1950 United Kingdom general election

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox election The 1950 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 23 February 1950, and was the first after a full term of a majority Labour government. It was also the first general election after the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The general election saw Labour returned to power, but its majority was dramatically reduced from 146 seats to just 5, with a sizeable swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats.

Another general election was called for the following year, which the Conservative Party won, returning Churchill to power after six years in opposition. Turnout in this general election increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a United Kingdom general election under universal suffrage,<ref>Parliamentary Government in Britain, Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981, page 104</ref> and represented an increase of 11.1 percentage points from 72.8% turnout in 1945.

1950 was also the first general election to be covered on television, although no recording was made of the live broadcast, which was the standard practice at the time. Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 general elections. On this occasion, Dimbleby was joined in the BBC Alexandra Palace studios by R. B. McCallum, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and author of The British General Election of 1945, and David Butler, research student of Nuffield College. The programme ran from 10:45 pm until just after 1:00 am.<ref name="Timetables">Template:Cite web</ref>Template:UK general election navigation

Background

Labour had governed the nation ever since their landslide in 1945. During its first term in office, the government introduced several major reforms: a National Health Service was established, around 20% of the economy was nationalised, a comprehensive system of social security was implemented, and, under the New Towns Act 1946, development corporations were set up to construct new towns.

Britain was confronted with severe economic challenges: Britain faced a large national debt,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> its industries were weakened, and there were many shortages of food and raw materials. As a result, the Labour government continued rationing, and austerity was implemented, relying heavily on American loans and the Marshall Plan. While these measures were enacted to contain inflationary pressures, the British public suffered a fatigue. This prevented the Labour government from implementing some of its ambitious programmes.

Before the general election, major significant changes to the electoral system had occurred, including the abolition of plural voting by the Representation of the People Act 1948, and a major reorganisation of constituencies by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Eleven new English seats were created and six were abolished, and there were over 170 major alterations to constituencies across the country.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee planned to call a summer general election. However, his Chancellor, Stafford Cripps, refused to present a budget before a general election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As a result, Attlee was persuaded to call a February general election. Parliament was dissolved on 3 February 1950.<ref name="Timetables"/>

Campaign

The Conservatives, having recovered from their landslide election defeat in 1945, accepted the broad framework of the welfare state and nationalisation that had taken place under the Attlee government, which included the National Health Service and the mixed economy. The Conservative manifesto, This Is The Road, accepted the new welfare state's foundations but critised what it saw as the loss of freedoms and aspirations under Labour, with Churchill claiming Attlee hadn't "levelled up" but had actually "levelled down".<ref name="thecritic">Template:Cite web</ref>

The campaign essentially focused on the possible future nationalisation of other sectors and industries, which was opposed by the Conservatives but supported by Labour. The Liberals essentially viewed the struggle between the two parties on this issue as a class struggle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any general election since 1929. Liberal Party leader Clement Davies felt that the party had been at a disadvantage at the 1945 general election when they ran fewer candidates than needed to form a government. Davies arranged for the cost of running extra candidates to be offset by the party taking out insurance with Lloyd's of London against more than fifty candidates losing their deposits.

In the event, the strategy only succeeded in causing a very marginal increase in the overall Liberal vote over the previous election (although it was still their best popular vote percentage since 1929); the number of votes per candidate declined sharply, resulting in them losing a further three seats from their already-disappointing 1945 showing. A total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record numberTemplate:Sfn Template:Page needed until the 2015 general election, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits at the general election held in that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Aftermath

In the end, Labour lost 78 seats and its majority was reduced from 146 seats to just 5 seats. The Conservatives recovered significantly, seeing a resurgence in their support: they gained 90 seats and saw their vote share improve by 4.3 percentage points. With such a slender majority, Attlee had very little room for political manoeuvring, and passing legislation became difficult, with continued austerity and rationing straining Attlee's government from public support. As a result, seeking a better mandate, a general election was called the following year. However, despite winning the most votes (48.8% and 13,948,385 votes), they lost 20 seats, and Churchill was returned to power with a majority of 17 seats.

Analysis showed that Labour suffered huge losses of seats due to a "revolt of the suburbs", with substantial swings against them among Middle England voters in London, the Home Counties, Essex and Middlesex. The effects of the Labour government's continued austerity and inflation had a negative effect for middle-income voters, with rationing of basic foods like bread and powdered egg proving incredibly unpopular. While campaigning in Leicester, Attlee was met with "catcalls" and chants of "vermin" while Hugh Gaitskell observed there was "a collection of grievances among the lower middle class and middle class" against Labour.<ref name="thecritic" />

The election began the factionalization of the Labour Party into the Bevanite and Gaitskellite factions. Following the general election, Hugh Gaitskell blamed Aneurin Bevan for their party's disappointing performance, which led to a growing rift between the two.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>