1945 vs 1951 general election: what changed

How vote shares and seats changed between the 1945 and 1951 UK general elections, nationally and in every nation and region. Conservative–Labour swing: 3.3 points to the Conservatives.

Con–Lab swing: 3.3 ptsto the Conservatives
1945: Lab 375largest party
1951: Con 298largest party

United Kingdom
Party	Share 1945	Share 1951	Change	Seats 1945	Seats 1951	Change
Conservative	36.2%	44.0%	+7.8	187	298	+111
Labour	47.8%	48.9%	+1.1	375	297	−78
National Liberal	2.9%	3.7%	+0.8	11	19	+8
Liberal	9.0%	2.6%	−6.5	12	6	−6
Others	2.1%	0.5%	−1.6	8	3	−5
Independent Conservative	0.02%	0.2%	+0.2	0	2	+2
Communist	0.4%	0.08%	−0.3	2	0	−2
Common Wealth	0.4%	—	—	1	—	−1
National Independent	0.3%	—	—	2	—	−2
Independent Labour Party	0.2%	—	—	3	—	−3

Nations and regions

Region	Top party 1945	Top party 1951	Con–Lab swing	Seats
England	Lab 315	Con 255	3.9 pts to Con	510 → 506
Scotland	Lab 35	Lab 35	1.1 pts to Con	71 → 71
Wales	Lab 25	Lab 27	3.7 pts to Con	35 → 36
Northern Ireland	Con 5	Con 9	2.9 pts to Lab	12 → 12
North East	Lab 26	Lab 25	5.5 pts to Con	31 → 31
North West	Lab 51	Con 43	5.2 pts to Con	88 → 84
Yorkshire and the Humber	Lab 43	Lab 36	0.0 pts to Lab	56 → 57
East Midlands	Lab 26	Lab 25	3.7 pts to Con	38 → 40
West Midlands	Lab 34	Lab 33	2.8 pts to Con	50 → 52
East of England	Lab 20	Con 24	2.7 pts to Con	35 → 37
London	Lab 86	Lab 51	6.4 pts to Con	114 → 99
South East	Con 37	Con 55	3.9 pts to Con	55 → 63
South West	Con 22	Con 31	1.8 pts to Con	43 → 43

Constituency boundaries changed between 1945 and 1951, so seats cannot be compared one by one. The national and regional figures above are comparable.

Official results House of Commons Library and UK Parliament election results data. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. How we use this data