Facts on British Election History
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
* Why are British elections held on a Thursday? This is convention only. The Prime Minister could choose any day. The last time the election was not on a Thursday was Tuesday, October 27, 1931.
* The voting age was reduced to 18 from 21 in 1969.
* When were women given the vote? 1918 for women aged 30 and over; 1928 for women aged 21 and over (the same basis as men).
* The total electorate is 44 million.
* Since 1945, the Conservatives and Labor have each been the largest party on eight occasions.
* Only one election – February 1974 – resulted in the party with most seats failing to get an overall majority when Labor gained 301 out of 635 seats.
* Twice, the party winning the most votes did not win the most seats. In 1951, Labor polled the most votes yet won 26 fewer seats than the Tories. In February 1974, the Tories polled 180,000 more votes than Labor but won four fewer seats.
* The best Tory result since 1945 in terms of seats won was 1983 (397). Labor’s best result was 1997 (418). The worst Tory result in seats won was 1997 (165). Labor’s worst result was 1983 (209).
* The best Liberal Democrat performance was in 2001 when the party won 52 seats with an 18.3% share of the vote. In 1987, the party polled 22.6% of the vote but won only 22 seats.
* In Scotland, the Tories are defending just one seat. Fifty years ago, they had 36.
* In Wales, the Conservatives have not won a single seat in the last two general elections. In 1983, they had 14.
* The highest turnout since the war was 83.9% in 1950. The lowest was 59.4% in 2001.
* The largest number of women MPs elected was 120 in 1997. This fell to 118 in 2001. The first woman elected to parliament was Countess Constance Makievicz in 1918 for Sinn Fein. She did not take her seat. The first woman elected who did take her seat was Nancy Astor in a by-election in 1919.
* The first ethnic minority member to be elected was Mancherjee Bhowanggree for the Conservatives in Bethnal Green in London in 1895.
* The highest number of mail-in ballot papers issued was in 2001 with 1.3 million.
* After the 2001 election, the most common previous occupations for MPs were teachers (117), company executives, or corporate directors (77).
* 64% of Tories elected in 2001 went to private school compared with 17% Labor and 35% Liberal Democrat. Nearly half the Tory MPs went to Oxbridge, compared with 16% Labour and 27% Liberal Democrat.
* The median age of an MP in 2001 was 50 for Labor, 48 for Conservatives, and 47 for Liberal Democrats.
