Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918

The total registered electorate in the United Kingdom grew from 5.7 million in 1885 to over 21 million in 1918. Much of the growth was result of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which expanded franchise by abolishing property qualifications for men and introduced female suffrage for some women over the age of 30.

Changes in parliamentary franchise from 1885 to 1918 in the United Kingdom were the result of centuries of development in different kinds of constituencies. The three Reform Acts of the nineteenth century brought about some order by amending franchises in a uniform manner (see Reform Act 1832, Reform Act 1867 and Representation of the People Act 1884).

After 1885 the occupation franchise (under which most of the electors qualified in this period) was similar in all types of constituency, throughout the United Kingdom, but there were some surviving ownership and reserved Borough franchises which applied differently in particular seats.

The major distinction was between county constituencies and borough constituencies. All county constituencies had the same mix of franchises. Some of the older boroughs were still affected by the different franchises that had applied to them before 1832 (see the Unreformed House of Commons for details of the position before the Reform Act 1832). The Reform Acts had preserved some of the unreformed borough franchises, as well as introducing new rules for all boroughs.

The contents of the section on the parliamentary franchise below, are taken from The Constitutional Year Book 1900, a publication issued by Conservative Central Office in 1900 and thus out of copyright. They were intended to guide Conservative agents and other activists, so can be assumed to be an accurate summary of the law for the period 1885-1918, between the implementation of the Representation of the People Act 1884 and the coming into force of the Representation of the People Act 1918.

The exact period when this pattern of franchises applied was between the dissolution of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom (18 November 1885) and that of the 30th Parliament (25 November 1918). Note that the local government franchise was different; in particular, single women ratepayers could vote in municipal elections from 1869 following the Municipal Franchise Act 1869, confirmed and extended to some married women by the Local Government Act 1894.

Numbers enfranchised The first table below shows the total registered electorate (including university electors), between the 1880 general election (the last election before the Representation of the People Act 1884) and the 1918 general election (the first after that act was replaced by the Representation of the People Act 1918).

The increase in Ireland between 1880 and 1885 was particularly significant, as the Irish county franchise was brought into line with that in Great Britain.

The 1885 general election and the 1886 general election were fought on the same register.

The January 1910 and December 1910 general elections were fought on the same register, except in Scotland. The voters in the second election differed from the 1910 figures in the table with Scotland 779,012 and Universities 46,566 contributing to a total of 7,709,981 registered voters.

Country 1880 1885 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 1918England 2,338,8094,094,6744,478,5244,620,3204,929,4855,416,5375,774,89216,021,600Wales 149,841282,242314,647322,784340,290387,535425,7441,170,974Scotland 293,581560,580589,520616,178661,748728,725762,1842,205,383Ireland 229,204737,965740,536732,046757,849686,661683,7671,926,274Universities28,61532,56937,31439,19141,56345,15048,15468,091Total 3,040,0505,708,0306,160,5416,330,5196,730,9357,264,6087,694,74121,392,322

Source: Adapted from .

The table below provides figures (taken from Parliamentary Papers in 1886 and 1902) for those qualified by various franchises, in England and Wales, after the 1884 reforms and again in 1902.

Qualification 1885 1902Occupation voters in counties 2,020,6502,570,928Occupation voters in boroughs 1,749,4412,229,381Ownership voters in counties 508,554493,694Lodgers in boroughs 57,68493,421Ancient right voters in boroughs 35,06626,038Lodgers in counties 8,93732,894

Source: Adapted from .

By comparison when universal manhood suffrage was introduced for the 1918 general election, there were 12,913,166 registered male electors in the United Kingdom (including University electors), as opposed to the registration at the December 1910 general election of 7,709,981 (again including University electors).

The available figures suggest that the 1885-1918 electorate comprised about sixty per cent of the adult male population.

The parliamentary franchise

Counties

Ownership franchise

Freeholders

Copyholders

Leaseholders

Occupation franchise

£10 occupiers

Householders

Lodgers

Boroughs

Reserved rights

Occupation franchise

£10 occupiers

Householders

Lodgers

See also Elections in the United Kingdom Electoral reform in the United Kingdom List of parliaments of the United Kingdom Duration of English, British and United Kingdom parliaments from 1660 List of parliamentary boroughs and associated county constituencies 1832–1918 Reform Acts Representation of the People Act Unreformed House of Commons

References

Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918

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