1865 United Kingdom general election

The 1865 United Kingdom general election saw the Liberals, led by Lord Palmerston, increase their large majority over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives to 80. The Whig Party changed its name to the Liberal Party between the previous election and this one.

Quick Facts All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

1865 United Kingdom general election

← 1859 11–24 July 1865 (1865-07-11 – 1865-07-24) 1868 →
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All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Viscount Palmerston Earl of Derby Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 12 June 1859 July 1846 Leader's seat Tiverton House of Lords Last election 356 seats, 65.8% 298 seats, 34.2% Seats won 369[a] 289 Seat change 13 9 Popular vote 508,821 346,035 Percentage 59.5% 40.5% Swing 6.3 pp 6.3 pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Viscount Palmerston Liberal Prime Minister after election Viscount Palmerston Liberal

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Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded by Lord John Russell as Prime Minister.^[1] Despite the Liberal majority, the party was divided by the issue of further parliamentary reform, and Russell resigned after being defeated in a vote in the House of Commons in 1866, leading to minority Conservative governments under Derby and then Benjamin Disraeli.

This was the last United Kingdom general election until 2019 where a party increased its majority after having been returned to office at the previous election with a reduced majority.

The 1865 general election was regarded by contemporaries as being a generally dull contest nationally, which exaggerated the degree of corruption within individual constituencies. In his PhD thesis, Cornelius O'Leary described The Times as having reported "the testimony is unanimous that in the General Election of 1865 there was more profuse and corrupt expenditure than was ever known before".^[2] As a result of allegations of corruption, 50 election petitions were lodged, of which 35 were pressed to a trial; 13 ended with the elected MP being unseated. In four cases a Royal Commission had to be appointed because of widespread corrupt practices in the constituency.^[3]

As a result, when he became Prime Minister in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli announced that he would introduce a new method for election petition trials, which were then determined by a committee of the House of Commons, resulting in the Parliamentary Elections Act 1868, whereby two Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Exchequer of Pleas or Queen's Bench would be designated to try election petitions with full judicial salaries.^[3]

Many new constituencies were used for this election:

• Northern West Riding of Yorkshire
• Southern West Riding of Yorkshire

• List of MPs elected in the 1865 United Kingdom general election
• 1865 United Kingdom general election in Ireland