The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November 1935 and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. The greatest number of members, as before, were Conservatives, while the

National Liberal National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism). A seri ...

vote held steady. The much smaller National Labour vote also held steady but the resurgence in the main Labour vote caused over a third of their MPs, including National Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, to lose their seats.

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, under what was then regarded internally as the caretaker leadership of

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

following the resignation of

George Lansbury George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1929–31, he spe ...

slightly over a month before, made large gains over their very poor showing at the 1931 general election, and saw their highest share of the vote yet. They made a net gain of over a hundred seats, thus reversing much of the ground lost in 1931. The Liberals continued a slow political decline, with their leader,

Sir Herbert Samuel Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to beco ...

, losing his seat. The

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

stood entirely separately from Labour for the first time since 1895, having stood candidates unendorsed by Labour at the 1931 general election and having disaffiliated fully from Labour in 1932. The

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

contested their first general election, and the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

gained the West Fife seat, their first in ten years. Major election issues were stubborn

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...

and the role of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, particularly regarding the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

. Parliament was dissolved on 25 October. No general elections were held during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

until

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

victory was assured via

acts of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament ...

; hence the 1935 House sat until 1945. This parliament would see two leadership changes.

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...

took over from Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister and

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

Leader in 1937. He in turn resigned in 1940 in favour of

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

, who led the three main parties in Parliament in government for the war. This was the last election to be held during the reign of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

, who would die two months after the election.

Results

, colspan=12 bgcolor=#E0E0E0 align="center", National Government , - , - , colspan=1 bgcolor=#000000 align="left", , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="left", National Government (total) , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right",

, colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 583 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 429 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 12 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 139 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", −125 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 69.8 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 51.8 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", 11,183,908 , colspan=1 bgcolor=#efefef align="right", −15.4 , - , colspan=12 bgcolor=#E0E0E0 align="center", Opposition , -

Votes summary

Seats summary

Transfers of seats

* All comparisons are with the 1931 election. **In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *. **In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1935. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

Constituency results

These are available on the Political Science Resources Elections Database, a link to which is given below.

References

Manifestos

1935 Conservative manifesto1935 Labour manifesto1935 Liberal manifesto
{{British elections 1935

General election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

November 1935 events

General Election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Clement Attlee Stanley Baldwin