1951 General Election

25 October 1951 · The Postwar Settlement · 625 seats, 313 for a majority

Labour polled its highest vote share ever, and more votes than the Conservatives, yet lost: FPTP's most famous inversion. Churchill returned to Downing Street at 76.

Prime Minister before

Clement Attlee

Labour

Prime Minister after

Winston Churchill

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 16

Turnout

82.6%

electorate 34,919,398

The result

Conservative
Winston Churchill · 48.0%
321
seats
Labour
Clement Attlee · 48.8%
295
seats
Liberal
Clement Davies · 2.5%
6
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

82.7%

Wales

84.4%

Scotland

81.2%

N. Ireland

79.9%

United Kingdom

82.6%

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. 4 seats were returned unopposed, with no poll held.

Highest turnout

93.4%

Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

57.5%

Inverness Shire & Ross & Cromarty Ross & Cromarty, Scotland

Biggest single-party share

86.9%

Labour, Monmouthshire Abertillery

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Preston South, North West

London
Conservative 47.1% · most votes in 48Liberal / Lib Dem 1.9%Labour 50.5% · most votes in 51Other 0.5%
99
seats · turnout 81.3%
North West
Conservative 50.6% · most votes in 43Liberal / Lib Dem 2.2% · most votes in 1Labour 46.6% · most votes in 39Other 0.7% · most votes in 1
84
seats · turnout 83.0%
Scotland
Conservative 39.9% · most votes in 29Liberal / Lib Dem 2.7% · most votes in 1Labour 46.2% · most votes in 33SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.3%Other 10.9% · most votes in 8
71
seats · turnout 81.4%
South East
Conservative 57.2% · most votes in 55Liberal / Lib Dem 1.5%Labour 39.5% · most votes in 8Other 1.8%
63
seats · turnout 81.2%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 30.6% · most votes in 17Liberal / Lib Dem 3.5% · most votes in 1Labour 53.1% · most votes in 35Other 12.8% · most votes in 4
57
seats · turnout 83.6%
West Midlands
Conservative 43.0% · most votes in 18Liberal / Lib Dem 0.7%Labour 51.9% · most votes in 32Other 4.4% · most votes in 2
52
seats · turnout 82.2%
South West
Conservative 46.2% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 6.0%Labour 42.1% · most votes in 10Other 5.7% · most votes in 2
43
seats · turnout 83.5%
East Midlands
Conservative 41.8% · most votes in 14Liberal / Lib Dem 2.3%Labour 53.2% · most votes in 25Other 2.7% · most votes in 1
40
seats · turnout 84.6%
East of England
Conservative 42.7% · most votes in 24Liberal / Lib Dem 2.1%Labour 45.4% · most votes in 7Other 9.7% · most votes in 6
37
seats · turnout 83.0%
Wales
Conservative 27.6% · most votes in 5Liberal / Lib Dem 7.6% · most votes in 3Labour 56.8% · most votes in 25SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.7%Other 7.3% · most votes in 3
36
seats · turnout 84.4%
North East
Conservative 36.1% · most votes in 5Liberal / Lib Dem 0.7%Labour 56.8% · most votes in 24Other 6.3% · most votes in 2
31
seats · turnout 85.0%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 59.3% · most votes in 9Labour 13.4%Other 27.3% · most votes in 3
12
seats · turnout 80.0%
625 of 625 constituencies
Aberdare
Labour
78.5%
Aberdeen North
Labour
64.7%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
58.7%
Aberdeenshire East
Conservative
68.1%
Aberdeenshire West
Conservative
55.2%
Accrington
Labour
52.3%
Acton
Labour
52.2%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
66.1%
Anglesey
Labour
40.2%
Angus & Kincardinshire North Angus & Mearns
Other
64.1%
Angus & Kincardinshire South Angus
Other
70.9%
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.