1874 United Kingdom general election
The 1874 United Kingdom general election was held between 31 January and 17 February 1874. Although the Liberals won the majority of the votes, Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative Party managed to win a majority, largely caused by the number of uncontested seats held by the Conservatives. Although there had been minority Conservative governments in the intervening years, this was the first outright Conservative election victory since Robert Peel's victory in 1841 over thirty years earlier.
The election saw the Irish of the Home Rule League become a significant third party in Parliament, with 60 of 101 of the seats for Ireland. This was the first UK election to use a secret ballot following the 1872 Secret Ballot Act. The Irish Nationalist gains are often attributed to the effects of the Secret Ballot Act, as tenants faced less of a threat of eviction if they voted against the wishes of their landlords. However, the Home Rule League had already won 8 by-elections before the passage of the act, diminishing its often emphasised importance. Also in this election, the first two working-class MPs were elected: Alexander MacDonald and Thomas Burt, both members of the Miners' Union, were elected as Liberal-Labour MPs in Stafford and Morpeth, respectively. The 1867 Reform Act eroded the legislative power of the rural gentry. The 1874 election, especially in Ireland, saw great landowners losing their county seats to tenant farmers.
This is the only time, since the introduction of the secret ballot, that a UK party has been defeated despite receiving an absolute majority of the popular vote. This was primarily because over 100 Conservative candidates were elected unopposed. This meant no votes were cast in those 100 places where the Conservative candidates were anticipated to be popular; in the seats where Liberal candidates did stand, they polled a high proportion of the vote on average.
The election saw 652 MPs elected, six fewer than at the previous election. Following allegations of corruption, the Conservative-held constituencies of Beverley and Sligo Borough, and the Liberal-held constituencies of Bridgwater and Cashel, had been abolished.