1923 UK general election

United Kingdom general election, 1923

← 1922 6 December 1923 1924 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 615 seats Constituency results 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.1% (1.9%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 23 May 1923 21 November 1922 30 April 1908 Leader's seat Bewdley Aberavon Paisley Last election 344 seats, 38.5% 142 seats, 29.7% 62 seats, 18.9% Seats won 258 191 158 Seat change 86 49 96 Popular vote 5,286,159 4,267,831 4,129,922 Percentage 38.0% 30.7% 29.7% Swing 0.5% 1.0% 10.8%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results
Prime Minister before election Stanley Baldwin Conservative Subsequent Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald Labour

Stanley Baldwin
Conservative

Ramsay MacDonald
Labour

The United Kingdom general election of 1923 was held on Thursday 6 December 1923. The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, won the most seats, but Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. H. Asquith's reunited Liberal Party gained enough to produce a hung parliament. It was the last UK general election in which a third party (the Liberals) won more than 100 seats, or received more than 26% of the vote.

As the election had been fought on the Conservative proposals for tariff reform, it was inevitable that they could not retain office. As a result, MacDonald formed the first ever Labour government with tacit support from the Liberals. Asquith's motivation for permitting Labour to enter power, rather than trying to bring the Liberals back into government, was that he hoped they would prove to be incompetent and quickly lose support. Being a minority, MacDonald's government only lasted 10 months and another general election was held in October 1924.

In May 1923 Prime Minister Bonar Law fell ill and resigned on 22 May, after just 209 days in office. He was replaced by Baldwin.

Having won an election just the year before, Baldwin's Conservative party had a comfortable majority in the Commons and could have waited another four years, but the government was concerned. Baldwin felt the need to receive a mandate from the people, which, if successful, would strengthen his grip on the Conservative party leadership. Oxford historian (and Conservative MP) J.A.R. Marriott depicts the gloomy national mood:

The result however backfired on Baldwin, who lost a host of seats to Labour and the Liberals. For the first time in history, Labour formed a government.