United_Kingdom_general_election,_1874 Tutorials

United Kingdom general election, 1874
‹ 1868 · members members · 1880 ›
All 652 seats to the House of Commons
31 January–17 February 1874
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Benjamin Disraeli	William Ewart Gladstone	Isaac Butt
Party	Conservative	Liberal	Home Rule
Leader since	27 February 1868	3 December 1868	November 1873
Leader's seat	Buckinghamshire	Greenwich	Limerick
Last election	271 seats, 38.4%	387 seats, 61.5%	N/A
Seats won	350	242	60
Seat change	+79	-145	N/A
Popular vote	1,091,708	1,281,159	90,234
Percentage	44.3%	52.0%	3.7%
Previous PM William Ewart Gladstone Liberal Subsequent PM Benjamin Disraeli Conservative

1865 election • MPs

1868 election • MPs

1874 election • MPs

1880 election • MPs

1885 election • MPs

In the 1874 United Kingdom general election, the Liberals, led by William Ewart Gladstone, won a majority of the votes cast, but Benjamin Disraeli's Conservatives won the majority of seats in the House of Commons, largely because they won a number of uncontested seats.

The election also saw Irish Nationalists in the Home Rule League become the first significant third party in Parliament.

This was the first General Election that used a secret ballot following the 1872 Secret Ballot Act. The Irish Nationalist gains could well be attributed to the effects of the secret ballot as tenants faced less of a threat of eviction if they voted against the wishes of their landlords.

1 Results
- 1.1 Voting summary
- 1.2 Seats summary
2 References

Results

UK General Election 1874
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	489	242			- 145		52.0	1,281,159	- 9.5
	Conservative	507	350			+ 79		44.3	1,091,708	+ 5.9
	Home Rule	80	60	60	0	+ 60		3.7	90,234	N/A
	Others	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,936	0.0

Total votes cast: 2,466,037. "Others" include the Catholic Union.

Voting summary

Popular vote

Liberal			51.95%
Conservative			44.27%
Home Rule			3.66%
Others			0.12%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			37.12%
Conservative			53.68%
Home Rule			9.2%

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000)
Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

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