January 1910 United Kingdom general election

January 1910 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 670 seats in the House of Commons; 336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	86.8% (3.6 pp)
	Colours denote the winning party
	Composition of the House of Commons following the election.
Prime Minister before election; H. H. Asquith; Liberal	Prime Minister after election ; H. H. Asquith; Liberal

The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords, in order to get a mandate to pass the budget.

The general election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party led by Arthur Balfour and their Liberal Unionist allies receiving the most votes, but the Liberals, who were now led by H. H. Asquith following the death of Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1908, winning the most seats, returning two more MPs than the Conservatives. Asquith's government remained in power with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond. Another general election was soon held in December.

The Labour Party, led by Arthur Henderson, returned 40 MPs. Much of this apparent increase (from the 29 Labour MPs elected in 1906) came from the defection, a few years earlier, of Lib Lab MPs from the Liberal Party to Labour.

Results

UK General Election January 1910
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	Arthur Balfour	594	272	130	14	+116	40.6	46.8	2,919,236	+3.4
	Liberal	H. H. Asquith	511	274	12	135	−123	40.9	43.5	2,712,511	−5.4
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	78	40	17	6	+11	6.0	7.0	435,770	+2.1
	Irish Parliamentary	John Redmond	85	71	0	11	−11	10.6	1.2	74,047	+0.6
	All-for-Ireland	William O'Brien	10	8	8	0	+8	1.2	0.4	23,605
	Ind. Nationalist	N/A	10	3	3	2	+2	0.5	0.3	16,533
	Social Democratic Federation	H. M. Hyndman	9	0	0	0	0		0.2	13,479	−0.1
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	4	1	1	1	0	0.1	0.2	11,772
	Free Trader	John Eldon Gorst	4	0	0	0	0		0.2	11,553
	Independent Labour	N/A	6	0	0	1	−1		0.2	9,936
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	1	1	0	+1	0.1	0.1	5,237
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	756

Voting summary

Popular vote

Conservative & Liberal Unionist			46.82%
Liberal			43.51%
Labour			6.99%
Irish Parliamentary			1.19%
All-for-Ireland			0.38%
Others			1.11%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			40.90%
Conservative and Liberal Unionist			40.60%
Irish Parliamentary			10.60%
Labour			5.97%
All-for-Ireland			1.19%
Others			0.75%

References

^ All parties shown.
^ "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2023.

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