On 5 July 1945, the 1945 United Kingdom general election was held in Northern Ireland, to elect all 640 members of the House of Commons, including the 13 Northern Ireland seats.
There were ten constituencies, seven single-seat constituencies with elected by first-past-the-post voting and three two-seat constituencies with MPs elected by plurality block voting. This was the final election in which Queen's University of belfast elected a seat to the House of Commons, due to it being abolished for the 1950 general election by the Representation of the People Act 1948.
Held less than two months following VE Day, this was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended by Parliament during the Second World War. Clement Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, refused Winston Churchill's offer of continuing the wartime coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan. On 15 June 1945, King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for nearly ten years without an election. Counting for the election was not completed until 26 July (three weeks after polling day) to enable those stationed overseas to vote.
As it was the first general election held since the conclusion of the Second World War and nearly 10 years since the 1935 general election, it was the first of three elections during the reign of George VI.
In the election as a whole, the Conservative Party government, which included the Ulster Unionists, lost out to the Labour Party, and Sir Winston Churchill was succeeded as Prime Minister by Clement Attlee.
Candidates
Affiliation CandidatesUlster Unionist Party 13Northern Ireland Labour Party 5Nationalist 2Independent Unionist 2Independent Labour 1Commonwealth Labour Party 1Independent 1Independent Nationalist 0Total 25
Results
+PartySeatsAggregate Votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 9 0 2 2 69.2 267,363 58.2 4.0 2 0 0 15.4 55,259 12.0 5.8 1 colspan="2" 1 7.7 34,448 7.5 1 colspan="2" 1 7.7 30,787 6.7 0 colspan="3" — 57,022 12.4 0 colspan="3" — 14,096 3.1 0 colspan="3" — 728 0.2 0 colspan="3" — 0 0.0 20.0 Total 13 719,765 67.4 4.6
Votes in constituencies using the bloc voting system are counted as 0.5 each, as each voter had one vote per seat.
MPs elected Constituency Party MPAntrimUlster UnionistSamuel HaughtonUlster UnionistHugh O'NeillArmaghUlster UnionistWilliam AllenBelfast EastUlster UnionistThomas Loftus ColeBelfast NorthUlster UnionistWilliam NeillBelfast SouthUlster UnionistConolly GageBelfast WestIndependent LabourJack BeattieDownIndependent UnionistJames LittleUlster UnionistWalter SmilesFermanagh and TyroneNationalistPatrick CunninghamNationalistAnthony MulveyLondonderryUlster UnionistSir Ronald Ross, BtQueen's University of BelfastUlster UnionistDouglas Savory
Notes
See also 1945 United Kingdom general election in England 1945 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1945 United Kingdom general election in Wales
References