A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 26 May 1955. It was a snap election: Anthony Eden called the election after succeeding Winston Churchill in April 1955 to secure a mandate. The government won a 60-seat majority, achieving the highest post-war party vote share. It was the first election under Queen Elizabeth II.
Background and campaign
The election was fought on new boundaries, with five seats added to the 625 fought in 1951. At the same time, the Conservative Party had returned to power for the first time since World War II and increased its popularity by accepting the mixed economy and welfare state created by the previous Labour Party government. It also was lauded for its economic policy after ending rationing, improving foreign trade, and even outperforming Labour in the construction of public housing. The "giveaway budget" of Chancellor Rab Butler prior to the election also improved the popularity of the Conservative Party. On election day, the Daily Mirror had printed the front-page headline "Don't Let the Tories Cheat Our Children", urging its readers to elect Labour on the basis that it had "built a better Britain for us all".
The BBC later described the election as the "dullest" after World War II. The Daily Express wrote that the British people were more interested in Princess Margaret's romance with Peter Townsend. The Labour Party, then in its twentieth year of leadership under Clement Attlee, steadily lost ground owing to infighting between the left-wing (Bevanites) and the right-wing (Gaitskellites), resulting in an unclear election message. It pledged equal pay for women, renationalisation of the steel industry and road haulage, comprehensive secondary education, and vague guarantees of greater industrial democracy and workers' control of nationalised industries as demanded by Bevanites but otherwise offered little new policy. Parliament was dissolved on 6 May.
Aftermath
The result showed very little change from 1951, with fewer than 25 seats changing hands and only a small swing from Labour to the Conservatives. The only real highlight of the night was in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin won two seats at a UK election for the first time since 1918 (before the secession of Southern Ireland).
The Labour Party suffered at this time from deep internal divisions, yet for it this election was not the disaster it could have been.
Although little changed, this was a strong victory for the Conservatives, who won the largest share of seats for a single party at a post-war general election. It became the first party since the passage of the Reform Act 1867 to increase its parliamentary majority after a term in office.