All 625 seats in the House of Commons 313 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout
83.9% 11.1%
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
Clement Attlee
Winston Churchill
Clement Davies
Party
Labour
Conservative
Liberal
Leader since
25 October 1935
9 October 1940
2 August 1945
Leader's seat
Walthamstow West[a]
Woodford
Montgomeryshire
Last election
393 seats, 47.7%
208 seats, 39.1%[b]
12 seats, 9.0%
Seats won
315
298[note 1]
9
Seat change
78
90
3
Popular vote
13,226,176
12,494,404
2,621,487
Percentage
46.1%
43.4%
9.1%
Swing
1.6%
4.3%
0.1%
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election
Clement Attlee
Labour
Prime Minister after election
Clement Attlee
Labour
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first to be held after a full term of a majority Labour government. The general election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950, and was also the first to be held following the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The government's lead over the Conservative Party shrank dramatically, and Labour was returned to power but with an overall majority significantly reduced from 146 to just 5. There was a 2.8% national swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats. Labour called another general election the following year, which the Conservative Party won, returning Churchill to government after six years in opposition.
Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage,[1] and representing an increase of more than 11% in comparison to 1945.
It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although no recording was made of the live broadcast, which was the standard practice at the time. Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 general elections. On this occasion, Dimbleby was joined in the BBC Alexandra Palace studios by R. B. McCallum, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and author of The British General Election of 1945, and David Butler, research student of Nuffield College. The first election night programme ran from 10:45 pm until just after 1:00 am.[2]
1935 election
MPs
1945 election
MPs
1950 election
MPs
1951 election
MPs
1955 election
MPs
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page). Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
^Parliamentary Government in Britain, Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981, page 104
^"General Election Results", The Radio Times (1375): 47, 17 February 1950, retrieved 27 March 2018 – via BBC Genome
and 29 Related for: 1950 United Kingdom general election information
This is a list of UnitedKingdomgeneralelections (elections for the UK House of Commons) since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament...
Parliament elected to the Parliament of the UnitedKingdom at the 1950generalelection, held on 23 February 1950. Notable newcomers to the House of Commons...
The 1924 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Wednesday 29 October 1924, as a result of the defeat of the Labour minority government, led by Prime...
The 1983 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the...
1955 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Thursday 26 May 1955, four years after the previous generalelection in 1951. It was a snap election: after...
The 1935 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Thursday 14 November, and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government...
constituencies at the UnitedKingdomgeneralelection on 12 December 2019. The number of seats rose from 646 to 650 at the 2010 generalelection after proposals...
The October 1974 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the British House of Commons. It was the...
In the UnitedKingdom, generalelections occur at least every five years. About 650 constituencies return a member of Parliament. Prior to 1945, electoral...
The 1950UnitedKingdomgeneralelection in Northern Ireland was held on 23 February as part of the wider generalelection. The Representation of the People...
The 1987 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive...
The 2010 UnitedKingdomgeneralelection was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House...
In the run-up to the 1950generalelection, various organisations carry out opinion polling to gauge voting intention. Results of such polls are displayed...
Events from the year 1950 in the UnitedKingdom. Monarch – George VI Prime Minister – Clement Attlee (Labour) 12 January – Submarine HMS Truculent (P315)...
five types of elections in the UnitedKingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the UnitedKingdom (commonly called 'generalelections' when all seats...
The 2015 generalelection took place on 7 May 2015 and saw each of Parliament's 650 constituencies return one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of...
The 2010 generalelection took place on 6 May 2010 and saw each of Parliament's 650 constituencies return one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of...
By-elections History See also References See the list of UnitedKingdom by-elections. UK generalelection, 1935 List of parliaments of the United Kingdom...
By-elections See also References See the list of UnitedKingdom by-elections. UK generalelection, 1931 List of parliaments of the UnitedKingdom Whitaker's...
members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the UnitedKingdom at the 1951 generalelection, held on 25 October 1951. A total of 625 MPs were elected...
Global Information
11.1%
