1931 General Election

27 October 1931 · Labour's Rise · 615 seats, 308 for a majority

MacDonald, expelled by his own party for forming a National Government in the financial crisis, led it to the largest landslide in British electoral history: 554 seats and two-thirds of the vote. Labour was reduced to 52.

Prime Minister before

Ramsay MacDonald

Labour

Prime Minister (continued)

Ramsay MacDonald

National

Government formed

National

majority of 492

Turnout

76.4%

The result

Conservative
Stanley Baldwin · 55.0%
470
seats
Labour
Arthur Henderson · 30.6%
52
seats
Liberal National
John Simon · 3.7%
35
seats
Liberal
Herbert Samuel · 6.5%
33
seats
National Labour
Ramsay MacDonald · 1.5%
13
seats
Independent Liberals
David Lloyd George · 0.5%
4
seats

8 further seats went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.

Turnout by nation

England

76.1%

Wales

79.3%

Scotland

77.4%

N. Ireland

74.5%

United Kingdom

76.4%

The government it made

Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald led a 'National Government' into the 1931 election which consisted of the Conservative and Liberal parties along with a few National Labour Members like MacDonald. Conservatives won over three quarters of seats so that the National Government was Conservative dominated.

The result by constituency

All 595 constituencies on the 1918-1935 boundaries, from the House of Commons Library dataset. Search, filter by country or region, and click any column heading to sort. 52 seats were returned unopposed, with no poll held.

Highest turnout

92.2%

Lancashire Darwen, North West

Lowest turnout

36.8%

Inverness Shire & Ross & Cromarty Western Isles, Scotland

Biggest single-party share

88.9%

Conservative, Surrey Eastern

Tightest main-family margin

0.1 pts

Glasgow Springburn, Scotland

London
Conservative 63.5% · most votes in 79Liberal / Lib Dem 3.2% · most votes in 4Labour 29.3% · most votes in 9Other 3.9% · most votes in 5
97
seats · turnout 68.0%
North West
Conservative 59.2% · most votes in 69Liberal / Lib Dem 7.0% · most votes in 2Labour 30.7% · most votes in 6Other 3.1% · most votes in 4
81
seats · turnout 81.3%
Scotland
Conservative 49.4% · most votes in 47Liberal / Lib Dem 8.6% · most votes in 7Labour 25.1% · most votes in 3SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.9%Other 16.1% · most votes in 13
70
seats · turnout 77.4%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 50.4% · most votes in 42Liberal / Lib Dem 4.8% · most votes in 3Labour 37.8% · most votes in 7Other 7.0% · most votes in 4
56
seats · turnout 79.2%
South East
Conservative 74.5% · most votes in 50Liberal / Lib Dem 2.6%Labour 20.3%Other 2.5%
50
seats · turnout 72.3%
West Midlands
Conservative 58.2% · most votes in 42Liberal / Lib Dem 4.9% · most votes in 1Labour 29.5% · most votes in 1Other 7.5% · most votes in 3
47
seats · turnout 77.2%
South West
Conservative 56.3% · most votes in 35Liberal / Lib Dem 16.6% · most votes in 3Labour 20.7% · most votes in 1Other 6.4% · most votes in 3
43
seats · turnout 79.9%
East Midlands
Conservative 49.8% · most votes in 27Liberal / Lib Dem 5.0% · most votes in 1Labour 33.5% · most votes in 3Other 11.7% · most votes in 6
37
seats · turnout 79.5%
Wales
Conservative 22.1% · most votes in 6Liberal / Lib Dem 21.0% · most votes in 8Labour 41.8% · most votes in 15SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.1%Other 14.9% · most votes in 6
35
seats · turnout 79.3%
East of England
Conservative 55.7% · most votes in 25Liberal / Lib Dem 6.0% · most votes in 1Labour 22.9%Other 15.4% · most votes in 6
33
seats · turnout 73.2%
North East
Conservative 40.7% · most votes in 19Liberal / Lib Dem 8.2% · most votes in 4Labour 39.4% · most votes in 2Other 11.7% · most votes in 5
30
seats · turnout 82.3%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 56.0% · most votes in 8Other 44.0% · most votes in 1
9
seats · turnout 74.1%
Show all 13 regions
University
Conservative 18.9% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 7.8% · most votes in 1SNP / Plaid Cymru 3.2%Other 70.0% · most votes in 2
7
seats · turnout 69.8%
595 of 595 constituencies
Aberdeen North
Conservative
64.3%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
83.7%
Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire Central
Conservative
56.4%
Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire Eastern
Conservative
72.2%
Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire Kincardine & Western
Conservative
61.6%
Accrington
Conservative
62.9%
Anglesey
Liberal / Lib Dem
58.3%
Antrim
Conservative
100.0%
Argyll
Conservative · unopposed
—
Armagh
Conservative · unopposed
—
Ashton Under Lyne
Conservative
52.4%
Ayr District Of Burghs
Conservative
73.9%

The dataset groups candidates into five party families: Conservative (including Ulster Unionists before February 1974), the Liberal family (Liberal, SDP–Liberal Alliance, Liberal Democrats), Labour, SNP and Plaid Cymru, and all others combined. “Most votes” marks the family with the largest vote in each constituency, not necessarily the seat's winner: the Other column aggregates many parties, and some constituencies elected two or three members in this period.