On Thursday 5 July 1945, the 1945 United Kingdom general election was held in England, to elect all 640 members of the House of Commons, with 517 seats being in England. 510 seats represented territorial constituencies contested under the first past the post electoral system, and seven additional seats represented the university constituencies. Three university constituencies returned two members through the single transferable vote electoral system and one returned one member by the first past the post system. The number of county and borough constituencies was increased by 25 seats to 510 seats from the 485 seats used between the 1918 and 1935 general elections.
This was the final election in which the university constituencies elected seats to the House of Commons, due to them being abolished for the 1950 general election by the Representation of the People Act 1948.
Held less than two months following VE Day, this was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended by Parliament during the Second World War. Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, refused Winston Churchill's offer of continuing the wartime coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan. On 15 June 1945, King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for nearly ten years without an election. Counting for the election was not completed until 26 July (three weeks after polling day) to enable those stationed overseas to vote.
As it was the first general election held since the conclusion of the Second World War and nearly 10 years since the 1935 general election, it was the first of three elections during the reign of King George VI.
Candidates
Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1945 general election in England, excluding those in the university constituencies.
Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 494Conservative Party 461Liberal Party 265Liberal National Party 38Independent 22Common Wealth Party 21Communist Party of Great Britain 15National Independent 9National 8Democratic Party 5Independent Progressive 5Independent National 4Independent Labour 4Independent Conservative 3Independent Labour Party 2Agriculturalist 2Liverpool Protestant Party 1Socialist Party of Great Britain 1Independent Liberal 1Christian Pacifist 1Medical 1Total 1,363
Outcome
Major parties
The election led to the first majority victory of the Labour Party in the House of Commons and England. It was also the first time that the Labour Party won the popular vote in any general election in England as well as the nation. Conversely, it was the first election since 1906 that the Conservative Party did not win the largest share of votes in the nation as well as England. For the rest of the twentieth century, the Labour Party would only win a majority of seats in England in the 1966 and 1997 elections. The 331 seat tally of the Labour Party under Clement Atlee remained the highest number of seats it ever won in England until the 2024 general election under Sir Keir Starmer. The vote share of the Labour Party in England has only been exceeded once, being the vote Labour received in the 1951.
The Labour party gained 217 seats in England at the election, including the majority of the 25 new seats created in England, with the Conservatives taking the remainder. The Labour seat gains came primarily from the Conservative Party. Notably, future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan lost his Stockton-on-Tees constituency to Labour, however would return to Parliament in the 1945 Bromley by-election. Labour also gained the single-member seats of Luton, Plymouth, Devonport, Gateshead, Hinckley and Bosworth, Southwark North, Great Yarmouth, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Walsall, Huddersfield and Spen Valley from the National Liberal Party. Labour also won one seat from the Liberal Nationals in the two-member seats of Sunderland, Southampton, Oldham and Norwich. Overall, the Liberal Nationals lost 15 seats in England, the bulk of its 22 losses across the United Kingdom. Notably, incumbent Leslie Hore-Belisha, though elected as a Liberal National, resigned from the party in 1942 and unsuccessfully stood as a National Independent in Plymouth, Devonport. The Liberal National Party did not contest the seat at this election. Hore-Belisha, while only facing Labour in the race, lost the seat to future Labour Leader of the Opposition Michael Foot.
Additionally, Labour gained Ormskirk, Leicester West, Nottingham South, Lichfield and Leeds Central from National Labour. It also gained one of the two seats in Derby (the other of which was a Labour retain from 1935) from National Labour by way of a retention of the seat from the 1936 Derby by-election when compared to the last election. National Labour had been dissolved in June 1945 and therefore did not contest any of these seats; however, four of the five remaining incumbents of the group re-contested seats in the election in England under different candidate labels but were all defeated. Additionally, Sebastian Earl, who also a member of the former National Labour Organisation although not an incumbent in his Labour-held seat, ran and lost in Wednesbury against Labour. One National Labour incumbent, Stephen King-Hall, though standing as a National Independent rather than a National candidate, lost his seat of Ormskirk to future Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Other prominent Labour Party figures that entered Parliament included Barbara Castle in Blackburn, and future Chancellor of the Exchequer under Atlee and subsequent Leader of the Opposition Hugh Gaitskell in Leeds South.
Much like in the rest of the United Kingdom in the election, the Liberal Party lost more than half of its seats in England despite increasing its vote share. The party lost its urban seats of Birkenhead East, Bristol North, Bethnal Green South West, Wolverhampton East, Middlesbrough West and Bradford South to the Labour Party, as well as losing the more rural seats of Isle of Ely, Barnstaple and Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Conservative Party. Conversely, however, the party gained North Dorset and Buckrose from the Conservative Party. It also gained Eye from the National Liberal Party wherein the incumbent Member of Parliament Edgar Granville switched parties to the Liberals, winning the seat from his former party. Overall, the party lost six seats in total in England.
Minor parties
Outside the major parties to the election, several other parties and candidates gained seats. The short-lived minor Common Wealth Party candidate Vernon Bartlett retained Bridgwater, which he had won in the 1938 Bridgwater by-election. Barlett's retention of the seat represented a gain from the Conservative Party when compared with the previous election. The Independent Progressive group's candidate Ernest Millington gained Chelmsford from the Conservatives for the Progressives, however later crossed to the Labour Party in 1946.
The Independent Labour candidate Denis Pritt, future chairman of the short-lived Labour Independent Group, gained Hammersmith North from the Labour Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain also gained Mile End from the Labour Party. These were the only two seat losses for the Labour Party in England. The only one other seat loss for the Labour party across the United Kingdom in this election occurred in Wales.
National candidates and independents
Independent candidates in the borough and county constituencies won Grantham and Rugby. Denis Kendall, the Managing Director of BMARC, gained the seat of Grantham at the 1942 Grantham by-election. William Brown won the seat of Rugby at the 1942 Rugby by-election. Both retentions of these seats by the incumbent independent were gains from the Conservative Party compared to the last election.
Furthermore, aside the four former English National Labour incumbents that re-contested their seats, a fifth total former member nationally re-contested. Kenneth Lindsay who had represented Kilmarnock as part of the National Labour Party in Scotland, stood and won as an independent candidate instead in the Combined English Universities constituency, winning one of the two available seats. His win, however, was a gain from the Conservative Party which did not stand a candidate compared to the previous election. Independent candidate Wilson Harris also won a seat in the Cambridge University in effect from the Conservatives party. Arthur Salter, who won as an independent against the Conservatives in the Oxford University at the 1937 Oxford University by-election, retained the seat, representing a gain from the Conservatives compared to the last election. Eleanor Rathbone, although part of the Independent Progressive group, retained her seat in the Combined English Universities constituency as an independent. Rathbone would, however, die in 1946, causing the 1946 Combined English Universities by-election. This was the last university constituency election in England. Finally, A. P. Herbert retained his Oxford University seat. Overall, independent candidates gained five seats from the Conservatives, totalling seven in English constituencies.
National candidate and Minister Andrew Duncan, who had won one of the two seats in City of London at the 1940 City of London by-election, retained his seat as a National and therefore represented a gain from the Conservatives. Together with John Anderson in Scotland, he and Anderson represented the two National gains across the United Kingdom.
Among the National Independent candidates (candidates who supported the National Government but who were not a part of the Government itself or its constituent parties), the number of seats remained at two both in England and nationally. Member of Parliament Daniel Lipson retained his seat in Cheltenham which he had won in the 1937 Cheltenham by-election, representing a gain from the Conservatives. National Independent Ernest Graham-Little retained his seat in the London University Constituency from the previous election. However, long-serving National Independent Member of Parliament Austin Hopkinson lost his seat of Mossley to the Labour Party.
Seat summary
Below is a table summarising the total number of seats, gains and losses for each party in both the territorial county and borough constituencies and the English university constituencies.
+PartySeats Total Gains Losses Net Labour 331 217 2 215 Churchill Caretaker Ministry (Total) 168 12 205 193 160 11 184 173 Liberal National 7 0 15 15 1 1 0 1 0 colspan=2 6 Independent 7 5 0 5 Liberal 5 3 9 6 National Independent 2 1 1 Common Wealth 1 colspan="2" 1 Communist 1 1 0 1 Independent Labour 1 1 0 1 Independent Progressive 1 1 0 1 Total 517
County and borough constituency results
Below is a table summarising the constituency results of the 1945 general election in England, excluding the result in the university constituencies. The seat count and vote share comparisons for the Churchill Caretaker Ministry coalition are compared with the National Government coalition which had effectively dissolved in 1940.