United Kingdom general election, 1874

31 January–17 February 1874

All 652 seats to the House of Commons 327 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Benjamin Disraeli	William Ewart Gladstone	Isaac Butt
Party	Conservative	Liberal	Home Rule
Leader since	27 February 1868	3 December 1868	November 1873
Leader's seat	Buckinghamshire	Greenwich	Limerick
Last election	271 seats, 38.4%	387 seats, 61.5%	N/A
Seats won	350	242	60
Seat change	79	145	N/A
Popular vote	1,091,708	1,281,159	90,234
Percentage	44.3%	52.0%	3.7%
Swing	5.9%	9.5%	N/A

PM before election

William Ewart Gladstone
Liberal

Subsequent PM

Benjamin Disraeli
Conservative

1865 election • MPs
1868 election • MPs
1874 election • MPs
1880 election • MPs
1885 election • MPs

The 1874 United Kingdom general election saw the Liberals, led by William Ewart Gladstone, win a majority of the votes cast, but Benjamin Disraeli's Conservatives won the majority of seats in the House of Commons, largely because they won a number of uncontested seats. It was the first Conservative victory in a General Election since 1841.

The election also saw Irish nationalists in the Home Rule League become the first significant third party in Parliament. This had been the first General Election that used a secret ballot following the 1872 Secret Ballot Act. The Irish Nationalist gains could well be attributed to the effects of the secret ballot as tenants faced less of a threat of eviction if they voted against the wishes of their landlords.

This is the only time since the introduction of the secret ballot that a party has been defeated despite receiving an absolute majority of the popular vote. However, this is primarily due to the fact that over 100 Conservative candidates were elected unopposed. This meant that there was no contest in many constituencies where the Conservatives were popular.

1 Results
2 References

Results

UK General Election 1874
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	489	242			− 139	37.1	52.0	1,281,159	− 9.5
	Conservative	507	350			+ 79	53.7	44.3	1,091,708	+ 5.9
	Home Rule	80	60	0	0	+ 60	9.2	3.7	90,234	N/A
	Others	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,936	0.0

Total votes cast: 2,466,037. "Others" include the Catholic Union.

Voting summary

Popular vote

Liberal			51.95%
Conservative			44.27%
Home Rule			3.66%
Others			0.12%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			37.12%
Conservative			53.68%
Home Rule			9.2%

Regional Results

Great Britain

Party		Seats	Votes	%
	Conservative	319	1,000,006	44.6
	Liberal	232	1,241,381	55.4
	Others	0	2	0.0
Total		551	2,241,389	100

England

Party		Seats	Votes	%
	Conservative	280	905,239	46.2
	Liberal	171	1,035,268	53.8
	Others	0	2	0.0
Total		451	1,940,509	100

Scotland

Party		Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	40	148,345	68.4
	Conservative	18	63,193	31.6
Total		58	211,538	100

Wales

Party		Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	19	57,768	60.9
	Conservative	14	31,574	39.1
Total		33	89,342	100

Ireland

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% Change
	Home Rule	60	New	90,234	39.6	New
	Irish Conservative	31	6	91,702	40.8	1.1%
	Liberal	10	56	39,778	18.4	39.5%
	Other	0		2,934	1.2
Total		101	2	224,648	100

Universities

Party		Seats	%
	Conservative	7
	Liberal	2
Total		9	100

All University candidates were elected unopposed.

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000
Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom

General elections	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015

Local elections	1949 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014

Referendums	1975 2011

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United Kingdom general election, 1874