(red) and others (grey) In 1801, the right to vote in the
United Kingdom was severely restricted. Universal
suffrage, on an equal basis for men and women over the age of 21, was established in 1928. Before 1918, general elections did not occur on a single day and polling was spread over several weeks. The majority figure given is for the difference between the number of MPs elected at the general election from the party (or parties) of the government, as opposed to all other parties (some of which may have been giving some support to the government, but were not participating in a coalition).
The Speaker is excluded from the calculation. A negative majority means that there was a
hung parliament (or
minority government) following that election. For example, at the
1929 general election, Labour was 42 seats short of forming a majority, and so its majority is listed as −42. If the party in office changed the figure is re-calculated, but no allowance is made for seat changes after the general election (between general elections). No attempt is made to define a majority before 1832, when the
Reform Act disenfranchised the
rotten boroughs; before then the
Tory party had an undemocratically entrenched dominance. Particularly in the early part of the period, the complexity of factional alignments, with both the
Whig and Tory traditions tending to have some members in government and others in opposition factions simultaneously, make it impossible to produce an objective majority figure. The figures between 1832 and about 1859 are approximate due to problems of defining what was a party in government, as the source provides figures for all
Liberals rather than just the Whig component in what developed into the Liberal Party. The Whig and
Peelite Prime Ministers in the table below are regarded as having the support of all Liberals. ==List of elections==