1950 General Election

23 February 1950 · The Postwar Settlement · 625 seats, 313 for a majority

Attlee's majority collapsed to five on a record-high turnout of nearly 84%. The exhausted government limped on for eighteen months.

Prime Minister before

Clement Attlee

Labour

Prime Minister (continued)

Clement Attlee

Labour

Government formed

Labour

majority of 6

Turnout

83.9%

electorate 34,476,132

The result

Labour
Clement Attlee · 46.1%
315
seats
Conservative
Winston Churchill · 43.4%
298
seats
Liberal
Clement Davies · 9.1%
9
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

84.4%

Wales

84.8%

Scotland

80.9%

N. Ireland

77.4%

United Kingdom

83.9%

The result by constituency

All 625 constituencies on the 1950-1951 boundaries, from the House of Commons Library dataset. Search, filter by country or region, and click any column heading to sort. 2 seats were returned unopposed, with no poll held.

Highest turnout

92.1%

Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

55.7%

Inverness Shire & Ross & Cromarty Western Isles, Scotland

Biggest single-party share

87.1%

Labour, Monmouthshire Abertillery

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Middlesex Spelthorne, South East

London
Conservative 43.4% · most votes in 47Liberal / Lib Dem 8.6%Labour 46.9% · most votes in 52Other 1.0%
99
seats · turnout 82.7%
North West
Conservative 45.4% · most votes in 39Liberal / Lib Dem 8.9%Labour 44.8% · most votes in 45Other 0.8%
84
seats · turnout 85.4%
Scotland
Conservative 37.3% · most votes in 26Liberal / Lib Dem 6.6% · most votes in 2Labour 46.3% · most votes in 37Other 9.7% · most votes in 6
71
seats · turnout 80.6%
South East
Conservative 51.6% · most votes in 52Liberal / Lib Dem 9.9%Labour 36.7% · most votes in 11Other 1.8%
63
seats · turnout 83.4%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 28.2% · most votes in 16Liberal / Lib Dem 8.9% · most votes in 1Labour 52.2% · most votes in 37Other 10.7% · most votes in 3
57
seats · turnout 85.7%
West Midlands
Conservative 41.0% · most votes in 20Liberal / Lib Dem 5.8%Labour 51.0% · most votes in 32Other 2.2%
52
seats · turnout 83.8%
South West
Conservative 40.0% · most votes in 30Liberal / Lib Dem 15.7%Labour 38.3% · most votes in 11Other 5.9% · most votes in 2
43
seats · turnout 85.0%
East Midlands
Conservative 35.5% · most votes in 14Liberal / Lib Dem 10.0%Labour 50.3% · most votes in 25Other 4.2% · most votes in 1
40
seats · turnout 86.3%
East of England
Conservative 38.9% · most votes in 21Liberal / Lib Dem 12.1% · most votes in 1Labour 41.5% · most votes in 11Other 7.5% · most votes in 4
37
seats · turnout 84.5%
Wales
Conservative 21.0% · most votes in 3Liberal / Lib Dem 12.6% · most votes in 5Labour 58.1% · most votes in 27Other 8.3% · most votes in 1
36
seats · turnout 84.8%
North East
Conservative 33.6% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 6.8%Labour 57.1% · most votes in 26Other 2.5% · most votes in 1
31
seats · turnout 84.9%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 62.8% · most votes in 10Labour 12.1%Other 25.2% · most votes in 2
12
seats · turnout 77.4%
625 of 625 constituencies
Aberdare
Labour
75.9%
Aberdeen North
Labour
60.5%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
53.7%
Aberdeenshire East
Conservative
66.0%
Aberdeenshire West
Conservative
55.5%
Accrington
Labour
48.8%
Acton
Labour
49.1%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
57.4%
Anglesey
Liberal / Lib Dem
46.6%
Angus & Kincardinshire North Angus & Mearns
Other
51.6%
Angus & Kincardinshire South Angus
Other
53.9%
Antrim North
Conservative · unopposed
—

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.