1885 United Kingdom general election

1885 United Kingdom general election

← 1880 24 November – 18 December 1885 (1885-11-24 – 1885-12-18) 1886 →

All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout81.2%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader William Gladstone Marquess of Salisbury Charles Stewart Parnell
Party Liberal Conservative Irish Parliamentary
Leader since April 1880 April 1881 17 October 1882
Leader's seat Midlothian House of Lords Cork City
Last election 352 seats, 52.5% 237 seats, 35.4% 63 seats, 9.4%
Seats won 319[a] 247 86
Seat change Decrease33 Increase10 Increase23
Popular vote 2,071,868 1,869,560 299,178
Percentage 47.7% 43.0% 6.9%
Swing Decrease7.0% Increase0.5% Increase4.1%


Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the general election

Prime Minister before election

Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative

Prime Minister after election

William Gladstone
Liberal

The 1885 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise and redistribution of seats. For the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies by law returned a single member to Parliament, fulfilling one of the ideals of Chartism to provide direct single-member, single-electorate accountability. It saw the Liberals, led by William Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority. As the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power between them and the Conservatives who sat with an increasing number of allied Unionist MPs (referring to the Union of Great Britain and Ireland), this exacerbated divisions within the Liberals over Irish Home Rule and led to a Liberal split and another general election the following year.

The 1885 election saw the first socialist party participate, with the Social Democratic Federation led by H. M. Hyndman standing three candidates.


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