1880 United Kingdom general election

1880 United Kingdom general election

31 March – 27 April 1880 (1880-03-31 – 1880-04-27)
All 652 seats in the House of Commons 327 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   150x150px 150x150px Leader Marquess of Hartington Earl of Beaconsfield William Shaw Party Liberal Conservative Home Rule Leader since January 1875 27 February 1868 May 1879 Leader's seat North East Lancashire House of Lords County Cork Last election 242 seats, 52.0% 350 seats, 44.3% 60 seats, 3.7% Seats won 352 237 63 Seat change 110 113 3 Popular vote 1,836,423 1,426,351 95,535 Percentage 54.7% 42.5% 2.8% Swing 2.7% 1.8% 0.9%
380px Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election Earl of Beaconsfield Conservative Appointed Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone Liberal

The 1880 United Kingdom general election was a general election in the United Kingdom held from 31 March to 27 April 1880.

The intense rhetoric of the election was provided by the Midlothian campaign of the Liberals, led by the fierce oratory of Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone vehemently attacked the foreign policy of the government of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, as utterly immoral.

The Liberals secured one of their largest-ever majorities in the election, leaving the Conservatives a distant second. As a result of the campaign, the Liberal leaders, Lord Hartington and Lord Granville, withdrew in favour of Gladstone, who thus became Prime Minister a second time. It was the last election when the Liberals, or any party other than the Conservatives would win a majority of the votes cast in a general election.

Results summary

↓ 

352	237	63
Liberal	Conservative	Home Rule

UK General Election 1880
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	499	352			+110	53.99	54.66	1,836,423	+2.7
	Conservative	521	237			−113	36.35	42.46	1,426,351	−1.8
	Home Rule	81	63			+3	9.66	2.84	95,535	−0.9
	Independent	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.03	1,107	0

Total votes cast: 3,359,416.

Voting summary

Popular vote
Liberal			54.66%
Conservative			42.46%
Home Rule			2.84%
Others			0.03%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Liberal			53.99%
Conservative			36.35%
Home Rule			9.66%

Issues

The Conservative government was doomed by the poor condition of the British economy and the vulnerability of its foreign policy to moralistic attacks by the Liberals. Gladstone, appealing to moralistic evangelicals, led the attack on the foreign policy of Disraeli (now known as Lord Beaconsfield) as immoral. Historian Paul Smith paraphrases the rhetorical tone which focused on attacking "Beaconsfieldism" (in Smith's words) as a:

Sinister system of policy, which not merely involved the country in immoral, vainglorious and expensive external adventures, inimical to peace and to the rights of small peoples, but aimed at nothing less than the subversion of parliamentary government in favour of some simulacrum of the oriental despotism its creator was alleged to admire.

Smith notes that there was indeed some substance to the allegations, but: "Most of this was partisan extravaganza, worthy of its target's own excursions against the Whigs."

Crowds wait outside Leeds Town Hall to hear the result

Disraeli himself was now the Earl of Beaconsfield in the House of Lords, and custom did not allow peers to campaign. His party was unable to deal effectively with the rhetorical onslaught. Although he had improved the organisation of the Conservative Party, Disraeli was firmly based in the rural gentry, and had little contact with or understanding of the urban middle class that was increasingly dominating his party.

Besides their trouble with foreign policy issues, it was even more important that the Conservatives were unable to effectively defend their economic record on the home front. The 1870s coincided with a long-term global depression caused by the collapse of the worldwide railway boom of the 1870s which previously had been so profitable to Britain. The stress was growing by the late 1870s; prices fell, profits fell, employment fell, and there was downward pressure on wage rates that caused much hardship among the industrial working class. The free trade system supported by both parties made Britain defenceless against the flood of cheap wheat from North America, which was exacerbated by the worst harvest of the century in Britain in 1879. The party in power got the blame, and Liberals repeatedly emphasised the growing budget deficit as a measure of bad stewardship. In the election itself, Disraeli's party lost heavily up and down the line, especially in Scotland and Ireland, and in the urban boroughs. His Conservative strength fell from 351 to 238, while the Liberals jumped from 250 to 353. Disraeli resigned on 21 April 1880.

Regional results

Great Britain

Largest party in each constituent country

Largest party in each constituent country

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	334	104	1,780,171	57.3	1.9
	Lib-Lab	3	1
	Conservative	214	105	1,326,744	42.7	1.9
	Other	0		1,107	0.04	0.04
Total		551		3,108,022	100

England

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	251	82	1,519,576	56.2	2.4
	Lib-Lab	3	1
	Conservative	197	83	1,205,990	43.7	2.5
	Other	0		1,107	0.1	0.1
Total		451		2,726,673	100

Scotland

Main article: United Kingdom general election, 1880 (Scotland)

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	52	12	195,517	70.1	1.7
	Conservative	6	12	74,145	29.9	1.7
Total		58		269,662	100

Wales

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	29	10	50,403	58.8	2.1
	Conservative	4	10	41,106	41.2	2.1
Total		33		100,509	100

Ireland

Main article: United Kingdom general election, 1880 (Ireland)

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Home Rule	63	3	95,535	37.5	2.1%
	Irish Conservative	24	8	99,607	39.8	1.0%
	Liberal	15	5	56,252	22.7	4.3%
Total		101		251,394	100

Universities

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	7		5,503	49.2
	Liberal	2		5,675	50.8
Total		9		11,178	100

External links

• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results