1886 United Kingdom general election

1886 United Kingdom general election

1–27 July 1886 (1886-07-01 – 1886-07-27)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74.2% (7.0 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Marquess of Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone Charles Stewart Parnell Party Conservative and Liberal Unionist Liberal Irish Parliamentary Leader since April 1881 April 1880 17 October 1882 Leader's seat House of Lords Midlothian Cork City Last election 247 seats, 43.4% 319 seats, 47.4% 86 seats, 6.9% Seats won 393 192 85 Seat change 146 127 1 Popular vote 1,417,627 1,244,683 94,050 Percentage 51.4% 45.1% 3.4% Swing 8.7 pp 2.2 pp 3.5 pp
Colours denote the winning party
Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the general election
Prime Minister before election William Ewart Gladstone Liberal Prime Minister after election Marquess of Salisbury Conservative

The 1886 United Kingdom general election took place from 1 to 27 July 1886, following the defeat of the Government of Ireland Bill 1886. It resulted in a major reversal of the results of the 1885 election as the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, were joined in an electoral pact with the breakaway Unionist wing of the Liberals led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain. The new Liberal Unionist party elected 77 members and gave the Conservatives their parliamentary majority, but did not join them in a formal coalition.

William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals, who supported the Irish Home Rule movement, and their sometimes allies the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by Charles Stewart Parnell, were placed a distant second. The split in the Liberal Party ended the period of Liberal dominance. They had held power for 18 of the 27 years since 1859 and won five of the six elections held during that time, but would only be in power for three of the next nineteen years. The political realignment resulting from the Liberal Unionist split also meant that between this election and the end of the Second World War, only one election (in 1906) would result in a party other than the Conservatives forming a majority government (though the Liberals, and later the Labour Party, would form minority governments with support from smaller parties). This was also the first election since the 1841 election in which the Conservatives won a plurality or majority of the popular vote. They would ultimately win at least a plurality of the popular vote in every general election until 1945, again with the exception of the 1906 election.

Electoral system

Most of the MPs were elected through first-past-the-post voting in single-member district. Conversely, 54 MPs were elected in two-seat districts by the use of plurality block voting, where each voter could cast up to two votes.

Results

UK General Election 1886

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	Lord Salisbury	563	393	161	14	+146	58.66	51.40	1,417,627	+8.7
	Liberal	William Ewart Gladstone	449	192	24	152	−127	28.66	45.13	1,244,683	−2.2
	Irish Parliamentary	Charles Stewart Parnell	100	85	1	2	−1	12.69	3.41	94,050	−3.4
	Independent Liberal	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.05	1,247
	Ind. Liberal Unionist	N/A	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.02	544

Total votes: 2,758,151
Electorate: 5,708,030 (3,734,832 in contested seats)
Turnout: 74.2%

Vote summary

Popular vote Conservative and Liberal Unionist   51.40% Liberal   45.13% Irish Parliamentary   3.41% Independent Liberal   0.05% Independent Liberal Unionist   0.02%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Conservative and Liberal Unionist   58.66% Liberal   28.66% Irish Parliamentary   12.69%

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1886 United Kingdom general election
• Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918
• 1886 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
• Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael, eds. (2000), British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, Ashgate Publishing Ltd

Further reading

• Blaxill, Luke. From: The War of Words: The Language of British Elections, 1880–1922 (2020) pp. 81–123.
• Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England.' Cultural & Social History (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.
• Walker, Brian (2005), "The 1885 and 1886 General Elections in Ireland", History Ireland, 13 (6): 36–40, JSTOR 27725365

External links

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