1886 United Kingdom general election

1886 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 670 seats in the House of Commons; 336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74.2% (7.0 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.

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^[a]	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

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%

Notes

^ ^a ^b The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons, Arthur Peel

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