1922 United Kingdom general election

1922 United Kingdom general election

← 1918 15 November 1922 1923 →

All 615 seats in the House of Commons
308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout73.0% (Increase15.8 pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Bonar Law J. R. Clynes
Party Conservative Labour
Leader since 23 October 1922 14 February 1921
Leader's seat Glasgow Central Manchester Platting
Last election 379 seats, 38.4%[a] 57 seats, 21.5%
Seats won 344 142
Seat change Decrease 35 Increase 85
Popular vote 5,294,465 4,076,665
Percentage 38.5% 29.7%
Swing Increase 0.1 pp Increase 8.9 pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George
Party Liberal National Liberal
Leader since 30 April 1908 7 December 1916
Leader's seat Paisley Caernarvon Boroughs
Last election 36 seats, 13.3% 127 seats, 12.6%[b]
Seats won 62[note 1] 53
Seat change Increase 26 Decrease 74
Popular vote 2,601,486 1,355,366
Percentage 18.9% 9.9%
Swing Increase 5.9 pp Decrease 2.7 pp

Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results

Composition of the House of Commons following the 1922 general election

Prime Minister before election

Bonar Law
Conservative

Prime Minister after election

Bonar Law
Conservative

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.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).