1837 United Kingdom general election

The 1837 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 July to 18 August 1837, following the death of King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria. The election saw the Whigs secure their fourth consecutive victory, though the Conservatives, led by Robert Peel, continued to gain ground.

← 1835

24 July – 18 August 1837 (1837-07-24 – 1837-08-18)

1841 →

← outgoing members

elected members →

All 658 seats in the House of Commons
330 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

798,025

	First party	Second party

Leader	Viscount Melbourne	Sir Robert Peel
Party	Whig	Conservative
Leader since	16 July 1834	19 December 1834
Leader's seat	House of Lords	Tamworth
Last election	385 seats, 57.2%	273 seats, 42.8%
Seats won	344	314
Seat change	41	41
Popular vote	418,331	379,694
Percentage	52.4%	47.6%
Swing	4.8 pp	4.8 pp

Colours denote the winning party

Composition of the House of Commons after the election

Prime Minister before election

Viscount Melbourne
Whig

Prime Minister after
election

Viscount Melbourne
Whig

The election marked the last time that a Parliament was dissolved as a result of the demise of the Crown. The dissolution of Parliament six months after a demise of the Crown, as provided for by the Succession to the Crown Act 1707, was abolished by the Reform Act 1867.

Results

UK General Election 1837

Party		Candidates						Votes
Party		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Whig	510	344			−41	52.28	52.42	418,331	−4.8
	Conservative	484	314			+41	47.72	47.58	379,694	+4.8

Voting summary

Popular vote

Whig			52.42%
Conservative			47.58%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Whig			52.28%
Conservative			47.72%

Regional results

Great Britain

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	414	102	284	+46	353,000	48.2	+5.4
	Whig	422	81	271	−46	379,961	51.8	−5.4
Total		836	183	555		732,961	100

England

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	348	80	239	+39	321,124	48.9	+6.3
	Whig	352	60	225	−39	347,549	51.1	−6.3
Total		658	177	464		491,540	100

Scotland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Whig	49	15	33	−5	22,082	54.0	−8.8
	Conservative	35	7	20	+5	18,569	46.0	+8.8
Total		84	22	53		40,651	100

Wales

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	25	11	19	+2	11,616	52.8	−11.1
	Whig	20	6	13	−2	10,144	47.2	+11.1
Total		45	17	32		21,760	100

Ireland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Whig/Repeal Coalition	88	34	73	+5	38,370	58.5	+9.9
	Irish Conservative	70	19	30	−5	26,694	41.5	−9.9
Total		158	53	103		65,064	100

Universities

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Conservative	6	4	6	1,691	90.1
	Whig	1	0	0	186	9.9
Total		6	6	6	1,877	100