1880 United Kingdom general election

1880 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 652 seats in the House of Commons; 327 seats needed for a majority
	Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election; Earl of Beaconsfield; Conservative	Prime Minister after the election ; William Gladstone; Liberal

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

Its intense rhetoric was led by the Midlothian campaign of the Liberals, particularly the fierce oratory of Liberal leader William Gladstone.^[2] He vehemently attacked the foreign policy of the government of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, as utterly immoral.

Liberals secured one of their largest-ever majorities, leaving the Conservatives a distant second. As a result of the campaign, the Liberal Commons leader, Spencer Cavendish and that in the Lords, Lord Granville, stood back in favour of Gladstone, who thus became Prime Minister a second time. It was the last general election in which any party other than the Conservatives won a majority of the votes (rather than a plurality).

Results

UK General Election 1880

Party		Candidates						Votes
Party		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	499	352	+132	-22	+110	53.99	54.66	1,836,423	+2.7
	Conservative	521	237	+20	-133	−113	36.35	42.46	1,426,351	−1.8
	Home Rule	81	63	+6	-3	+3	9.66	2.84	95,535	−0.9
	Independent	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.03	1,107	0

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. William Gladstone, appealing to moralistic evangelicals, led the attack on the foreign policy of Benjamin Disraeli (now known as Lord Beaconsfield) as immoral.^[3] 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.^[4]

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."^[5]

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.^[6]

Regional results

Great Britain

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	1,780,171	57.3	1.9
	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	1,519,576	56.2	2.4
	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

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

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Home Rule	63	3	95,535	37.5	2.1%
	Irish Conservative	23	8	99,607	39.8	1.0%
	Liberal	15	5	56,252	22.7	4.3%
Total		101		251,394	100

Universities

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

References

^ "Data" (PDF), parliament.uk
^ Fitzsimons 1960, pp. 187–201.
^ Matthew 1997, pp. 293–312.
^ Smith 1996, pp. 198–99.
^ Smith 1996, p. 199.
^ Smith 1996, pp. 202–3; Blake 1967, pp. 707–13, 717.

Sources and further reading

Blake, Robert (1967), Disraeli, EA London, ISBN 978-1-84413-312-3
Chilston, Viscount. "The 1880 Election: A Historical Landmark." Parliamentary Affairs 14 (June 1961): 477-492.
Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
Fitzsimons, M. A. (1960), "Midlothian: the Triumph and Frustration of the British Liberal Party", Review of Politics, 22 (2): 187–201, doi:10.1017/S0034670500008202, JSTOR 1405317
Lloyd, T.O. "The General Election of 1880 (Oxford UP, 1967)
Matthew, H. C. G. (1997), Gladstone: 1809–1898, Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-820696-8
Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael, eds. (2000), British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England.' Cultural & Social History (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.
Smith, Paul (1996), Disraeli: A Brief Life, Cambridge UP, ISBN 9780521381505

External links

Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

[1] "Data" (PDF), parliament.uk

[FOOTNOTEFitzsimons1960187–201-2] Fitzsimons 1960, pp. 187–201.

[FOOTNOTEMatthew1997293–312-3] Matthew 1997, pp. 293–312.

[FOOTNOTESmith1996198–99-4] Smith 1996, pp. 198–99.

[FOOTNOTESmith1996199-5] Smith 1996, p. 199.

[FOOTNOTESmith1996202–3Blake1967707–13,_717-6] Smith 1996, pp. 202–3; Blake 1967, pp. 707–13, 717.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	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 2017 2019 2024 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 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 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections in England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain