ABSTRACT
The General Election of 1945 was one of the greatest turnovers in parliamentary history since the time of the great Reform Bill of 1832. It is true that the Conservatives with their allies had greater majorities in 1918, in 1924, in 1931, and in 1935. In recent British Parliamentary politics there is nothing novel in great majorities. Indeed, so easily does the electoral system magnify electoral pluralities that the two-figure majority is rare. It has only been attained once in this century, namely, in the election of 1922 when Mr. Bonar Law’s Government had a majority of only 79. Or perhaps we should include in such occasions the elections of 1923 and 1929 when no one party had a majority, but the Labour party, with Liberal support, could take office with a majority of about 80 or 90. The election of 1945, however, was a remarkable swing over from Conservative to Labour strength, and the only suitable parallels in history are the election of 1832 after the Reform Bill, which gave a Whig or Liberal majority of 307, and the election of 1906, which changed a Conservative majority of 134 at the previous election to a Liberal majority of 356. To put it in another way, the Conservatives have only twice been reduced to a lower Parliamentary strength, in 1906, and in 1832.
