1951 United Kingdom general election in England

On Thursday 25 October 1951, the 1951 United Kingdom general election was held in England, to elect all 625 members of the House of Commons, with 506 constituencies being in England.

Only 20 months after the previous election, the Labour Government led by incumbent prime minister Clement Attlee decided to call an election primarily because the Labour Party wished to increase its majority. It had won a mere majority of 5 seats in the House of Commons in 1950. In that election, the Labour Party had won less seats than the Conservative Party in the region of England despite winning a greater share of the vote.

The election produced an interesting anomaly in England as well as the nation at large - despite the Labour Party winning a greater share of the vote, the Conservative Party won an overall majority, both in the Commons and in England. This occurrence would next take place only in 2005 when the Labour Party would a win a majority of seats in England while the Conservative Party would accumulate a greater share of the vote (however, the Labour Party won a greater share of the vote than the Conservatives in the nation as a whole). This election also noted the highest ever voteshare as well as the total number of votes the Labour Party has ever recorded in any election in England as well as the nation at whole.

Labour stood candidates in every seat in England, while the Conservatives stood 502. The Liberal Party only stood 91 candidates, significantly down on the 413 the party stood in the previous election. This was due to the lack of funds available to the party at the time to campaign in the election, as was the case in the rest of the country. Other parties stood a collective 13 candidates.

Overall, the Labour Party lost 17 seats to the Conservatives. The Liberal Party gained Bolton West from the Labour Party, however lost Eye in Suffolk to the Conservatives. The narrow victory of the Conservative Party led to the return of Winston Churchill as prime minister and the start of 13 years of Conservative rule, the second longest period of one-party rule in the twentieth century.