1922 United Kingdom general election explained
| Election Name: | 1922 United Kingdom general election |
| Country: | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1918 United Kingdom general election |
| Previous Year: | 1918 |
| Outgoing Members: | List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1918 |
| Next Election: | 1923 United Kingdom general election |
| Next Year: | 1923 |
| Elected Members: | List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1922 |
| Seats For Election: | All 615 seats in the House of Commons |
| Majority Seats: | 308 |
| Elected Mps: | Members elected |
| Election Date: | 15 November 1922 |
| Turnout: | 73.0%, 15.8 pp |
| Leader1: | Bonar Law |
| Leader Since1: | 23 October 1922 |
| Party1: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Leaders Seat1: | Glasgow Central |
| Last Election1: | 379 seats, 38.4% |
| Seats1: | 344 |
| Seat Change1: | 35 |
| Popular Vote1: | 5,294,465 |
| Percentage1: | 38.5% |
| Swing1: | 0.1 pp |
| Leader2: | J. R. Clynes |
| Leader Since2: | 14 February 1921 |
| Party2: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Leaders Seat2: | Manchester Platting |
| Last Election2: | 57 seats, 21.5% |
| Seats2: | 142 |
| Seat Change2: | 85 |
| Popular Vote2: | 4,076,665 |
| Percentage2: | 29.7% |
| Swing2: | 8.9 pp |
| Leader4: | H. H. Asquith |
| Leader Since4: | 30 April 1908 |
| Party4: | Liberal Party (UK) |
| Leaders Seat4: | Paisley |
| Last Election4: | 36 seats, 13.3% |
| Seats4: | 62 |
| Seat Change4: | 26 |
| Popular Vote4: | 2,601,486 |
| Percentage4: | 18.9% |
| Swing4: | 5.9 pp |
| Leader5: | David Lloyd George |
| Leader Since5: | 7 December 1916 |
| Party5: | National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) |
| Leaders Seat5: | Caernarvon Boroughs |
| Last Election5: | 127 seats, 12.6% |
| Seats5: | 53 |
| Seat Change5: | 74 |
| Popular Vote5: | 1,355,366 |
| Percentage5: | 9.9% |
| Swing5: | 2.7 pp |
| Map Size: | 330px |
| Prime Minister |
| Posttitle: | Prime Minister after election |
| Before Election: | Bonar Law |
| Before Party: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| After Election: | Bonar Law |
| After Party: | Conservative Party (UK) |
| Map2 Image: | File:1922 UK GE Result.svg |
| Map2 Caption: | Composition of the House of Commons following the 1922 general election |
The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was won by the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law, which gained an overall majority over the Labour Party, led by J. R. Clynes, and a divided Liberal Party.
This election is considered one of political realignment, with the Liberal Party falling to third-party status. The Conservative Party went on to spend all but eight of the next forty-two years as the largest party in Parliament, and Labour emerged as the main competition to the Conservatives.
The election was the first not to be held in Southern Ireland, due to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, under which Southern Ireland was to secede from the United Kingdom as a Dominion – the Irish Free State – on 6 December 1922. This reduced the size of the House of Commons by nearly one hundred seats when compared to the previous election.
Background
The Liberal Party had divided into two factions following the ousting of H. H. Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916. From then until October 1922 the Conservatives had been in coalition with a Liberal faction (which later became the "National Liberals") led by David Lloyd George. Following the Carlton Club meeting, Lloyd George resigned as Prime Minister and Bonar Law formed a Conservative majority government.
Although still leader of the Liberal Party and a frequent public speaker, former Prime Minister Asquith was no longer a particularly influential figure in the national political debate, and he had played no part in the downfall of the Lloyd George coalition. Most attention was focused on Law and Lloyd George. Asquith's daughter Violet Bonham-Carter, a prominent Liberal Party campaigner, likened the election to a contest between a man with sleeping sickness (Bonar Law) and a man with St Vitus Dance (Lloyd George).
Some of Lloyd George's National Liberals were not opposed by Conservative candidates (e.g. Winston Churchill, who was defeated at Dundee nonetheless), while many leading Conservatives (e.g. former parliamentary leaders Arthur Balfour and Sir Austen Chamberlain, and former Lord Chancellor Lord Birkenhead) were not members of Bonar Law's government, and hoped to hold the balance of power after the election (comparisons were made with the Peelite group—the ousted Conservative front bench of the late 1840s and 1850s); this was not to be, as Bonar Law won an overall majority.
It was the first election at which Labour surpassed the combined strength of both Liberal parties in votes and seats. The election was also notable for Labour in that it saw future Prime Minister Clement Attlee elected as MP for Limehouse.
Some Liberal candidates stood calling for a reunited Liberal Party, while others appear to have backed both Asquith and Lloyd George. Few sources are able to agree on exact numbers, and even in contemporary records held by the two groups, some MPs were claimed for both sides. By one estimate, there were 29 seats where Liberals stood against one another. This is thought to have cost them at least 14 seats, 10 of them to Labour, so in theory a reunited Liberal Party would have been much closer to, and perhaps even ahead of, Labour in terms of seats. However, in reality the two factions were on poor terms, and Lloyd George was still hoping for a renewed coalition with the Conservatives.
Neither of the leaders of the two main parties succeeded in enjoying their achievement in the election for very long; within less than a month of the election, Clynes was defeated in a leadership challenge by former Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, while Bonar Law would only last a little over seven months as Prime Minister before being forced to step down due to a terminal illness, resulting in Stanley Baldwin succeeding him as both party leader and Prime Minister. As a result, Bonar Law was the shortest-serving UK Prime Minister of the twentieth century. Parliament was dissolved on 26 October; Bonar Law died four days later.[1]
Party platforms
The Conservative Party offered continuity to the electorate. Bonar Law's election address stated:
The Labour Party proposed to nationalise the mines and railways, to impose a levy on financial capital, and to revise the peace treaties. It promised a higher standard of living for workers, higher wages, and better housing.
Results
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Seats summary
Transfers of seats
- All comparisons are with the 1918 election.
- In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
- In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1922. Such circumstances are marked with a †.
| From | To | No. | class=unsortable | Seats |
|---|
| | (HOLD) | 51 | Abertillery, Ayrshire South, Bedwellty, Bishop Auckland, Broxtowe, Burnley, Burslem, Caerphilly, Chester-le-Street, Deptford, Derby (one of two), Dundee (one of two), Ebbw Vale, Edinburgh Central, Fife West, Forest of Dean, Gorton, Govan, Gower, Hamilton, Hemsworth, Holland with Boston, Houghton-le-Spring, Ince, Kingswinford, Leeds South East, Leek, Morpeth, Nelson and Colne, Newton, Normanton, Nottingham West, Ogmore, Plaistow, Platting, Pontypool, Preston (one of two), Rhondda East, Rhondda West, Rother Valley, Rothwell, St Helens, Salford North, Smethwick, Wednesbury, Wentworth, West Bromwich, Westhoughton, Wigan, Woolwich East, Workington |
| 1 | Mansfield |
| 1 | Wellingborough |
| 4 | Barnard Castle, Bolton (one of two), Clitheroe, Ormskirk |
| | | 2 | Cannock, Gorbals |
| 1 | Norwich (one of two)* |
| 1 | Stockport (one of two)† |
| | | 1 | Anglesey |
| 1 | Aberdeen North |
| | | 8 | Aberdare, Bradford East, Don Valley, East Ham South, Hanley, Leicester West, Wallsend, Walthamstow West |
| 1 | Duddeston |
| | 1 | Silvertown |
| | 1 | Kettering |
| abolished | 3 | Shankill, St Anne's, Victoria |
| | | 1 | Fermanagh and Tyrone (one of two) (replaced Fermanagh South) |
| abolished | 72 | Londonderry City, Tyrone NW, N Donegal, S Donegal, W Donegal, N Monaghan, S Monaghan, E Cavan, W Cavan, Connemara, E Galway, N Galway, S Galway, Leitrim, N Roscommon, S Roscommon, N Sligo, S Sligo, E Mayo, N Mayo, S Mayo, W Mayo, Longford, Louth, King's County, Queen's County, Westmeath, County Carlow, N Meath, S Meath, Dublin College Green, Dublin Harbour, Dublin St Patrick's, Dublin St Stephen's Green, N Dublin, S Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin Clontarf, Dublin Pembroke, Dublin St James's, Dublin St Michan's, E Wicklow, W Wicklow, N Kildare, S Kildare, N Kilkenny, S Kilkenny, N Wexford, S Wexford, E Clare, W Clare, E Tipperary, Mid Tipperary, N Tipperary, S Tipperary, Limerick City, E Limerick, W Limerick, E Kerry, N Kerry, S Kerry, W Kerry, Cork (both seats), E Cork, Mid Cork, N Cork, NE Cork, S Cork, SE Cork, W Cork, County Waterford |
| | | 2 | Fermanagh and Tyrone (one of two) (replaced Tyrone North-East) |
| abolished | 3 | Armagh South, Belfast Falls, Down South |
| | | 1 | Liverpool Scotland |
| abolished | 2 | East Donegal, Waterford City |
| | | 9 | Stirling and Falkirk, Midlothian South & Peebles, Derbyshire North East, Spennymoor, Seaham, Consett, Leigh, Bermondsey West, Whitechapel and St Georges |
| (HOLD) | 15 | |
| 6 | Camborne, Western Isles, Kinross and West Perthshire*, Loughborough, Norwich* (one of two), Berwick-upon-Tweed |
| 5 | Portsmouth Central, Stourbridge, Middlesbrough East, Cardiff East, Norfolk South |
| | | 1 | Dundee (one of two) |
| 37 | Dunfermline Burghs, Glasgow Cathcart, Renfrewshire East, Renfrewshire West, Rutherglen, Dumbarton Burghs, Glasgow Bridgeton, Crewe, Carlisle, Clay Cross, Ilkeston, Blaydon, Jarrow, Poplar South, Stepney Limehouse, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Newcastle upon Tyne West, Pontefract, Sheffield Hillsborough, Sheffield Attercliffe, Sheffield Brightside, Leeds South, Doncaster, Barnsley, Batley and Morley, Colne Valley, Wrexham, Llanelli, Carnarvonshire, Aberavon, Merthyr, Neath, Pontypridd†, Swansea East, Wansbeck, Cornwall North, Battersea North |
| 13 | |
| (HOLD) | 45 | Combined English Universities (one of two), University of Wales, Caithness and Sutherland, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Moray and Nairn, Montrose Burghs, Argyll, Partick, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Roxburgh & Selkirk, Berwick & Haddington, Stockport (one of two), Stockton-on-Tees, Romford, Bristol East, Bristol North, Bristol South, Blackburn (one of two), Bolton (one of two), Heywood and Radcliffe, Middleton & Prestwich, Oldham (one of two), Stretford, Leicester East, Camberwell North-West, Hackney Central, Shoreditch, Southwark Central, Southwark North, Southwark South East, Northampton, Lichfield, Stoke, Shipley, Denbigh, Flintshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire, Carnarvon, Brecon and Radnor, Swansea West, Norfolk South West, Sheffield Park |
| 1 | Halifax |
| 28 | St Ives, Perth, Bedford, Luton, Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely, Derbyshire South, Barnstaple, Sunderland (one of two), Leyton East, East Ham North, Stroud, Thornbury, Southampton (both seats), Buckrose, Bosworth, Kennington, Peckham, Banbury, The Wrekin, Lowestoft, Sudbury, Pudsey and Otley, Leeds North, Leeds Central, Newport (Monmouthshire)†, Saffron Walden |
| 1 | Dorset East |
| 1 | Dartford |
| 1 | Mossley |
| | 2 | Hackney South†, Sowerby |
| Coalition Independent | | 1 | Norfolk North |
| | 1 | Penrith and Cockermouth |
| | | 1 | Newcastle-under-Lyme |
| | | 1 | Motherwell |
| 32 | Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire, Stirlingshire West, Lanarkshire North, Glasgow Maryhill, Glasgow Camlachie, Bothwell†, Coatbridge, Glasgow Springburn, Glasgow Tradeston, Glasgow St. Rollox, Glasgow Shettleston, Linlithgow, Durham, Sedgefield, Gateshead, Stratford, Accrington, Eccles, Farnworth, Manchester Ardwick, Oldham (one of two), Rochdale, Bow and Bromley, Camberwell North†, Edmonton, Tottenham North, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Elland, Bradford Central, Keighley, Dewsbury, Whitehaven |
| 30 | Aberdeen and Kincardine Central†, Forfarshire, Fife East, Edinburgh West, Dumfriesshire, Bedfordshire Mid, Birkenhead East, Derby (one of two), Tavistock, Dorset North, The Hartlepools, Harwich, Isle of Wight, Worcester, Holderness, Kingston upon Hull Central†, Preston (one of two), Bootle, Grantham, Horncastle, Bethnal Green South-West, Great Yarmouth, Nottingham Central, Oxford, Taunton, Chippenham, Westbury, Bradford South, Louth†, Bodmin† |
| 1 | Cambridge University (one of two) |
| 1 | Harrow |
| (HOLD) | 289 | |
| 2 | Westminster St George's, Richmond (Surrey) |
| | | 10 | Antrim (both seats) (replaced South Antrim and Antrim Mid), Armagh (replaced Armagh North), Belfast East (replaced Belfast Pottinger), Belfast North (replaced Belfast Duncairn), Belfast South (replaced Belfast Ormeau), Belfast West (replaced Belfast Woodvale), Down (both seats) (replaced Down East and Down North), Londonderry (replaced Londonderry North) |
| abolished | 10 | Antrim East, Antrim North, Armagh Mid, Belfast Cromac, Down Mid, Down West, Londonderry South, Fermanagh North, Tyrone South, Queen's University of Belfast |
| abolished | 2 | Dublin Rathmines, Dublin University (one of two) |
| abolished | 1 | Dublin University (one of two) |
| | | 1 | Walsall |
| | 1 | Bournemouth |
| Silver Badge | 1 | Hertford†1 | |
†1 MP elected as an Anti-Waste League candidate at a 1921 by-election, but moved to the Conservatives for the 1922 election
See also
References
Sources
External links
Manifestos
Notes and References
- Web site: Parliamentary Election Timetables . . 3rd . 25 March 1997 . 3 July 2022.
