:

United Kingdom general election, 1918

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United Kingdom general election, 1918
‹ 1910 · members members · 1922 ›
All 707 seats to the House of Commons
14 December 1918
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Andrew Bonar Law	William Adamson	David Lloyd George
Party	Coalition Conservative	Labour	Coalition Liberal
Leader since	1916	24 October 1917	7 December 1916
Leader's seat	Glasgow Central	West Fife	Caernarvon Boroughs
Last election	271 seats, 40.4%	42 seats, 7.1%	N/A
Seats won	332	57	127
Seat change	+61	+15	N/A
Popular vote	3,472,738	2,245,777	1,396,590
Percentage	33.3%	21.5%	13.4%
	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party
			No Image
Leader	H. H. Asquith	Éamon de Valera	George Nicoll Barnes
Party	Liberal	Sinn Féin	National Democratic
Leader since	30 April 1908	1917	1918
Leader's seat	East Fife (defeated)	Clare East and Mayo East	Glasgow Gorbals
Last election	272 seats, 40.5%	N/A	N/A
Seats won	36	73	9
Seat change	-236	N/A	N/A
Popular vote	1,388,784	497,107	156,834
Percentage	13.3%	1.5%
Incumbent PM David Lloyd George National Subsequent PM David Lloyd George National

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did not begin until 28 December. The election was won by a coalition of the Conservatives under Andrew Bonar Law, most of the Liberals under David Lloyd George, and a few independent and former Labour MPs, and produced a government which retained Lloyd George as Prime Minister.

Candidates which had the official support of the coalition were issued a letter of endorsement from Lloyd George and Bonar Law, known as a "coupon", and so this election is often called the coupon election. Coupons were issued to 159 Liberal candidates and 364 Conservatives. It was also known as one of the khaki elections, due to the immediate postwar setting and the role of the demobilized soldiers.

Labour, led by William Adamson, vastly increased their share of the vote but only slightly increased their number of seats. They were, however, the main parliamentary opposition and surpassed the total votes of either Liberal party (although Labour's share was less than both combined and the Coalition Liberals alone had more seats). The anti-coalition Liberals under former Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, won few seats.

January 1910 election • MPs

December 1910 election • MPs

1918 election • MPs

1922 election • MPs

1923 election • MPs

1 Ireland
2 Results
- 2.1 Votes summary
- 2.2 Seats summary
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

Ireland

Main article: Irish general election, 1918

In Ireland, the Irish Parliamentary Party lost almost all their seats, most of which were won by Sinn Féin under Éamon de Valera (see Irish (UK) general election, 1918). The 73 Sinn Féin elected members declined to take their seat in the British House of Commons, sitting instead in the Irish revolutionary assembly, Dáil Éireann. On 17 May 1918 almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin, including de Valera and Arthur Griffith, had been arrested. In total 47 of the Sinn Féin MPs were elected from jail. The Irish War of Independence broke out shortly after the election.

It was in this election also that the UK's first ever woman MP was elected: Constance Markiewicz (Sinn Féin, Dublin St Patrick's). Like the other Sinn Féin MPs, Markiewicz did not take her seat.

Results

The results in London

UK General Election 1918
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Coalition Conservative	362	332	N/A	N/A	+ 61	47.0	32.5	3,393,167
	Labour	361	57	N/A	N/A	+ 15	8.1	20.8	2,171,230
	Liberal	276	36	N/A	N/A	- 236	5.1	13.0	1,355,398
	Coalition Liberal	145	127	127	0	+ 127	18.0	12.6	1,318,844	N/A
	Conservative	80	47	47	0	+ 47	6.6	5.9	610,681	N/A
	Sinn Féin	102	73	73	0	+ 73	10.3	4.6	476,458	N/A
	Irish Parliamentary	57	7	2	69	- 67	1.0	2.2	226,498
	Coalition National Democratic	18	9	9	0	+ 9	1.3	1.5	156,834	N/A
	Independent Labour	29	2	2	0	+ 2	0.3	1.1	116,322
	Independent	42	2	2	0	+ 2	0.3	1.0	105,261
	National	26	2	2	0	+ 2	0.3	0.9	94,389	N/A
	Independent NFDSS	26	1	0	0	0	0.1	0.6	66,451	N/A
	Co-operative	10	1	1	0	+ 1	0.1	0.6	57,785	N/A
	Independent Conservative	17	1	1	1	0	0.1	0.4	44,637
	Coalition Labour	5	4	4	0	+ 4	0.1	0.4	40,641	N/A
	Labour Unionist	3	3	3	0	+ 3	0.4	0.3	30,304	N/A
	Independent Liberal	9	1	1	0	+ 1	0.1	0.2	24,985
	Agriculturalist	7	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.2	19,412	N/A
	National Democratic	8	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.2	17,991	N/A
	NFDSS	5	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	12,329	N/A
	Belfast Labour	4	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	12,164	N/A
	National Socialist	3	1	1	0	+ 1	0.1	0.1	11,013	N/A
	Independent Coalition	1	1	1	0	+ 1	0.1	0.1	9,274	N/A
	Highland Land League	4	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	8,710
	Women's Party	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	8,614	N/A
	British Socialist	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	8,394
	Independent Democratic	4	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	8,351	N/A
	Ind. Nationalist	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	8,183
	Socialist Labour	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	7,567
	Scottish Prohibition	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	5,212
	Independent Progressive	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	5,077
	Independent Labour and Agriculturalist	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	1,927
	Christian Socialist	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	597

Total votes cast: 10,434,700. All parties shown. Coalition Conservative vote is compared with Conservative vote in previous election. In each other case, the non-coalition vote is compared with the party's previous vote. The Independent NFDSS entry includes an Independent NADSS candidate, who gained a seat with 8,287 votes.

Votes summary

Popular vote

All Coalition Parties			47.14%
Coalition Conservative			32.52%
Labour			20.81%
Liberal			12.99%
Conservative			5.85%
Coalition Liberal			12.64%
Sinn Féin			4.57%
Irish Parliamentary			2.17%
Coalition National Democratic			1.5%
Independent			3.74%
Others			3.21%

All Conservative Parties			39.09%
All Labour Parties			22.43%
All Liberal Parties			25.87%
All Irish Nationalist Parties			6.82%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

All Coalition Parties			66.9%
Coalition Conservative			46.96%
Labour			8.06%
Liberal			5.09%
Conservative			6.65%
Coalition Liberal			17.96%
Sinn Féin			10.33%
Irish Parliamentary			0.99%
Coalition National Democratic			1.27%
Independent			1.98%
Others			0.71%

All Conservative Parties			53.75%
All Labour Parties			8.91%
All Liberal Parties			23.2%
All Irish Nationalist Parties			11.32%

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
http://www.election.demon.co.uk/geresults.html

External links

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