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United Kingdom general election, 1906
All 670 seats to the House of Commons
12 January–8 February 1906
	Incumbent PM; Henry Campbell-Bannerman; Liberal Subsequent PM; Henry Campbell-Bannerman; Liberal

The United Kingdom general election of 1906 was held from 12 January to 8 February 1906.

The Liberals, led by sitting minority Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, won a large majority in the election. The Conservatives under Arthur Balfour lost more than half their seats, while the Labour Representation Committee was far more successful than in 1900 and after the election would be reformed as "The Labour Party" with 29 MPs and Keir Hardie as leader. The Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond, achieved its seats with a relatively low number of votes, as 73 candidates stood unopposed.

This election was a landslide defeat for the Conservative Party and their Liberal Unionist allies, with the primary reason given by historians as the party's weakness after its split over the issue of free trade (Joseph Chamberlain had resigned from government in September 1903 in order to campaign for Tariff Reform, which would allow 'preferential tariffs'). Many working class people saw this as a threat to the price of food, hence the debate was nicknamed 'Big Loaf, Little Loaf'. The Liberals' landslide victory of 125 seats over all other parties led to the passing of social legislation known as the Liberal reforms.

1895 election • MPs

1900 election • MPs

1906 election • MPs

January 1910 election • MPs

December 1910 election • MPs

[edit] Results

United Kingdom General Election, 1906
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	528	397			+ 214	59.3	48.9	2,565,644	+3.9
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	557	156			− 246	23.3	43.4	2,278,076	-6.8
	Labour	50	29	28	1	+ 27	4.3	4.8	254,202	+3.6
	Irish Parliamentary	84	82	6	1	+ 5	12.2	0.6	33,231	-1.2
	Independent Conservative	9	2	2	0	+ 2	0.3	0.5	26,183
	Independent Labour	7	1	1	0	+ 1	0.2	0.4	18,886
	Social Democratic Federation	8	0	0	0	0		0.4	18,446
	Independent Conservative	9	1				0.2	0.3	15,972
	Scottish Workers	5	0	0	0	0		0.3	14,877	+0.2
	Free Trader	5	0	0	0	0		0.2	8,974
	Independent Lib-Lab	1	1	1	0	+ 1	0.2	0.1	4,841
	Independent	3	0	0	0	0		0.1	3,806
	Ind. Nationalist	3	1	0	0	0	0.2	0.0	1,800
	Independent Liberal	3	0	0	1	− 1		0.0	1,581
	Ind. Liberal Unionist	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	153

[edit] Voting summary

Popular vote

Liberal			48.9%
Conservative and Liberal Unionist			43.42%
Labour			4.85%
Irish Parliamentary			0.63%
Independent			1.4%
Others			0.81%

[edit] Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			59.25%
Conservative and Liberal Unionist			23.28%
Labour			4.18%
Irish Parliamentary			12.24%
Independent			0.9%

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

1906 Conservative manifesto

1906 Labour manifesto

1906 Liberal manifesto

[edit] References

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