1900 United Kingdom general election

The 1900 United Kingdom general election was held between 26 September and 24 October 1900, following the dissolution of Parliament on 25 September. Also referred to as the Khaki Election (the first of several elections to bear this sobriquet), it was held at a time when it was widely believed that the Second Boer War had effectively been won (though in fact it was to continue for another two years).

1900 United Kingdom general election
26 September – 24 October 1900 (1900-09-26 – 1900-10-24)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Marquess of Salisbury Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Party Conservative & Lib. Unionist Liberal
Leader since April 1881 December 1898
Leader's seat House of Lords Stirling Burghs
Last election 411 seats, 49.3% 177 seats, 45.6%
Seats won 402 183
Seat change 9 6
Popular vote 1,637,683 1,469,500
Percentage 50.2% 45.1%
Swing 0.9% 0.5%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader John Redmond Keir Hardie
Party Irish Parliamentary Labour Repr. Cmte.
Leader since 6 February 1900 28 February 1900
Leader's seat Waterford City Merthyr Tydfil (won)
Last election 82 seats, 3.9%[1] Did not contest
Seats won 76 2
Seat change 6 2
Popular vote 57,576 41,900
Percentage 1.8% 1.3%
Swing 2.1% New party
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election

Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative

 Prime Minister after
election

Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative

The Conservative Party, led by Lord Salisbury with their Liberal Unionist allies, secured a large majority of 134 seats, despite securing only 5.6% more votes than Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Liberals. This was largely owing to the Conservatives winning 163 seats that were uncontested by others. The Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party, participated in a general election for the first time. However, it had only been in existence for a few months; as a result, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only LRC Members of Parliament elected in 1900.

This was the first occasion when Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons. He had stood in the same seat, Oldham, at a by-election held the previous year, but had lost. It was also the final general election of the Victorian era.

Results
↓ 
402 183 76 9
Conservative & Lib. Unionist Liberal IPP
UK General Election 1900
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Conservative & Lib. Unionist Marquess of Salisbury 569 402 32 41 −9 60.1 50.2 1,637,683 +1.0
  Liberal Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 402 183 38 32 +6 27.4 45.1 1,469,500 −0.5
  Irish Parliamentary John Redmond 83 76 2 8 −6 11.3 1.8 57,576 −0.8
  Labour Repr. Cmte. Keir Hardie 15 2 2 0 +2 0.3 1.3 41,900 N/A
  Independent Nationalist N/A 18 6 6 0 +6 0.9 0.7 23,706
  Ind. Conservative N/A 7 0 0 0 0 0 0.4 13,713
  Independent Liberal N/A 3 1 1 0 +1 0.1 0.2 6,423 +0.1
  Independent N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 4,800 +0.2
  Scottish Workers Robert Allan 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 3,107 N/A
  Ind. Liberal Unionist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 1,855 N/A
  Independent Labour N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.0 433 +0.0
Total votes cast: 3,260,696.[2]

Voting summary
Popular vote
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 50.22%
Liberal
 
 45.07%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 1.77%
Labour
 
 1.29%
Others
 
 1.66%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 60.00%
Liberal
 
 27.31%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 11.34%
Labour
 
 0.30%
Others
 
 1.04%

See also

Notes
  1. Contested the 1895 election as two separate parties, the Irish National League and the Irish National Party, but reunified before 1900.
  2. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown.

References
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  • Garvin, J. L. (1934), The life of Joseph Chamberlain: Volume Three 1895–1900, London, pp. 571–92 on dissolving Parliament, pp. 593–607 on Khaki election
  • Hinton, Guy (2015), "Newcastle and the Boer War: Regional Reactions to an Imperial War", Northern History, 52 (2): 272–294, doi:10.1179/0078172X15Z.00000000092
  • Marsh, Peter T. (1994), Joseph Chamberlain: Entrepreneur in Politics, pp. 492–502
  • Readman, Paul (2001), "The Conservative party, patriotism, and British politics: the case of the general election of 1900", Journal of British Studies, 40 (1): 107–145, doi:10.1086/386236, JSTOR 3070771
  • Roberts, Andrew (1999), Salisbury: Victorian Titan, pp. 766–83

Manifestos
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