1874 United Kingdom general election

The 1874 United Kingdom general election was held between 31 January to 17 February 1874. The Conservatives under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli won a decisive victory against the incumbent governing Liberals under William Ewart Gladstone. Although there had been minority Conservative governments in the intervening years, this was the first outright Conservative election victory since Robert Peel's victory in 1841 over thirty years earlier. In 1874 the Liberals achieved more votes than the Conservatives, largely caused by the number of uncontested Conservative-held seats.^[1]

1874 United Kingdom general election

← 1868 31 January – 17 February 1874 (1874-01-31 – 1874-02-17) 1880 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 652 seats in the House of Commons 327 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	2,466,037
First party Second party Third party   Leader Benjamin Disraeli William Ewart Gladstone Isaac Butt Party Conservative Liberal Home Rule Leader since 27 February 1868 3 December 1868 November 1873 Leader's seat Buckinghamshire Greenwich Limerick City Last election 271 seats, 38.7% 387 seats, 61.2% Did not contest Seats won 350 242[a] 60 Seat change 79 145 60 Popular vote 1,091,708 1,281,159 90,234 Percentage 44.3% 52.0% 3.7% Swing 5.6 pp 9.2 pp New party
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election William Gladstone Liberal Prime Minister after election Benjamin Disraeli Conservative

The election saw the Irish of the Home Rule League become a significant third party in Parliament, with 60 of 101 of the seats for Ireland. This was the first UK election to use a secret ballot following the 1872 Secret Ballot Act. The Irish Nationalist gains could well be attributed to the effects of the Secret Ballot Act, as tenants faced less of a threat of eviction if they voted against the wishes of their landlords.^{[citation needed]} Also in this election, the first two working-class MPs were elected: Alexander MacDonald and Thomas Burt, both members of the Miners' Union, were elected as Liberal-Labour (Lib–Lab) MPs in Stafford and Morpeth, respectively.^[2] The 1867 Reform Act eroded the legislative power of the rural gentry. The 1874 election, especially in Ireland, saw great landowners losing their county seats to tenant farmers.^[3]

This is the only time, since the introduction of the secret ballot, that a UK party has been defeated despite receiving an absolute majority of the popular vote. This was primarily because over 100 Conservative candidates were elected unopposed. This meant no votes were cast in those 100 places where the Conservative candidates were anticipated to be popular; in the seats where Liberal candidates did stand, they polled a high proportion of the vote on average.

The election saw 652 MPs elected, six fewer than at the previous election. Following allegations of corruption, the Conservative-held constituencies of Beverley and Sligo Borough, and the Liberal-held constituencies of Bridgwater and Cashel, had been abolished.

Results

UK General Election 1874
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	489	242			−139	37.12	51.95	1,281,159	−9.5
	Conservative	507	350			+79	53.68	44.27	1,091,708	+5.9
	Home Rule	80	60	0	0	+60	9.20	3.66	90,234	N/A
	Others	4	0	0	0	0	0	0.12	2,936	0.0

Total votes cast: 2,466,037.^[4]

Voting summary

Popular vote Liberal   51.95% Conservative   44.27% Home Rule   3.66% Others   0.12%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Liberal   37.12% Conservative   53.68% Home Rule   9.2%

Regional results

Great Britain

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	319	85	1,000,006	44.6
	Liberal	230[a]	93	1,241,381	55.4
	Lib-Lab	2	2
	Other	0		2	0.0
Total		551	4	2,241,389	100

England

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	280	69	905,239	46.2
	Liberal	171	75	1,035,268	53.8
	Lib-Lab	2	2
	Other	0		2	0.0
Total		451	4	1,940,509	100

Scotland

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	40	11	148,345	68.4
	Conservative	18	11	63,193	31.6
Total		58		211,538	100

Wales

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	19	4	57,768	60.9
	Conservative	14	4	31,574	39.1
Total		33		89,342	100

Ireland

Main article: United Kingdom general election, 1874 (Ireland)

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Home Rule	60	60	90,234	39.6
	Irish Conservative	31	6	91,702	40.8	−1.1%
	Liberal	10	56	39,778	18.4	−39.5%
	Other	0		2,934	1.2
Total		101	2	224,648	100

Universities

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	7	1
	Liberal	2	1
Total		9			100

All University candidates were elected unopposed.

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1874 United Kingdom general election
• 1874 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

Notes

1. The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons