Red-Twig Dogwood – Cornus sericea

The 1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 to 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury again win the greatest number of seats, but no longer a majority as William Ewart Gladstone's Liberals won 80 more seats than in the 1886 general election. The Liberal Unionists who had previously supported the Conservative government saw their vote and seat numbers go down.

Despite being split between Parnellite and anti-Parnellite factions, the Irish Nationalist vote held up well. As the Liberals did not have a majority on their own, Salisbury refused to resign on hearing the election results and waited to be defeated in a vote of no confidence on 11 August. Gladstone formed a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support.

The Liberals had engaged in failed attempts at reunification between 1886 and 1887. Gladstone however was able to retain control of much of the Liberal party machinery, particularly the National Liberal Federation. Gladstone used the annual NLF meetings as a platform to consolidate various Liberal causes, particularly the Newcastle meeting of 1891, which gave its name to the radical Newcastle Programme. This programme placed Irish Home Rule first, followed by Welsh and Scottish disestablishment, reduction in factory work hours, free education, electoral reform, land reform, reform or abolition of the House of Lords, and the removal of duties on basic foods. This programme would later be disowned by the party leadership following the Liberal defeat in the 1895 election.^[1]

Results

UK General Election 1892
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	Lord Salisbury	606	314	21	100	−79	46.87	46.99	2,028,586	−4.4
	Liberal	William Ewart Gladstone	535	271	98	19	+79	40.44	45.37	1,958,598	+0.2
	Irish National Federation	Justin McCarthy	85	72			+72	10.75	5.20	224,528	N/A
	Irish National League	John Redmond	44	9			+9	1.34	1.55	67,119	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	9	3	3	0	+3	0.45	0.51	22,198	N/A
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	4	0	0	0	0	0	0.13	5,556	N/A
	Independent Liberal	N/A	6	1	1	0	+1	0.15	0.08	3,572	N/A
	Scottish Trades Councils	Chisholm Robertson	4	0	0	0	0	0	0.05	2,313	N/A
	Independent Nationalist	N/A	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.05	2,180	N/A
	Scottish Parliamentary Labour	Keir Hardie	3	0	0	0	0	0	0.04	1,866	N/A
	Social Democratic Federation	H. M. Hyndman	2	0	0	0	0	0	0.02	659	N/A
	Independent	N/A	3	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	137	N/A

Voting summary

Popular vote

Conservative and Liberal Unionist			46.99%
Liberal			45.37%
Irish National Federation			5.20%
Irish National League			1.55%
Independent Labour			0.51%
Independent Conservative			0.13%
Independent Liberal			0.08%
Others			0.17%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Conservative and Liberal Unionist			46.72%
Liberal			40.60%
Irish National Federation			10.75%
Irish National League			1.34%
Independent Labour			0.45%
Independent Liberal			0.15%

Notes

^ (Haigh 1990, p. 259)
^ All parties shown.
^ "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2022.

References

Blaxill, Luke. From: The War of Words: The Language of British Elections, 1880–1922 (2020) pp. 81–123.
Cawood, Ian (2010), "The 1892 General Election and the Eclipse of the Liberal Unionists", Parliamentary History, 29 (3): 331–357, doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2010.00137.x
Cawood, Ian (2013), "The Unionist 'Compact' in West Midland Politics 1891–1895", Midland History
Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
Craig, F. W. S. (1974), British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, Macmillan
"From the archive, 26 July 1892: Britain's first Asian MP elected", The Guardian, 26 July 2013, retrieved 2 May 2018
Haigh, Christopher, ed. (1990), The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521395526
Lloyd-Jones, Naomi (2020). "The 1892 general election in England: Home Rule, the Newcastle programme and positive Unionism". Historical Research. 93 (259): 73–104. doi:10.1093/hisres/htz009.
Pelling, Henry (1967), Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910^{[publisher missing]}

External links

Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine

[1] (Haigh 1990, p. 259)

[2] All parties shown.

[3] "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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