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1841 United Kingdom general election
← 1837
29 June – 22 July 1841 (1841-06-29 – 1841-07-22)
1847 →
← outgoing members
elected members →
All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
Sir Robert Peel
Viscount Melbourne
Daniel O'Connell
Party
Conservative
Whig
Irish Repeal
Leader since
19 December 1834
16 July 1834
15 April 1840
Leader's seat
Tamworth
House of Lords
Dublin City (defeated) County Cork
Last election
314 seats, 47.6%
344 seats, 52.4%
Compact with Whigs
Seats before
314
314
30
Seats won
367
271
20
Seat change
53
43
10
Popular vote
306,314
273,902
12,537
Percentage
51.6%
46.2%
2.1%
Swing
4.0%
6.2%
New party
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election
Viscount Melbourne
Whig
Prime Minister after election
Sir Robert Peel
Conservative
1835 election
MPs
1837 election
MPs
1841 election
MPs
1847 election
MPs
1852 election
MPs
In the 1841 United Kingdom general election, there was a big swing as Sir Robert Peel's Conservatives took control of the House of Commons. Melbourne's Whigs had seen their support in the Commons erode over the previous years. Whilst Melbourne enjoyed the firm support of the young Queen Victoria, his ministry had seen increasing defeats in the Commons, culminating in the defeat of the government's budget in May 1841 by 36 votes, and by 1 vote in a 4 June 1841 vote of no confidence put forward by Peel. According to precedent, Melbourne's defeat required his resignation. However, the cabinet decided to ask for a dissolution, which was opposed by Melbourne personally (he wished to resign, as he had attempted in 1839), but he came to accept the wishes of the ministers. Melbourne requested the Queen dissolve Parliament, leading to an election.[1] The Queen thus prorogued Parliament on 22 June.[2]
The Conservatives campaigned mainly on an 11-point programme modified from their previous electoral effort and designed by Peel, whilst the Whigs emphasised reforming the import duties on corn, replacing the existing sliding scale with a uniform rate. The Whig position lost them support amongst protectionists, and the Whigs saw heavy losses in constituencies like the West Riding, where aristocratic Whig families who held a strong tradition of unbroken representation in Parliament were rejected by the electorate.
O'Connell, who had been governing with the Whigs through a compact, felt the government's unpopularity rub off on him. His own party was shattered in the election. Barely a dozen Repealers retained their seats, and O'Connell himself lost in Dublin while his son was defeated in Carlow.[3] The Chartists picked up only a few votes.
^Kemp, Betty (June 1952), "The General Election of 1841", History, 37 (130): 146–157, doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1952.tb00231.x, JSTOR 24402876
^Saint James's Chronicle Tuesday 22 June 1841, p.2.
^Marriott, John (1913). England since Waterloo. p. 143. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
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