1918 United Kingdom general election

1918 United Kingdom general election

14 December 1918
All 707 seats in the House of Commons 354 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	57.2%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Bonar Law David Lloyd George Éamon de Valera Party Conservative Coalition Liberal Sinn Féin Leader since 13 November 1911 7 December 1916 1917 Leader's seat Glasgow Central Caernarvon Boroughs Mayo East Last election 271 seats, 46.6 Did not contest Did not contest Seats won 382 127 73 Seat change 111 127 73 Popular vote 4,003,848 1,396,590 476,458 Percentage 38.4% 13.4% 4.6% Swing 8.2% New party New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px Leader William Adamson H. H. Asquith George Barnes Party Labour Liberal National Democratic Leader since 24 October 1917 30 April 1908 1918 Leader's seat West Fife East Fife (defeated) Glasgow Gorbals Last election 42 seats, 6.4% 272 seats, 44.2% Did not contest Seats won 57 36 9 Seat change 15 236 9 Popular vote 2,171,230 1,355,398 156,834 Percentage 20.8% 13.0% 1.3% Swing 14.5% 31.2% New party   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   120px 107px 115px Leader John Dillon Edward Carson Henry Page Croft Party Irish Parliamentary Irish Unionist National Party Leader since 6 March 1918 June 1918 September 1917 Leader's seat Mayo East (defeated) Belfast Duncairn Bournemouth Last election 74 seats, 2.5% Did not contest Did not contest Seats won 7 3 2 Seat change 67 3 2 Popular vote 226,498 30,304 94,389 Percentage 2.2% 0.3% 0.9% Swing 0.3 N/A N/A
380px Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election David Lloyd George Coalition Liberal Appointed Prime Minister David Lloyd George Coalition Liberal

The 1918 United Kingdom general election was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended the First World War, and was held on Saturday, 14 December 1918. The governing coalition, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, sent letters of endorsement to candidates who supported the coalition government. These were nicknamed "Coalition Coupons", and led to the election being known as the "coupon election". The result was a massive landslide in favour of the coalition, comprising primarily the Conservatives and Coalition Liberals, with massive losses for Liberals who were not endorsed. Nearly all the Liberal MPs without coupons were defeated, although party leader H. H. Asquith managed to return to Parliament in a by-election.

It was the first general election to include on a single day all eligible voters of the United Kingdom, although the vote count was delayed until 28 December so that the ballots cast by soldiers serving overseas could be included in the tallies.

It resulted in a landslide victory for the coalition government of David Lloyd George, who had replaced H. H. Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916. They were both Liberals and continued to battle for control of the party, which was rapidly losing popular support and never regained power.

It was the first general election to be held after enactment of the Representation of the People Act 1918. It was thus the first election in which women over the age of 30, and all men over the age of 21, could vote. Previously, all women and many poor men had been excluded from voting. Women showed enormous patriotism, and generally supported the coalition candidates.

It was the first parliamentary election in which women were able to stand as candidates following the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918, believed to be one of the shortest Acts of Parliament ever given Royal Assent. The Act was passed shortly before Parliament was dissolved. It followed a report by Law Officers that the Great Reform Act 1832 had specified parliamentary candidates had to be male and that the Representation of the People Act passed earlier in the year did not change that. One woman, Nina Boyle, had already presented herself for a by-election earlier in the year in Keighley, but had been turned down by the returning officer on technical grounds.

The election was also noted for the dramatic result in Ireland, which showed clear disapproval of government policy. The Irish Parliamentary Party were almost completely wiped out by the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, who vowed in their manifesto to establish an independent Irish Republic. They refused to take their seats in Westminster, instead forming a breakaway government and declaring Irish independence. The Irish War of Independence began soon after the election. Because of the resulting partition of Ireland, this was the last United Kingdom general election to include the entire island of Ireland.

Background

Lloyd George's coalition government was supported by the majority of the Liberals and Bonar Law's Conservatives. However, the election saw a split in the Liberal Party between those who were aligned with Lloyd George and the government and those who were aligned with Asquith, the party's official leader.

On 14 November it was announced that Parliament, which had been sitting since 1910 and had been extended by emergency wartime action, would dissolve on 25 November, with elections on 14 December.

Following confidential negotiations over the summer of 1918, it was agreed that certain candidates were to be offered the support of the Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservative Party at the next general election. To these candidates a letter, known as the Coalition Coupon, was sent, indicating the government's endorsement of their candidacy. 159 Liberal, 364 Conservative, 20 National Democratic and Labour, and 2 Coalition Labour candidates received the coupon. For this reason the election is often called the Coupon Election.

80 Conservative candidates stood without a coupon. Of these, 35 candidates were Irish Unionists. Of the other non-couponed Conservative candidates, only 23 stood against a Coalition candidate; the remaining 22 candidates stood in areas where there were no coupons, or refused the offer of a coupon.

The Labour Party, led by William Adamson, fought the election independently, as did those Liberals who did not receive a coupon.

The election was not chiefly fought over what peace to make with Germany, although those issues played a role. More important was the voters' evaluation of Lloyd George in terms of what he had accomplished so far and what he promised for the future. His supporters emphasised that he had won the Great War. Against his strong record in social legislation, he called for making "a country fit for heroes to live in".

This election was known as a khaki election, due to the immediate postwar setting and the role of the demobilised soldiers.

Coalition victory

The coalition won the election easily, with the Conservatives the big winners. They were the largest party in the governing majority. Lloyd George remained Prime Minister, despite the Conservatives outnumbering his pro-coalition Liberals. The Conservatives welcomed his leadership on foreign policy as the Paris Peace talks began a few weeks after the election.

An additional 47 Conservatives, 23 of whom were Irish Unionists, won without the coupon but did not act as a separate block or oppose the government except on the issue of Irish independence.

While most of the pro-coalition Liberals were re-elected, Asquith's faction was reduced to just 36 seats and lost all their leaders from parliament; Asquith himself lost his own seat. Nine of these MPs subsequently joined the Coalition Liberal group. The remainder became bitter enemies of Lloyd George.

The Labour Party greatly increased its vote share and surpassed the total votes of either Liberal party. Labour became the Official Opposition for the first time, but they lacked an official leader and so the Leader of the Opposition for the next fourteen months was the stand-in Liberal leader Donald Maclean (Asquith, having lost his seat at this election, was not returned until a by-election in February 1920). Labour could only slightly increase their number of seats, however, from 42 to 57 and some of their earlier leaders including Ramsay MacDonald and Arthur Henderson lost their seats. Labour won the most seats in Wales (which had previously been dominated by the Liberals) for the first time, a feat it has continued to the present day.

The Conservative MPs included record numbers of corporate directors, bankers and businessmen, while Labour MPs were mostly from the working class. Bonar Law himself symbolised the change in the type of a Conservative MP as Bonar Law was a Presbyterian Canadian-born Scottish businessman who became in the words of his biographer, Robert Blake, the leader of "the Party of Old England, the Party of the Anglican Church and the country squire, the party of broad acres and hereditary titles". Bonar Law's ascent as leader of the Conservatives marked a shift in Conservative leaders from the aristocrats who generally led the party in the 19th century to a more middle class leadership who usually led the party in the 20th century. Many young veterans reacted against the harsh tone of the campaign and became disillusioned with politics.

Ireland

Main article: Irish general election, 1918

Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to the House of Commons, but as an Irish nationalist she did not take her seat at Westminster.

In Ireland, the Irish Parliamentary Party, which favoured Home Rule within the United Kingdom, lost almost all their seats, most of which were won by Sinn Féin under Éamon de Valera, which called for independence. The executions of many of the leaders of the Easter uprising of 1916, the force-feeding of those imprisoned in connection with the uprising who had gone on a hunger strike in 1917, and the Conscription Crisis of 1918 all served to alienate Irish Catholic opinion from the United Kingdom. The Sinn Féin candidates had promised on the campaign trail to win an Irish republic "by any means necessary", which was a code-word for violence, though it is not entirely clear if all Irish voters understood what the phrase meant. The 73 Sinn Féin elected members declined to take their seats in the British House of Commons, sitting instead in the Irish revolutionary assembly, the Dáil Éireann. On 17 May 1918 almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin, including de Valera and Arthur Griffith, had been arrested. In total 47 of the Sinn Féin MPs were elected from jail. The Dáil first convened on 21 January 1919, which marks the beginning of the Irish War of Independence.

In the six Ulster counties that became Northern Ireland, Unionists consolidated their position by winning 23 out of the 30 seats. Cardinal Logue brokered a pact in eight seats (one, East Donegal, not in the six counties), after nominations closed, where Catholic voters were instructed to vote for one particular nationalist party. Split evenly, the Irish Parliamentary Party won four of those seats and Sinn Féin three. (The pact failed in East Down). Joe Devlin, memorably, also won Belfast (Falls) for the Irish Parliamentary Party in a straight fight with Éamon de Valera of Sinn Féin.

Constance Markievicz became the first woman elected to Parliament. She was a Sinn Féin member elected for Dublin St Patrick's, and like the other Sinn Féin MPs, did not take her seat at Westminster.

Women candidates

See also: Election results of women standing for the Parliament of the United Kingdom (to 1945)

The seventeen women candidates were:

• Margery Corbett Ashby, aged 36, Liberal, Birmingham, Ladywood
• Winnifred Carney, aged 31, Sinn Féin, Belfast, Victoria
• Charlotte Despard, aged 74, Labour, Battersea, North
• Norah Dacre Fox, aged 40, Independent, Richmond
• Alison Vickers Garland, aged 56, Liberal, Portsmouth South
• Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, aged 51, Labour, Manchester, Rusholme
• Alice Lucas, aged 65, Conservative, Lambeth, Kennington
• Mary Macarthur (Mrs W.C.Anderson), aged 38, Labour, Stourbridge, Worcestershire
• Violet Markham (Mrs Carruthers), aged 46, Independent Liberal, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
• Edith How Martyn, aged 43, Independent Progressive, Hendon, Middlesex
• Janet McEwan, aged 58, Liberal, Enfield, Middlesex
• Millicent Mackenzie, 55, Labour, University of Wales
• Constance Markievicz, aged 50, Sinn Féin, Dublin, St.Pancras
• Eunice Murray, aged 41, Independent, Glasgow, Bridgetown
• Christabel Pankhurst, aged 38, Women's Party, Smethwick
• Emily Phipps, aged 53, Independent Progressive, Chelsea
• Ray Strachey, aged 31, Independent, Brentford and Isleworth, Middlesex

Results

Seats by party

↓ 

382	127	73	57	36	35
Conservative	Coal Lib	SF	Lab	Lib	O

UK General Election 1918
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
Coalition Government
	Conservative	Bonar Law	445	382			+111	54.0	38.4	4,003,848	−8.2
	Coalition Liberal	David Lloyd George	145	127			+127	18.0	12.6	1,318,844	N/A
	Coalition National Democratic	George Nicoll Barnes	18	9			+9	1.3	1.5	156,834	N/A
	Coalition Labour	N/A	5	4			+4	0.1	0.4	40,641	N/A
	Coalition Independent	N/A	1	1			+1	0.1	0.1	9,274	N/A
	Coalition Government (total)	David Lloyd George	614	523			+249	74.0	53.0	5,529,441	+6.4
Non-Coalition parties
	Labour	William Adamson	361	57			+15	8.1	20.8	2,171,230	+14.5
	Liberal	H. H. Asquith	277	36			−236	5.1	13.0	1,355,398	−31.2
	Sinn Féin	Éamon de Valera	102	73			+73	10.3	4.6	476,458	N/A
	Irish Parliamentary	John Dillon	57	7			−67	1.0	2.2	226,498	−0.3
	Independent Labour	N/A	29	2			+2	0.3	1.1	116,322	+1.0
	Independent	N/A	42	2			+2	0.3	1.0	105,261	+1.0
	National Party	Henry Page Croft	26	2			+2	0.3	0.9	94,389	N/A
	Independent NFDSS	James Hogge	30	0			0	0.0	0.6	58,164	N/A
	Co-operative Party	William Henry Watkins	10	1			+1	0.1	0.6	57,785	N/A
	Independent Conservative	N/A	17	1			0	0.1	0.4	44,637	+0.3
	Labour Unionist	Edward Carson	3	3			+3	0.4	0.3	30,304	N/A
	Independent Liberal	N/A	8	0			0	0.1	0.2	24,985	+0.2
	Agriculturalist	Edward Mials Nunneley	7	0			0	0.0	0.2	19,412	N/A
	National Democratic	George Nicoll Barnes	8	0			0	0.0	0.2	17,991	N/A
	NFDSS	James Hogge	5	0			0	0.0	0.1	12,329	N/A
	Belfast Labour	N/A	4	0			0	0.0	0.1	12,164	N/A
	National Socialist Party	H. M. Hyndman	3	1			+1	0.1	0.1	11,013	N/A
	Highland Land League	N/A	4	0			0	0.0	0.1	8,710	N/A
	Women's Party	Christabel Pankhurst	1	0			0	0.0	0.1	8,614	N/A
	British Socialist Party	Albert Inkpin	3	0			0	0.0	0.1	8,394	N/A
	Independent Democratic	N/A	4	0			0	0.0	0.1	8,351	N/A
	NADSS	James Howell	1	1			+1	0.1	0.1	8,287	N/A
	Independent Nationalist	N/A	6	0			0	0.0	0.1	8,183	+0.1
	Socialist Labour	Tom Bell	3	0			0	0.0	0.1	7,567	N/A
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	0			0	0.0	0.0	5,212	N/A
	Independent Progressive	N/A	3	0			0	0.0	0.0	5,077	N/A
	Ind. Labour and Agriculturalist	N/A	1	0			0	0.0	0.0	1,927	N/A
	Christian Socialist	N/A	1	0			0	0.0	0.0	597	N/A

Total votes cast: 10,442,883. Turnout: 57.2%.

Votes summary

Popular vote
Conservative			38.4%
Coalition Liberal			12.6%
Coalition National Democratic			1.5%
Coalition Labour			0.4%
Coalition Independent			0.1%
All Coalition parties			53.0%
Labour			20.8%
Liberal			13.0%
Sinn Féin			4.6%
Irish Parliamentary			2.2%
Independent			1.0%
Others			3.2%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative			54.03%
Coalition Liberal			17.96%
Coalition National Democratic			1.27%
Coalition Labour			0.57%
Coalition Independent			0.14%
All Coalition parties			73.97%
Labour			8.06%
Liberal			5.09%
Sinn Féin			10.33%
Irish Parliamentary			0.99%
Independent			0.28%
Others			1.27%

Maps

• 

  Results in Ireland. The Sinn Féin MPs did not take their seats in the House of Commons, and instead formed the Dáil Éireann (English: Assembly of Ireland).

• Greater-London-1918-election.svg

  Results in London

• 

  Results in Scotland

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the December 1910 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 1918. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

From		To		No.	Seats
	Labour		Labour (HOLD)		Burslem (replaced Staffordshire North West), Deptford, Plaistow (replaced West Ham South), Woolwich East (replaced Woolwich)
			Coalition Labour		Norwich (1 of 2), Stockport (1 of 2)
			Coalition National Democratic		Hanley
			Liberal
			National Liberal
			Conservative		Bow and Bromley†, Nuneaton
	Sinn Féin		Nationalist
		abolished
	Nationalist		Nationalist
		abolished
	Lib-Lab		Coalition Liberal		Battersea North (replaced Battersea)
	Liberal		Labour		Forest of Dean, Leek, Wellingborough (replaced Northamptonshire Mid)
			National Democratic		Walthamstow W (replaced Walthamstow)
			Liberal (HOLD)		Bermondsey West (replaced Bermondsey), Camborne, Cornwall North (replaced Launceston), Newcastle-under-Lyme, Norwich (1 of 2), Saffron Walden, Whitechapel and St Georges (replaced Whitechapel), Wolverhampton East
			National Liberal		Banbury, Barnstaple, Bedford, Bethnal Green NE, Bristol East, Bristol North, Bristol South, Cambridgeshire (replaced Chesterton), Crewe, Dartford, Dorset East, Eye, Hackney Central, Isle of Ely (replaced Wisbech), Kennington, Lichfield, Stepney Limehouse (replaced Limehouse), Lowestoft, Luton, Norfolk South, Norfolk South West, Northampton (1 of 2), Peckham, Poplar South (replaced Poplar), Romford, St Ives, Shoreditch (replaced Hoxton), South Molton, Southampton (both seats), Southwark Central (replaced Newington West), Southwark North (replaced Southwark West), Southwark South East (replaced Walworth), Stockport (1 of 2), Stoke-upon-Trent, Stroud, Thornbury, Wellington (Salop)
			Coalition Independent		Norfolk North
			Independent		Hackney South
			Conservative		Bedfordshire Mid (replaced Biggleswade), Bethnal Green South-West†, Buckingham, Camberwell North, Cheltenham†, Coventry, Exeter†, Frome, Gillingham (replaced Rochester), Ipswich (1 of 2)†, Islington East, Islington South, Islington West, Macclesfield, Norfolk East, Northwich, Peterborough, Reading†, Rotherhithe, St Pancras North, Stafford, Swindon (replaced Cricklade), Tottenham South (replaced Tottenham), Upton (replaced West Ham North), Westbury, Yeovil (replaced Somerset Southern)†
		abolished			Finsbury East, Haggerston, Hyde, Ipswich (1 of 2), Newmarket, Norfolk North West, Northampton (1 of 2), Northamptonshire East, St Austell, St George, Tower Hamlets, St Pancras East, Stepney, Truro, Worcestershire North
	Speaker		Liberal
	Liberal Unionist		Conservative		Aylesbury*, Birmingham West*, Bodmin*, Burton*, Birmingham Handsworth*, Hythe*, Ludlow*, Portsmouth North (replaced 1 of 2 Portsmouth seats)*, Stepney Mile End (replaced Mile End)*, Birmingham Sparkbrook (replaced Birmingham South)*, Stone (replaced Staffordshire West)*, Torquay*, Totnes*, Westminster St George's (replaced St George, Hanover Square)*
		abolished			Ashburton, Birmingham Central, Birmingham North, Birmingham Bordesley, Droitwich, Norfolk Mid, Ross, Somerset Eastern, Worcestershire East
	Conservative		Communist Party
			Labour		Kettering (replaced Northamptonshire North), Kingswinford, Wednesbury, West Bromwich
			Liberal		Lambeth North, Weston-super-Mare (replaced Somerset Northern)
			Coalition Liberal		Sudbury
			Conservative (HOLD)		Abingdon, Altrincham, Ashford, Birmingham Aston (replaced Aston Manor), Basingstoke, Bath (1 of 2), Bewdley, Bilston (replaced Wolverhampton South), Birkenhead East (replaced Birkenhead), Brentford and Chiswick (replaced Brentford), Bridgwater, Brighton (both seats), Bristol West, Brixton, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Chatham, Chelmsford, Chelsea, Chertsey, Chester, Chichester, Chippenham, Cirencester and Tewkesbury (replaced Tewkesbury), Clapham, Colchester, Croydon South (replaced Croydon), Daventry (replaced Northamptonshire South), Devizes, Plymouth Devonport (replaced 1 of 2 Devonport seats), Dorset North, Dorset South, Dorset West, Dover, Plymouth Drake (replaced 1 of 2 Plymouth seats), Dudley, Dulwich, Ealing, East Grinstead, Eastbourne, Eddisbury, Birmingham Edgbaston, Enfield, Epping, Epsom, Birmingham Erdington (replaced Birmingham East), Essex South East, Evesham, Fareham, Faversham, Finsbury (replaced Finsbury Central), Fulham East (replaced Fulham), Gloucester, Gravesend, Great Yarmouth, Greenwich, Guildford, Hackney North, Hammersmith South (replaced Hammersmith), Hampstead, Harrow, Harwich, Hastings, Henley, Hereford, Hitchin, Holborn, Honiton, Hornsey, Horsham and Worthing (replaced Horsham), Huntingdonshire (replaced Huntingdon), Isle of Thanet, Isle of Wight, Islington North, Kensington North, Kensington South, Kidderminster, King's Lynn, Kingston upon Thames, Knutsford, Leominster, Lewes, Lewisham West (replaced Lewisham), City of London (both seats), Maidstone, Maldon, New Forest & Christchurch (replaced New Forest), Newbury, Norwood, Oswestry, Oxford, Paddington North, Paddington South, Penryn and Falmouth, Petersfield, Portsmouth South (replaced 1 of 2 Portsmouth seats), Reigate, Rugby, Rye, St Albans, St Marylebone (replaced Marylebone West), St Pancras South East (replaced St Pancras South), St Pancras South West (replaced St Pancras West), Salisbury, Sevenoaks, Shrewsbury, Stalybridge and Hyde (replaced Stalybridge), Plymouth Sutton (replaced 1 of 2 Plymouth seats), Tamworth, Taunton, Tavistock, Tiverton, Tonbridge (replaced Tunbridge), Uxbridge, Wandsworth Central (replaced Wandsworth), Warwick and Leamington, Watford, Wells, Westminster Abbey (replaced Westminster), Wimbledon, Winchester, Windsor, Wirral, Wolverhampton West, Woodbridge, Worcester, Wycombe
			National Party		Bournemouth (replaced Christchurch)†, Walsall
			Silver Badge		Hertford†
		abolished			Andover, Bath (1 of 2), Cirencester, Devonport (1 of 2), Marylebone East, Medway, Newport (Shropshire), Ramsey, St Augustine's, Stowmarket, Strand, Stratford upon Avon, Wellington (Somerset), Wilton, Wokingham, Woodstock
	Independent Conservative		Conservative		Canterbury†
	Ulster Unionist		UUP
		abolished
	Irish Unionist	abolished
Seat created			Labour		Smethwick
			Coalition Labour		Cannock
			National Socialist Party		Silvertown
			National Democratic		Birmingham Duddeston, East Ham South
			Liberal		Portsmouth Central, Stourbridge
			Coalition Liberal		Camberwell North-West, East Ham North, Leyton East
			Conservative		Acton, Aldershot, Balham and Tooting, Battersea South, Birkenhead West, Bristol Central, Bromley, Chislehurst, Croydon North, Birmingham Deritend, Edmonton, Farnham, Finchley, Fulham West, Hammersmith North, Hemel Hempstead, Hendon, Ilford, Birmingham King's Norton, Birmingham Ladywood, Lewisham East, Leyton West, Mitcham, Birmingham Moseley, Putney, Richmond (Surrey), Southend, Spelthorne, Stoke Newington, Stratford, Streatham, Surrey East, Tottenham North, Twickenham, Wallasey, Walthamstow East, Willesden East, Willesden West, Wood Green, Woolwich West, Birmingham Yardley
			UUP

See also

• 1920 United States elections, the first held after the passage of the 19th amendment allowed American women to vote
• United Kingdom general elections
• List of MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election
• Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918, for details of the franchises replaced by the ones used in 1918

Further reading

• Adelman, Paul. The decline of the Liberal Party 1910–1931 (2014).
• Hallam, David J.A., Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918, Studley 2018
• Hilson, Mary. "Women voters and the rhetoric of patriotism in the British general election of 1918" Women's History Review 10.2 (2001): 325–347.
• McGill, Barry. "Lloyd George's Timing of the 1918 Election." Journal of British Studies 14.1 (1974): 109-124.

External links

• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979

Manifestos

• 1918 Conservative manifesto
• 1918 Labour manifesto
• 1918 Liberal manifesto
• 1918 Sinn Féin manifesto