British General Election 1880

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18801885 →

(in %)

 %

60

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

54.66

42.46

2.84

0.03

Liberals

Tories

HRL

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1874

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

+2.66

-1.84

-0.86

-0.07

Liberals

Tories

HRL

Otherwise.

352

63

237

352 63 237 

A total of 652 seats

• Liberals : 352
• HRL : 63
• Tories : 237

The United Kingdom general election in 1880 ran from March 31 to April 27, 1880. The Liberals received one of the largest majorities they have ever had. Disraeli resigned on April 21, 1880.

subjects

The pre-election theme was the Liberals' Midlothian campaign . Its leader William Ewart Gladstone attacked the foreign policy of the government of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. The Conservative government was vulnerable to the poor state of the British economy and the fragility of its foreign policy. Gladstone appealed to the moral evangelicals. The Liberals repeatedly stressed the growing budget deficit as a measure of poor government finances.

The 1870s coincided with a long-term global depression caused by the collapse of the world rail boom of the 1870s that had previously been profitable for Britain. Stress increased in the late 1870s; prices fell, profits fell, employment fell, and there was pressure on wages that put the industrial working class in great trouble. The bipartisan free trade system left Britain defenseless against the flood of cheap wheat from North America, made worse by Britain's worst harvest of the century in 1879.

Results and consequences

In the elections, the Disraeli party fell sharply up and down, especially in Scotland and Ireland, as well as in the urban districts. Conservative strength fell from 351 to 238, while Liberals rose from 250 to 353.

As a result of the campaign, Liberal leaders Lord Hartington and Lord Granville withdrew in favor of Gladstone, who became Prime Minister for a second time.