ABSTRACT
The General Election of 1945 saw an unusual number of candidates presenting themselves to the electors. In all there were 1,683 for 640 seats. Only once before in Parliamentary history had this number been exceeded and that was in 1929, a very keenly fought election, when there were as many as 1,730. After a ten years’ interval between elections it was natural, and one may even add that it was right, that the electors should have a wide choice. Seventy-five of the candidates stood as Independents, 16 of these being candidates for University constituencies. In ordinary constituencies there were 59 Independents, a record number. This may be attributed to the political unsettlement of war which made many people suppose that electors were drifting from old party moorings and inclined to welcome individual action. Yet in the event it was the candidates of the organized parties in whom the electors were interested and of these primarily the two main opposing parties. Of these the Labour party put up the larger number, 604 in all. The Conservatives had 543 to which may be added 13 Ulster Unionists and 17 who styled themselves ‘National’. The section of the Liberal party which had remained in the Coalition Government and were styled ‘Liberal National’ had 51 candidates. The Government bloc therefore amounted to 624, a greater number than the Labour party. The latter, however, had fighting, partly with them and partly against them, 21 Communists, 23 Common Wealth, and 5 Independent Labour party candidates. To these may be added 5 candidates of the Democratic party. In Northern Ireland there were 3 Irish Nationalists, 2 of whom were elected in the constituency of Fermanagh and Tyrone. The Scottish Nationalists put forward 8 candidates and in Wales there were 8 Welsh Nationalists. The Liberal party was able by nomination day to present 307 candidates. The most bitter complaint of the Liberals was that by holding the election in July the Government had made it impossible for them to bring forward the 500 candidates which was their aim, and that as a result they suffered throughout the election from the disadvantage that they could not expect, even in the most favourable circumstances, to form a strong party government.
