United Kingdom general election, 1885

24 November–18 December 1885

All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	William Ewart Gladstone	Lord Salisbury	Charles Stewart Parnell
Party	Liberal	Conservative	Irish Parliamentary
Leader since	April 1880	April 1881	17 October 1882
Leader's seat	Midlothian	Marquess of Salisbury	Cork City
Last election	352 seats, 54.7%	237 seats, 42.5%	63 seats, 2.8%
Seats won	319	247	86
Seat change	33	10	23
Popular vote	2,199,198	2,020,927	310,608
Percentage	47.4%	43.5%	6.9%
Swing	7.3%	1.0%	4.1%

PM before election

Lord Salisbury
Conservative

Subsequent PM

William Ewart Gladstone
Liberal

1874 election • MPs
1880 election • MPs
1885 election • MPs
1886 election • MPs
1892 election • MPs

The 1885 United Kingdom general election was from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise and redistribution of seats. For the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies returned a single-member to Parliament. It saw the Liberals, led by William Ewart Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority. As the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power between them and the Conservatives, this exacerbated divisions within the Liberals over Irish Home Rule and led to a split and another general election the following year.

Results

UK General Election 1885
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	№	Net %
	Liberal	575	319			- 33		47.4	2,199,198	- 7.3
	Conservative	597	247			+ 10		43.5	2,020,927	+ 1.0
	Irish Parliamentary	91	86			+ 23		6.9	310,608	+ 4.1
	Independent Liberal	35	11	11	0	+ 11		1.3	55,652	N/A
	Independent Liberal and Crofters Party	6	4	4	0	+ 4		0.4	16,551	N/A
	Independent Conservative	8	2	2	0	+ 2		0.3	12,599	N/A
	Lib-Lab	4	1	1	0	+ 1		0.2	8,232	N/A
	Independent	6	0	0	0	0		0.1	6,570	N/A
	Independent Nationalist	2	0	0	0	0		0.1	2,889	N/A
	Scottish Land Restoration	5	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,359	N/A
	Irish Loyalist	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,869	N/A
	Social Democratic Federation	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	657	N/A

Total votes cast: 4,638,235. All parties shown.

Voting summary

Popular vote

Liberal			47.41%
Conservative			43.57%
Irish Parliamentary			6.7%
Independent			2.03%
Others			0.29%

Regional Results

Great Britain

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	558	14	319	2,169,976	51.8
	Conservative	532	8	233	1,909,424	45.6
	Other	60	0	16	103,880	2.5
	Irish Parliamentary Party	2	0	1	3,489	0.1
Total		1,152	22	569	4,186,769	100

England

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	452	4	238	1,809,665	51.4
	Conservative	440	1	213	1,675,757	47.5
	Other	26	0	4	40,990	1.0
	Irish Parliamentary Party	2	0	1	3,489	0.1
Total		658	177	464	491,540	100

Scotland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	70	5	51	238,627	53.3
	Conservative	55	0	8	151,137	34.3
	Other	32	0	11	57,124	12.4
Total		157	5	70	446,888	100

Wales

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Liberal	34	4	29	119,231	58.3
	Conservative	29	0	4	79,690	38.9
	Lib-Lab	1	0	1	3,859	1.9
	Other	1	0	0	1,907	0.9
Total		65	4	34	204,687	100

Ireland

Main article: United Kingdom general election, 1885 (Ireland)

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% Change
	Irish Parliamentary Party	92	19	85	24	307,119	67.8	30.3
	Conservative	70	2	16	7	111,503	24.8	15
	Liberal	14	0	0	15	30,022	6.8	15.9
	Other	10	0	0		2,822
Total		186	21	101		451,466	100

Universities

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Conservative	8	7	8	2,840	53.7
	Liberal	2	1	1	2,453	46.3
Total		10	8	9	5,293	100

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			47.61%
Conservative			36.87%
Irish Parliamentary			12.84%
Lib-Lab			0.15%
Independent			2.54%

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom

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