1880 United Kingdom general election
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All652 seatsin theHouse of Commons 327 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Composition of theHouse of Commonsafter the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1880 United Kingdom general electionwas ageneral electionin theUnited Kingdomheld from 31 March to 27 April 1880.
Its intense rhetoric was led by theMidlothian campaignof the Liberals, particularly the fierce oratory ofLiberalleaderWilliam Gladstone.[2]He vehemently attacked the foreign policy of the government ofBenjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield,as utterly immoral.
Liberals secured one of their largest-ever majorities, leaving theConservativesa distant second. As a result of the campaign, the Liberal Commons leader,Lord Hartingtonand that in the Lords,Lord Granville,stood back in favour of Gladstone, who thus becamePrime Ministera second time. It was the last general election in which any party other than the Conservatives won a majority of the votes (rather than aplurality).
Issues[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/The_Guildhall_on_Election_Night%2C_1880.jpg/220px-The_Guildhall_on_Election_Night%2C_1880.jpg)
The Conservative government was doomed by the poor condition of the British economy and the vulnerability of its foreign policy to moralistic attacks by the Liberals. William Gladstone, appealing to moralistic evangelicals, led the attack on the foreign policy ofBenjamin Disraeli(now known as Lord Beaconsfield) as immoral.[3]HistorianPaul Smithparaphrases the rhetorical tone which focused on attacking "Beaconsfieldism" (in Smith's words) as a:
Sinister system of policy, which not merely involved the country in immoral, vainglorious and expensive external adventures, inimical to peace and to the rights of small peoples, but aimed at nothing less than the subversion of parliamentary government in favour of somesimulacrumof the oriental despotism its creator was alleged to admire.[4]
Smith notes that there was indeed some substance to the allegations, but: "Most of this was partisan extravaganza, worthy of its target's own excursions against theWhigs."[5]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Leeds_Town_Hall%2C_General_Election_results.jpg/220px-Leeds_Town_Hall%2C_General_Election_results.jpg)
Disraeli himself was now theEarl of Beaconsfieldin theHouse of Lords,and custom did not allow peers to campaign; this denuded the Conservatives of other important figures such as theMarquess of SalisburyandLord Cranbrook,and the party was unable to deal effectively with the rhetorical onslaught.[6]Although he had improved the organisation of the Conservative Party, Disraeli was firmly based in the rural gentry, and had little contact with or understanding of the urban middle class that was increasingly dominating his party.
Besides their trouble with foreign policy issues, it was even more important that the Conservatives were unable to effectively defend their economic record on the home front. The 1870s coincided with along-term global depressioncaused by the collapse of the worldwide railway boom of the 1870s which previously had been so profitable to Britain. The stress was growing by the late 1870s; prices fell, profits fell, employment fell, and there was downward pressure on wage rates that caused much hardship among the industrial working class. Thefree tradesystem supported by both parties made Britain defenceless against the flood of cheap wheat fromNorth America,which was exacerbated by the worst harvest of the century in Britain in 1879. The party in power got the blame, and Liberals repeatedly emphasised the growing budget deficit as a measure of bad stewardship. In the election itself, Disraeli's party lost heavily up and down the line, especially in Scotland and Ireland, and in the urban boroughs. His Conservative strength fell from 351 to 238, while the Liberals jumped from 250 to 353. Disraeli resigned on 21 April 1880.[7]
Results[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/1880_UK_parliament.svg/300px-1880_UK_parliament.svg.png)
UK General Election 1880 | |||||||||||||||
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Party | Candidates | Votes | |||||||||||||
Stood | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | |||||||
Liberal | 499 | 352[a] | +132 | -22 | +110 | 53.99 | 54.66 | 1,836,423 | +2.7 | ||||||
Conservative | 521 | 237 | +20 | -133 | −113 | 36.35 | 42.46 | 1,426,351 | −1.8 | ||||||
Home Rule | 81 | 63 | +6 | -3 | +3 | 9.66 | 2.84 | 95,535 | −0.9 | ||||||
Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.03 | 1,107 | 0 |
Voting summary[edit]
Seats summary[edit]
Regional results[edit]
Great Britain[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 334 | ![]() |
1,780,171 | 57.3 | ![]() | |
Lib-Lab | 3 | ![]() | ||||
Conservative | 214 | ![]() |
1,326,744 | 42.7 | ![]() | |
Other | 0 | ![]() |
1,107 | 0.04 | ![]() | |
Total | 551 | ![]() |
3,108,022 | 100 |
England[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 251 | ![]() |
1,519,576 | 56.2 | ![]() | |
Lib-Lab | 3 | ![]() | ||||
Conservative | 197 | ![]() |
1,205,990 | 43.7 | ![]() | |
Other | 0 | ![]() |
1,107 | 0.1 | ![]() | |
Total | 451 | 2,726,673 | 100 |
Scotland[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 52 | ![]() |
195,517 | 70.1 | ![]() | |
Conservative | 6 | ![]() |
74,145 | 29.9 | ![]() | |
Total | 58 | 269,662 | 100 |
Wales[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | 29 | ![]() |
50,403 | 58.8 | ![]() | |
Conservative | 4 | ![]() |
41,106 | 41.2 | ![]() | |
Total | 33 | 100,509 | 100 |
Ireland[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Home Rule | 63 | ![]() |
95,535 | 37.5 | ![]() | |
Irish Conservative | 23 | ![]() |
99,607 | 39.8 | ![]() | |
Liberal | 15 | ![]() |
56,252 | 22.7 | ![]() | |
Total | 101 | 251,394 | 100 |
Universities[edit]
Party | Seats | Seats change | Votes | % | % change | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 7 | 5,503 | 49.2 | |||
Liberal | 2 | 5,675 | 50.8 | |||
Total | 9 | 11,178 | 100 |
See also[edit]
- List of MPs elected in the 1880 United Kingdom general election
- 1880 United Kingdom general election in Ireland
- 1880 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
Notes[edit]
- ^abThe seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include theSpeaker of the House of Commons
References[edit]
- ^"Data"(PDF),parliament.uk
- ^Fitzsimons 1960,pp. 187–201.
- ^Matthew 1997,pp. 293–312.
- ^Smith 1996,pp. 198–99.
- ^Smith 1996,p. 199.
- ^Roberts, Andrew (2000).Salisbury: Victorian Titan.London: Phoenix. p. 238.ISBN0-75381-091-3.
{{cite book}}
:CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^Smith 1996,pp. 202–3;Blake 1967,pp. 707–13, 717.
Sources and further reading[edit]
- Blake, Robert(1967),Disraeli,EA London,ISBN978-1-84413-312-3
- Chilston, Viscount. "The 1880 Election: A Historical Landmark."Parliamentary Affairs14 (June 1961): 477-492.
- Craig, F. W. S.(1989),British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987,Dartmouth: Gower,ISBN0900178302
- Fitzsimons, M. A. (1960), "Midlothian: the Triumph and Frustration of the British Liberal Party",Review of Politics,22(2): 187–201,doi:10.1017/S0034670500008202,JSTOR1405317,S2CID144807807
- Lloyd, T.O. "The General Election of 1880(Oxford UP, 1967)
- Matthew, H. C. G.(1997),Gladstone: 1809–1898,Clarendon Press,ISBN0-19-820696-8
- Rallings, Colin;Thrasher, Michael,eds. (2000),British Electoral Facts 1832–1999,Ashgate Publishing Ltd
- Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England.'Cultural & Social History(2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.
- Smith, Paul(1996),Disraeli: A Brief Life,Cambridge UP,ISBN9780521381505