United Kingdom general election, 1918

United Kingdom general election, 1918

1910 ← members 14 December 1918 Members elected → 1922 members

All 707 seats to the House of Commons 354 (or, after 73 Sinn Féin absences, 318) seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Andrew Bonar Law David Lloyd George Éamon de Valera Party Coalition Conservative Coalition Liberal Sinn Féin Leader since 1916 7 December 1916 1917 Leader's seat Glasgow Central Caernarvon Boroughs Clare East and Mayo East Last election 271 seats, 40.4% N/A N/A Seats won 332 127 73 Seat change 61 N/A N/A Popular vote 3,472,738 1,396,590 497,107 Percentage 33.3% 13.4% 4.8%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader William Adamson   H. H. Asquith Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 24 October 1917   30 April 1908 Leader's seat West Fife   East Fife (defeated) Last election 42 seats, 7.1% N/A 272 seats, 40.5% Seats won 57 47 36 Seat change 15 N/A 236 Popular vote 2,245,777 610,681 1,388,784 Percentage 21.5% 5.9% 13.3%

PM before election David Lloyd George Coalition Liberal Subsequent PM David Lloyd George Coalition Liberal

January 1910 election • MPs

December 1910 election • MPs

1918 election • MPs

1922 election • MPs

1923 election • MPs

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 nearly 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, the pro-coalition Liberals under David Lloyd George, and a few independent and former Labour MPs including the ant-socialist National Democratic and Labour Party. It resulted in 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 though in some cases, they were rejected. It was also known as one of the khaki elections, due to the immediate postwar setting and the role of the demobilized soldiers.

The coalition parties won the election easily, with the Conservatives the big winners. They were the largest party in the governing majority. An additional 47 Conservatives won without the coupon but didn't act as a separate block or oppose the government except on the issue of Irish independence.

Labour, led by William Adamson vastly increased their share of the vote but only slightly increased their number of seats, losing some of their earlier leaders like Ramsay MacDonald and Arthur Henderson. The Labour vote 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 about 36 seats but lost all their leaders from parliament including Asquith. However nine of these subsequently joined the Coalition Liberal group.

In Ireland, Sinn Féin under Éamon de Valera won 73 seats, including the UK's first ever woman MP, Constance Markievicz. The Sinn Féin members did not take their seats in the Commons, but sat in an Irish revolutionary assembly, Dáil Éireann. This convened on 21 January 1919, at the same time as the Irish War of Independence broke out.

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. 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 Dáil first convened on 21 January 1919, which is also the day on which the Irish War of Independence is considered to have begun.

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

Results

Maps

The results in London

Results in Ireland. The Sinn Féin MPs did not take their seats in the House of Commons, and instead formed the Dáil Éireann.

Votes by party

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 Party	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 Party	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 Party	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 Party	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
	Independent 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%
Coalition Liberal			12.64%
Conservative			5.85%
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%
Coalition Liberal			17.96%
Conservative			6.65%
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%

See also

• United Kingdom general elections
• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1918
• The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918 gives details of the franchises replaced by the ones used in 1918

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

• 1918 Conservative manifesto
• 1918 Labour manifesto
• 1918 Liberal manifesto