1950 United Kingdom general election

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A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 23 February 1950, and was the first after a full term of a majority Labour Party government. It was also the first general election after the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The general election saw Labour returned to power, but its majority was dramatically reduced from 146 seats to just 5, with a sizeable swing towards the Conservative Party, which gained 90 seats. Turnout in this general election increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a United Kingdom general election under universal suffrage, and represented an increase of 11.1 percentage points from the 72.8% turnout in 1945. The 1950 general election was also the first to be covered on television. (No recording was made of the live broadcast; this was the standard practice at the time). Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 general elections. On this occasion...

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