The Birkenhead Enfranchisement Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 112), also known as the Appropriation of Seats (Sudbury and Saint Alban's) Act was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reallocated four seats of the House of Commons that became available after the disenfranchisement of the boroughs of St Albans and Sudbury. A new parliamentary borough of Birkenhead was created, the existing single-member West Riding of Yorkshire constituency was split into two divisions and the Lancashire South constituency received an extra member of parliament.
The two abolished constituencies had been disenfranchised for corruption: Sudbury in 1844 and St Albans in 1852.
The additional seats at Birkenhead and Lancashire were filled by by-elections soon after the passage of the act in 1861. The changes in the West Riding of Yorkshire did not come into effect until the 1865 general election.
Subsequent developments The whole act, so far as unrepealed, was repealed by section 1(1) of, and the first schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1950 (14 Geo. 6. c. 6), which came into force on 23 May 1950.
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