The map above shows the results of the 1951 UK General Election. The number of seats won out of 625 by the major parties (and % vote share) were as follows:
Conservatives: 321. Leader and Prime Minister: Winston Churchill.
Labour: 295. Leader: Clement Atlee.
Liberal: 6. Leader: Clement Davies.
Notable things about the 1951 election include:
- Labour actually won the popular vote, earning 13,948,385 compared to 13,717,851 for the Conservatives, but the Tories took power because they still won the most seats and a small majority.
- Four candidates in Northern Ireland were elected entirely unopposed.
- Interestingly, the Conservative manifesto did not pledge to undo the creation of the NHS and other nationalisations that had occurred under the Atlee government – it merely promised that no further industries would be nationalised.
- One of the reasons Atlee called the election was to try and get a bigger majority to ensure the government wouldn’t collapse while King George VI went on a tour of the Commonwealth, which was scheduled to take place in 1952. In the event, he didn’t go anyway as he was too ill – and famously died while his daughter Elizabeth, who would become Queen, was in Kenya.
Other UK elections.
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