1900 United Kingdom general election

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
Turnout	75.1% (3.3 pp)
First party Second party   Leader Marquess of Salisbury Henry Campbell-Bannerman Party Conservative and Liberal 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 pp 0.5 pp   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 Last election 82 seats, 3.9% 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 pp New party
Colours denote the winning party
Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the election
Prime Minister before election Marquess of Salisbury Conservative Prime Minister after election Marquess of Salisbury Conservative

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).

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, as well as the last one where the leader of either of the two largest parties (and by extension, the incumbent Prime Minister) sat in the House of Lords rather than the House of Commons.

Results

UK General Election 1900

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal 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
	Ind. 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.
Electorate: 6,730,935 (4,369,284 in contested seats)
Turnout: 75.1%

Voting summary

Popular vote Conservative and Liberal Unionist   50.22% Liberal   45.07% Irish Parliamentary   1.77% Labour Repr. Cmte.   1.29% Others   1.66%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Conservative and Liberal Unionist   60.00% Liberal   27.31% Irish Parliamentary   11.34% Labour Repr. Cmte.   0.30% Others   1.04%

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1900 United Kingdom general election
• Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918
• 1900 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

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{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• 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, S2CID 163032144
• 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, S2CID 145429939
• Roberts, Andrew (1999), Salisbury: Victorian Titan, pp. 766–83

External links

• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

• 1900 Conservative manifesto
• 1900 Labour manifesto
• 1900 Liberal manifesto