Election See Note 1	Date See note 2	Prime Minister(s) (during term)	Winning Party	Majority See note 3	Notes
1802	22 July 1802	Henry Addington William Pitt the Younger The Lord Grenville	Tory Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig) Whig	...
1806	17 November 1806	The Lord Grenville The Duke of Portland	Whig Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig)	...
1807	22 June 1807	The Duke of Portland Spencer Perceval The Earl of Liverpool	Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig) Tory Tory	...
1812	24 November 1812	The Earl of Liverpool	Tory	...
1818	4 August 1818	The Earl of Liverpool	Tory	...
1820	16 January 1821	The Earl of Liverpool	Tory	...
1826	19 June 1826	The Earl of Liverpool George Canning The Viscount Goderich The Duke of Wellington	Tory Tory Tory Tory	...
1830	9 August 1830	The Duke of Wellington The Earl Grey	Tory Whig	...
1831	25 July 1831	The Earl Grey	Whig	136
At this point, the Reform Act 1832 gave suffrage to propertied male adults and disenfranchised almost all of the rotten boroughs.
1832	29 January 1833	The Earl Grey The Viscount Melbourne The Duke of Wellington Conservative Conservative	225 (L) -308 (C)	See note 4 below
1835	19 February 1835	Sir Robert Peel The Viscount Melbourne	Conservative Whig	-113 (C) 113 (L)
1837	15 November 1837	The Viscount Melbourne	Whig	29
1841	19 August 1841	Sir Robert Peel	Conservative	77
1847	9 August 1847	Lord John Russell	Whig	-72
1852	4 November 1852	The Earl of Derby The Earl of Aberdeen	Conservative Peelite	7
1857	30 April 1857	The Viscount Palmerston	Liberal	100
1859	31 May 1859	The Viscount Palmerston	Liberal	59
1865	11 July 1865	The Earl Russell The Earl of Derby Benjamin Disraeli	Liberal Conservative Conservative	81
At this point, the Reform Act 1867 significantly widened the suffrage and disenfranchised more smaller boroughs.
1868	10 December 1868	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal	115
1874	5 March 1874	Benjamin Disraeli	Conservative	49
1880	29 April 1880	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal	51
At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1884 extended the borough franchise of 1867 to the counties, increasing the electorate to about 5,500,000 men.
1885	12 January 1886	The Marquess of Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone	Conservative Liberal	-172
1886	5 August 1886	The Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative	116
1892	4 August 1892	William Ewart Gladstone The Earl of Rosebery	Liberal	-126
1895	12 August 1895	The Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative	153
1900	3 December 1900	The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour	Conservative	135	The "khaki" election.
1906	13 February 1906	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman H. H. Asquith	Liberal	129
January 1910	15 February 1910	H. H. Asquith	Liberal	-122
December 1910	31 January 1911	H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George	Liberal	-126
At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave suffrage to most of the adult population (men over 21, women over 30).
1918	14 December 1918	David Lloyd George	Liberal (Coalition Government)	238	The "coupon" election
1922	15 November 1922	Andrew Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin	Conservative	74
1923	6 December 1923	Ramsay MacDonald	Labour	-98
1924	29 October 1924	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative	210
At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1928 gave to the adult population over 21.
1929	30 May 1929	Ramsay MacDonald	Labour	-42	The "flapper" election
1931	27 October 1931	Ramsay MacDonald	National LabourNational Government)	492
1935	14 November 1935	Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill Winston Churchill	Conservative (National Government) Conservative (National Government) Conservative (Wartime Coalition) Conservative (National Government)	242 242 609 242
1945	5 July 1945	Clement Attlee	Labour	146
At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1948 abolished plural voting and the few remaining two member constituencies.
1950	23 February 1950	Clement Attlee	Labour	5
1951	25 October 1951	Sir Winston Churchill Sir Anthony Eden	Conservative	17
1955	26 May 1955	Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan	Conservative	60
1959	8 October 1959	Harold Macmillan Sir Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative	100
1964	15 October 1964	Harold Wilson	Labour	4
1966	31 March 1966	Harold Wilson	Labour	98
At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1969 gave suffrage to the adult population over 18.
1970	18 June 1970	Edward Heath	Conservative	30
February 1974	28 February 1974	Harold Wilson	Labour (minority government)	-33	Hung Parliament
October 1974)	10 October 1974	Harold Wilson James Callaghan 5 April 1976	Labour	3
1979	3 May 1979	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	43
1983	9 June 1983	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative	144
1987	11 June 1987	Margaret Thatcher John Major 28th November 1990	Conservative	102
1992	9 April 1992	John Major	Conservative	21
1997	1 May 1997	Tony Blair	Labour	179
2001	7 June 2001	Tony Blair	Labour	167
2005	5 May 2005	Tony Blair Gordon Brown 27 June 2007	Labour	66
2010	6 May 2010	David Cameron	Conservative (formed coalition with Liberal Democrats)	78 combined coalition	Hung Parliament
At this point, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was passed. Elections are now every 5 years, barring parliamentary vote. Before this, the election could be called at any point the Prime Minister wished.
2015	7 May 2015	David Cameron Theresa May 13th July 2016	Conservative	12	650 seats in Commons

Notes

Note 1 (for column 1)
Before 1918, general elections did not occur on a single day and polling was spread over several weeks.

Note2 (for column 2)
The date given in the table for elections prior to 1918 is the date Parliament assembled after the election, which could be in the year after the general election.

Note 3 (for column 4)
The majority figure given is for the difference between the number of MPs elected at the general election from the party (or parties) of the government, as opposed to all other parties (some of which may have been giving some support to the government, but were not participating in a coalition). The Speaker is excluded from the calculation.
No attempt is made to define a majority before 1832. Before that date the Tory party had an entrenched dominance until the Reform Act of 1832 disenfranchised the rotten boroughs.

Note 4 (for column 5)
A negative majority means that there was a hung parliament, (or minority parliament) following that election. For example, in the 1929 election, Labour was 42 seats short of forming a majority, and so its majority is listed as -42. In the case of the 2010 election, the combined majority for the coalition was 78.

Source: Wikipedia General Elections

Prepared for the St Edmundsbury
History Project by David Addy
July 27th, 2011