1929 United Kingdom general election

The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 30 May 1929, and resulted in a hung parliament. Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons for the first time despite receiving fewer votes than the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. The Liberal Party, led again by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, regained some of the ground lost in the 1924 general election and held the balance of power. Parliament was dissolved on 10 May.^[1]

1929 United Kingdom general election

← 1924 30 May 1929 1931 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	76.3% (0.7 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ramsay MacDonald Stanley Baldwin David Lloyd George Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 21 November 1922 23 May 1923 14 October 1926 Leader's seat Seaham Bewdley Caernarvon Boroughs Last election 151 seats, 33.3% 412 seats, 46.8% 40 seats, 17.8% Seats won 287 260[note 1] 59 Seat change 136 152 19 Popular vote 8,048,968 8,252,527 5,104,638 Percentage 37.1% 38.1% 23.6% Swing 3.8 pp 8.7 pp 5.8 pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the election
Prime Minister before election Stanley Baldwin Conservative Prime Minister after election Ramsay MacDonald Labour

The election was often referred to as the "Flapper Election", because it was the first in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote (owing to the Representation of the People Act 1928). Women over 30, with some property qualifications, had been able to vote since the 1918 general election, but the 1929 vote was the first general election with universal suffrage for adults over 21, which was then the age of majority.

The election was fought against a background of rising unemployment, with the memory of the 1926 general strike still fresh in voters' minds. By 1929, the Cabinet was being described by many as "old and exhausted".^[2]

The Liberals campaigned on a comprehensive programme of public works under the title "We Can Conquer Unemployment". There was anticipation of a potential revival of the Liberal Party after the reunification of Independent Liberals and National Liberals now under Lloyd George's leadership since 1926 and following some victories in a series of recent by-elections after 1926.^[3] The incumbent Conservatives campaigned on the theme of "Safety First", with Labour campaigning on the theme of "Labour & the Nation".

This was the first general election to be contested by the newly formed Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

It stood as the last time when a third party polled more than one-fifth of the popular vote until 1983. The Liberals performed more successfully than at the previous general election in 1924, but could not regain their pre-World War I status as a party of government.^[3]

Results

UK General Election 1929

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	Stanley Baldwin	590	260	2	154	−152	42.3	38.1	8,252,527	−8.7
	Labour	Ramsay MacDonald	569	287	140	4	+136	46.7	37.1	8,048,968	+3.8
	Liberal	David Lloyd George	513	59	36	17	+19	9.6	23.6	5,104,638	+5.8
	Independent	N/A	11	4	3	1	+2	0.8	0.4	94,742	+0.2
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	25	0	0	1	−1		0.2	47,554	−0.1
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	8	0	0	0	0		0.2	46,278
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	1	0	0	0	0.2	0.1	25,037	+0.1
	Nationalist	Joseph Devlin	3	2	2	0	+2	0.5	0.1	24,177	+0.1
	Independent Labour	N/A	4	1	1	0	+1	0.2	0.1	20,825	+0.1
	Independent Liberal	N/A	2	0	0	0	0		0.1	17,110	+0.1
	National (Scotland)	Roland Muirhead	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,313	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	Saunders Lewis	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	609	N/A
	Irish Nationalist	T. P. O'Connor	1	1	0	0	0		0.0	0	N/A

Total votes cast: 21,685,779. Turnout: 76.3%.^[4]

All parties shown. Conservatives include Ulster Unionists.

Votes summary

Popular vote Conservative   38.06% Labour   37.12% Liberal   23.54% Others   1.28%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Labour   46.67% Conservative   42.28% Liberal   9.59% Others   1.46%

Constituency results

For a full list of the results by constituency, see Constituency election results in the 1929 United Kingdom general election.

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the 1924 election.
  • In some cases, the change is due to the MP's having defected to the gaining party, and then retaining the seat in 1929. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
  • In other circumstances, the change is due to the seat's having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1929. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

To		From		No.	Seats
	Independent Labour		Labour	1	Govan*
	Labour		Communist	1	Battersea North
			Liberal	15	Chesterfield, South Shields, Walthamstow West, Bristol North, Bristol South, Kingston upon Hull Central*, Blackburn (one of two), Oldham (one of two), Hackney South, Lambeth North, Bradford East, Batley and Morley, Wrexham, Carmarthen, Swansea West
			Constitutionalist	3	Walthamstow East1, Accrington2, Stoke2
			Conservative	121	Stirlingshire West, Dunbartonshire, Lanark, Partick, Lanarkshire North†, Renfrewshire West, Maryhill, Kilmarnock, Edinburgh West, Linlithgow†, Berwick & Haddington, Reading, Birkenhead West, Crewe, Stalybridge and Hyde, Stockport (one of two)†, Carlisle, Whitehaven, Derby (one of two), Belper, Derbyshire South, Drake, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield, Darlington†, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland (both seats), Leyton East, East Ham North, Essex SE, Leyton West, Romford, Upton, Bristol Central, Portsmouth Central, Southampton (both seats), Dudley, Stourbridge†, Kingston upon Hull East, Kingston upon Hull South West, Chatham, Dartford, Blackburn (one of two), Ormskirk, Rossendale, Ashton-under-Lyne†, Bolton (both seats), Eccles, Hulme, Oldham (one of two), Salford North, Salford South, Salford West, Bootle, Everton, Kirkdale, Warrington, Widnes, Leicester East, Loughborough, Brigg, Fulham West, Hammersmith South, Islington North, Kensington North, Battersea South†, Greenwich, Islington East, Camberwell North-West, Hackney Central, Kennington, Hammersmith North†, St Pancras North, St Pancras South East, St Pancras South West, Wandsworth Central, Norfolk South West, Norwich (one of two), Kettering, Northampton†, Peterborough, Bassetlaw, Nottingham South, The Wrekin, Frome, Lichfield, Walsall, Wolverhampton West, Nuneaton, Duddeston, Coventry, Aston, Deritend, Erdington, Ladywood, Yardley, Swindon, York, Cleveland, Acton, Enfield, Tottenham South, Sheffield Central, Bradford North, Leeds Central, Sowerby, Wakefield, Sheffield Park, Bradford Central, Pontefract, Newport (Monmouthshire), Brecon and Radnor, Llandaff & Barry, Cardiff Central, Cardiff East, Cardiff South
			Speaker	1	Halifax†
			Independent	1	Mossley
Labour gains:				142
	Liberal		Labour	2	Bethnal Green North-East, Newcastle upon Tyne East
			Constitutionalist	2	Camborne, Heywood and Radcliffe*
			Conservative	32	Banff, Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine, Fife East, Dumfriesshire, Galloway, Bedfordshire Mid, Luton, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Birkenhead East, Eddisbury, Bodmin, Cornwall North, Penryn and Falmouth, St Ives†, South Molton, Dorset East, Harwich, Hereford, Ashford, Darwen, Preston (one of two), Blackley, Withington, Bosworth†, Holland with Boston†, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk East, Nottingham East, Eye, Flintshire, Pembrokeshire
Liberal gains:				36
	Conservative		Labour	1	King's Norton
			Constitutionalist	1	Epping*
Conservative gains:				2
	Independent		Constitutionalist	1	Stretford*
			Conservative	2	Combined English Universities (one of two), Exeter*
	Nationalist		UUP	2	Fermanagh and Tyrone (both seats)

¹ Previous MP had defected to the Conservatives by the 1929 election

² Previous MP had defected to the Liberals by the 1929 election

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1929 United Kingdom general election
• 1929 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• Constituency election results in the 1929 United Kingdom general election

References

1. "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
2. Doerr 1998, pp. 104–5.
3. Campbell, John (2010). Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. London: Vintage. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-84595-091-0. OCLC 489636152.
4. Tetteh, Edmund (1 February 2008). "Election Statistics: UK 1918-2007" (PDF). parliament.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.

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

Sources

• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
• Doerr, Paul W. (1998), British foreign policy 1919–1939, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0719046718

Further reading

• Howell, David (2002), MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1939, Oxford
• Redvaldsen, David (2010), "'Today is the Dawn': The Labour Party and the 1929 General Election", Parliamentary History, 29 (3): 395–415, doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2010.00213.x
• Williamson, Philip (1982), "'Safety First': Baldwin, the Conservative Party and the 1929 General Election" (PDF), Historical Journal, 25 (2): 385–409, doi:10.1017/S0018246X00011614, S2CID 159673425

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

• 1929 Conservative manifesto
• 1929 Labour manifesto
• 1929 Liberal manifesto