Appendix
Governments and Elections
1895–2001
UNIONIST GOVERNMENT, 1895–1905 Prime minister: 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, 25 June 1895
General election, 28 September/24 October 1900
Electorate 6.7 million; turnout 75 per cent; 243 unopposed returns
Prime minister: Arthur James Balfour, 12 July 1902
LIBERAL GOVERNMENT, 1905–15
Prime minister: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 5 December 1905
General election, 12 January/7 February 1906
Electorate 7.3 million; turnout 83 per cent; 114 unopposed returns
Prime minister: Herbert Henry Asquith (Liberal), 7 April 1908
General election, 14 January/9 February 1910
Electorate 7.7 million; turnout 87 per cent; 75 unopposed returns
General election, 2–19 December 1910
Electorate 7.7 million; turnout 82 per cent; 163 unopposed returns
FIRST COALITION, 1915–16
Formed 25 May 1915 with Asquith remaining prime minister
L LOYD GEORGE COALITION, 1916–22
Prime minister: David Lloyd George, 7 December 1916
General election, 14 December 1918
UK electorate 21.4 million; turnout 57 per cent; 107 unopposed returns
* Including 7 Irish Nationalist MPs; Sinn Fein did not take their seats at Westminster.
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1922–3
Prime minister: Andrew Bonar Law, 23 October 1922
General election, 15 November 1922
Electorate 20.9 million;* turnout 73 per cent; 57 unopposed returns
* Great Britain and Northern Ireland only.
Prime minister: Stanley Baldwin, 22 May 1923
General election, 6 December 1923
Electorate 21.3 million; turnout 71 per cent; 50 unopposed returns
Prime minister: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 22 January 1924
General election, 29 October 1924
Electorate 21.7 million; turnout 77 per cent; 32 unopposed returns
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1924–9
Prime minister: Stanley Baldwin, 4 November 1924
General election, 30 May 1929
Electorate 28.9 million; turnout 76 per cent; 7 unopposed returns
LABOUR GOVERNMENT, 1929–31
Prime minister: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 5 June 1929
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, 1931–40
Formed 24 August 1931 with MacDonald remaining prime minister
General election, 27 October 1931
Electorate 30.0 million; turnout 76 per cent; 67 unopposed returns
*Thirty-three of these Liberals, as well as 35 Liberal National MPs included in the National column, were elected as supporters of the National Government; until 1932 only 4 (Lloyd George) Liberals were independent of it.
Prime minister: Stanley Baldwin, 7 June 1935
General election, 14 November 1935
Electorate 31.4 million; turnout 71 per cent; 40 unopposed returns
Prime minister: Neville Chamberlain, 28 May 1937
COALITION GOVERNMENT, 1940–45
Prime minister: Winston S. Churchill, 10 May 1940
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1945
Formed as a ‘caretaker’ administration, Churchill remaining prime minister, 23 May 1945
General election, 5 July 1945
Electorate 33.2 million; turnout 73 per cent; 3 unopposed returns
LABOUR GOVERNMENT, 1945–51
Prime minister: Clement Attlee, 26 July 1945
General election, 13 February 1950
Electorate 34.4 million; turnout 84 per cent; 2 unopposed returns
General election, 25 October 1951
Electorate 34.9 million; turnout 83 per cent; 4 unopposed returns
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1951–64
Prime minister: (Sir) Winston Churchill, 26 October 1951
Prime minister: Sir Anthony Eden, 6 April 1955
General election, 26 May 1955
Electorate 34.9 million; turnout 77 per cent
Prime minister: Harold Macmillan, 10 January 1957
General election, 8 October 1959
Electorate 35.4 million; turnout 79 per cent
Prime minister: 14th Earl of Home/Sir Alec Douglas-Home, 19 October 1963
General election, 15 October 1964
Electorate 35.9 million; turnout 77 per cent
LABOUR GOVERNMENT, 1964–70
Prime minister: Harold Wilson, 16 October 1964
General election, 31 March 1966
Electorate 36.0 million; turnout 76 per cent
General election, 18 June 1970
Electorate 39.3 million; turnout 72 per cent
* Four of these (one Protestant Unionist and 3 Republicans) from Northern Ireland, which is given separately below; also one MP for the Scottish National Party (SNP), given below with Plaid Cymru (PC).
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1970–74
Prime minister: Edward Heath, 19 June 1970
General election, 28 February 1974
Electorate 39.8 million; turnout 79 per cent
LABOUR GOVERNMENT, 1974–9
Prime minister: Harold Wilson, 4 March 1974
General election, 10 October 1974
Electorate 40.1 million; turnout 73 per cent
Prime minister: James Callaghan, 5 April 1976
General election, 3 May 1979
Electorate 41.1 million; turnout 76 per cent
CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 1979–97
Prime minister: Margaret Thatcher, 4 May 1979
General election, 9 June 1983
Electorate 42.2 million; turnout 73 per cent
General election, 11 June 1987
Electorate 43.2 million; turnout 75 per cent
Prime minister: John Major, 28 November 1990
General election, 9 April 1992
Electorate 43.2 million; turnout 78 per cent
General election, 1 May 1997
Electorate 43.8 million; turnout 71 per cent
LABOUR GOVERNMENT, 1997–
Prime minister: Tony Blair, 2 May 1997
General election, 7 June 2001
Electorate 44.4 million; turnout 59 per cent
