1900 United Kingdom general election

1900 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 670 seats in the House of Commons; 336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.1% (3.3 pp)
	Colours denote the winning party
	Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the election
Prime Minister before election; Marquess of Salisbury; Conservative	Prime Minister after; election ; Marquess of Salisbury; Conservative

The 1900 United Kingdom general election was held between 26 September and 24 October 1900, following the dissolution of Parliament on 25 September. Also referred to as the Khaki Election (the first of several elections to bear this sobriquet), it was held at a time when it was widely believed that the Second Boer War had effectively been won (though in fact it was to continue for another two years).

The Conservative Party, led by Lord Salisbury with their Liberal Unionist allies, secured a large majority of 134 seats, despite securing only 5.6% more votes than Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Liberals. This was largely owing to the Conservatives winning 163 seats that were uncontested by others. The Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party, participated in a general election for the first time. However, it had only been in existence for a few months; as a result, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only LRC Members of Parliament elected in 1900.

This was the first occasion when Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons. He had stood in the same seat, Oldham, at a by-election held the previous year, but had lost. It was also the final general election of the Victorian era, as well as the last one where the leader of either of the two largest parties (and by extension, the incumbent Prime Minister) sat in the House of Lords rather than the House of Commons.

Results

UK General Election 1900
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	Marquess of Salisbury	569	402	32	41	−9	60.1	50.2	1,637,683	+1.0
	Liberal	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman	402	183	38	32	+6	27.4	45.1	1,469,500	−0.5
	Irish Parliamentary	John Redmond	83	76	2	8	−6	11.3	1.8	57,576	−0.8
	Labour Repr. Cmte.	Keir Hardie	15	2	2	0	+2	0.3	1.3	41,900	N/A
	Ind. Nationalist	N/A	18	6	6	0	+6	0.9	0.7	23,706
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	7	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	13,713
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	1	1	0	+1	0.1	0.2	6,423	+0.1
	Independent	N/A	3	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	4,800	+0.2
	Scottish Workers	Robert Allan	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	3,107	N/A
	Ind. Liberal Unionist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	1,855	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	433	+0.0

Voting summary

Popular vote

Conservative and Liberal Unionist			50.22%
Liberal			45.07%
Irish Parliamentary			1.77%
Labour Repr. Cmte.			1.29%
Others			1.66%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Conservative and Liberal Unionist			60.00%
Liberal			27.31%
Irish Parliamentary			11.34%
Labour Repr. Cmte.			0.30%
Others			1.04%

Notes

^ Includes the Speaker, William Court Gully

^ Contested the 1895 election as two separate parties, the Irish National League and the Irish National Party, but reunified before 1900.
^ All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown.
^ "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2022.

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
Garvin, J. L. (1934), The life of Joseph Chamberlain: Volume Three 1895–1900, London, pp. 571–92 on dissolving Parliament, pp. 593–607 on Khaki election{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)^{[publisher missing]}
Hinton, Guy (2015), "Newcastle and the Boer War: Regional Reactions to an Imperial War", Northern History, 52 (2): 272–294, doi:10.1179/0078172X15Z.00000000092, S2CID 163032144
Marsh, Peter T. (1994), Joseph Chamberlain: Entrepreneur in Politics, pp. 492–502^{[publisher missing]}
Readman, Paul (2001), "The Conservative party, patriotism, and British politics: the case of the general election of 1900", Journal of British Studies, 40 (1): 107–145, doi:10.1086/386236, JSTOR 3070771, S2CID 145429939
Roberts, Andrew (1999), Salisbury: Victorian Titan, pp. 766–83^{[publisher missing]}

External links

Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

[1] Includes the Speaker, William Court Gully

[2] Contested the 1895 election as two separate parties, the Irish National League and the Irish National Party, but reunified before 1900.

[3] All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown.

[4] "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2022.

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