1910 Sallian parliamentary election

1910 Sallian parliamentary election

27/06/1910
All 650 seats to the House of Commons of Sallia 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	8,397,021
Turnout	7,999,003
First party Second party Third party   Leader James Cooper Arthur Chapman Hugh Banks Party Liberal Party Conservative Party Republican Party Leader since 4 August 1899 8 August 1902 4 August 1899 Leader's seat Palling City of Swington Hampstead Seats before 397 190 33 Seats won 317 241 44 Seat change -80 +51 +11 Popular vote 3,231,597 3,432,372 395,951 Percentage 40.4% 42.91% 4.95%   Fourth party   Leader Arthur Davies Party Labour Party Leader since 9 April 1909 Leader's seat Mother Falls Seats before 24 Seats won 40 Seat change +16 Popular vote 779,103 Percentage 9.74%
Prime Minister before election James Cooper Liberal Party Prime Minister James Cooper Liberal Party

The 1910 Sallian parliamentary election took place on 27 June 1910. The 2nd Parliament of Sallia was dissolved on 2 June 1910 for campaigning to begin. The election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Liberals losing the national popular vote but winning a plurality of seats (they didn't win a majority). After ruling out a coalition, James Cooper formed a minority government with a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Labour Party. The 3rd Parliament of Sallia first met on 10 July 1910.

Campaign

Campaigning began following the dissolution of the 2nd Parliament of Sallia on 2 June 1910. The Conservatives campaigned mostly on economic issues, the Liberals campaigned on economic and social issues, the Republicans campaigned on changing the political system to a presidential one, and the Labour Party campaigned on social issues.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1910 Sallian parliamentary election

Endorsements

Newspaper	Endorsement
The People's Paper	Labour Party
The Daily News	Conservative Party
The Daily Post	Liberal Party

Results

Seats

• Liberal Party - 317 seats
• Conservative Party - 241 seats
• Republican Party - 44 seats
• Labour Party - 40 seats
• Independents and others - 7 seats
• The Speaker of the House - 1 seat

Popular vote

• Liberal Party - 3,231,597 (40.4%)
• Conservative Party - 3,432,372 (42.91%)
• Republican Party - 395,951 (4.95%)
• Labour Party - 779,103 (9.74%)
• Independents and others - 131,184 (1.64%)
• The Speaker of the House - 29,018 (0.36%)

The Liberals lost the popular vote to the Conservatives but still won a plurality of seats. The Conservatives won some 350,000 more votes than they had won in 1900 (when they won a landslide) but they still remained Official Opposition with 241 seats.

Aftermath

The election resulted in a hung parliament with the Liberals winning the most seats but not a majority. James Cooper, the Prime Minister, ruled out coalition talks but entered into negotiations with the Labour Party for support. A deal was sealed on 4 July 1910. Following a failure to win power for the third time in a row, Hugh Banks resigned as Leader of the Republican Party. In December 1910, the Labour Party decided to abstain in an important vote in the House of Commons, which resulted in a rejection of the bill presented by the Liberals. Cooper, deciding the government was very ineffective, dissolved the 3rd Parliament on 2 January 1911 for a parliamentary election on 27 January 1911.