United Kingdom general election, 1892

United Kingdom general election, 1892

4–26 July 1892

All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Lord Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone Justin McCarthy Party Conservative and Liberal Unionist Liberal Irish Parliamentary Leader since April 1881 April 1880 6 December 1891 Leader's seat Marquess of Salisbury Midlothian North Longford Last election 393 seats, 51.1% 192 seats, 41.8% 85 seats, 3.4% Seats won 313 272 81 Seat change 80 80 4 Popular vote 2,159,150 2,088,019 309,329 Percentage 47.0% 45.4% 7.0% Swing 4.1% 3.6% 3.7%

PM before election Lord Salisbury Conservative Subsequent PM William Ewart Gladstone Liberal

1885 election • MPs

1886 election • MPs

1892 election • MPs

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1900 election • MPs

The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 July to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats than in the 1886 general election. The Liberal Unionists who had previously supported the Conservative government saw their vote and seat numbers go down. Despite being split between Parnellite and anti-Parnellite factions, the Irish Nationalist vote held up well. As the Liberals did not have a majority on their own, Salisbury refused to resign on hearing the election results and waited to be defeated in a vote of no confidence on 11 August. Gladstone formed a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support.

Results

UK General Election 1892
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	606	313 (268 + 45)			- 80	46.71	47.0	2,159,150	-4.1
	Liberal	535	272			+ 80	40.59	45.4	2,088,019	+3.6
	Irish Parliamentary	129	81	0	3	- 4	12.08	7.0	309,329	+3.7
	Independent Labour	9	3	3	0	+ 3	0.44	0.5	22,198	N/A
	Independent Conservative	4	0	0	0	0		0.1	7,211	N/A
	Independent Liberal	6	1	1	0	+ 1		0.1	3,572	N/A
	Scottish Trades Councils Labour	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,313	N/A
	Independent Nationalist	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,180	N/A
	Scottish Parliamentary Labour	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,043	N/A
	Social Democratic Federation	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	659	N/A
	Independent	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	139	N/A

The totals above exclude two Irish candidates whose party affiliation was unclear to F. W. S. Craig at the time he compiled his voting figures: Col. J. C. Lowry who gained 897 votes standing for University of Dublin as either an Independent or Official Conservative, and John O'Connor Power who gained 609 votes standing in Mayo West as a Gladstonian Liberal. Craig labelled both candidates: "Others".

Total votes cast: 4,598,319. All parties shown.

Voting summary

Popular vote
Conservative and Liberal Unionist			46.96%
Liberal			45.41%
Irish Parliamentary			6.73%
Independent			0.77%
Others			0.14%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative and Liberal Unionist			46.72%
Liberal			40.6%
Irish Parliamentary			12.1%
Independent Liberal			0.15%
Independent Labour			0.45%

See also

• MPs elected in the UK general election, 1892
• The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918

Sources

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918 (Macmillan, 1974)
• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

External links

For an alternative view of the count where each vote in a two-member seat is counted as half a vote (because each elector had two votes) see:

• United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979