24 November – 18 December 1885 (1885-11-24 – 1885-12-18)
1886 →
← outgoing members
elected members →
All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout
81.2%
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
William Gladstone
Marquess of Salisbury
Charles Stewart Parnell
Party
Liberal
Conservative
Irish Parliamentary
Leader since
April 1880
April 1881
17 October 1882
Leader's seat
Midlothian
None (Lord)
Cork City
Last election
352 seats, 52.5%
237 seats, 35.4%
63 seats, 9.4%
Seats won
319
247
86
Seat change
33
10
23
Popular vote
2,071,868
1,869,560
299,178
Percentage
47.7%
43.0%
6.9%
Swing
7.0%
0.5%
4.1%
Results by constituency
Results by country
Prime Minister before election
Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative
Prime Minister after election
William Gladstone
Liberal
The 1885 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise and redistribution of seats. For the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies by law returned a single member to Parliament, fulfilling one of the ideals of Chartism to provide direct single-member, single-electorate accountability. It saw the Liberals, led by William Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority. As the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power between them and the Conservatives who sat with an increasing number of allied Unionist MPs (referring to the Union of Great Britain and Ireland), this exacerbated divisions within the Liberals over Irish Home Rule and led to a Liberal split and another general election the following year.
The 1885 election saw the first socialist party participate, with the Social Democratic Federation led by H. M. Hyndman standing three candidates.
1874 election
MPs
1880 election
MPs
1885 election
MPs
1886 election
MPs
1892 election
MPs
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