1832 United Kingdom general election

← 1831 8 December 1832 – 8 January 1833 (1832-12-08 –1833-01-08) 1835 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All658 seats in theHouse of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	827,776
First party Second party Third party   Leader Earl Grey Duke of Wellington Daniel O'Connell Party Whig Tory Irish Repeal Leader since 22 November 1830 22 January 1828 1830 Leader's seat House of Lords House of Lords Dublin City Seats before 370 seats, 63.3% 235 seats, 36.7% Did not contest Seats won 441[a] 175[c] 42[d] Seat change 71 60 42 Popular vote 554,719[b] 241,284[b] 31,773[b] Percentage 67.0% 29.2% 3.8% Swing 3.7pp 7.5pp New party
Colours denote the winning party. Strength of colour indicates number of candidates returned.
Composition of theHouse of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Earl Grey Whig Prime Minister after election Earl Grey Whig

The1832 United Kingdom general election was held on 8 December 1832 to 8 January 1833. The first election to be held in the newly-reformedHouse of Commons, theWhigs underEarl Grey won a landslide victory with a majority of 224 seats.

Earl Grey, Prime Minister since November 1830, led the first predominantlyWhig administration since 1806–07, supported by Radicals and allied politicians, though no formalLiberal Party existed yet.Viscount Althorp led the House of Commons and served asChancellor of the Exchequer. The Tories, led by theDuke of Wellington and SirRobert Peel, had not fully adopted the Conservative label. In Ireland,Daniel O'Connell's IrishRepeal Association campaigned for the repeal of theAct of Union, presenting independent candidates.

The election took place from December 1832 to January 1833, with polling staggered across constituencies. The Whigs won an overall majority of 224 seats, 67%, the Tories 27%, and the Repeal Association 6%. The Whigs won 67% of the vote, the Tories 29%, and the Repeal Association 4%. The results varied by region, with the Whigs dominant in Great Britain, but facing stronger Tory opposition in Wales and Ireland.

This was the last election before the Tories formally reconstituted themselves into theConservatives, and the last time until1906 that they won fewer than 200 seats.

TheEarl Grey had beenprime minister since November 1830. He headed the first predominantlyWhig administration since theMinistry of All the Talents in 1806–07.

In addition to the Whigs themselves, Grey was supported byRadical and other allied politicians. The Whigs and their allies were gradually coming to be referred to as liberals, but no formalLiberal Party had been established at the time of this election, so all the politicians supporting the ministry are referred to as Whig in the above results.

TheLeader of the House of Commons since 1830 wasViscount Althorp (heir of theEarl Spencer), who also served asChancellor of the Exchequer.

The lastTory prime minister, at the time of this election, was theDuke of Wellington. After leaving government office, Wellington continued to lead the Tory peers and was the overallLeader of the Opposition.

The Tory Leader of the Opposition in theHouse of Commons wasSir Robert Peel, Bt.

John Wilson Croker had used the term "conservative" in 1830, but the Tories at the time of this election had not yet become generally known as theConservative Party. This distinction would finally take hold after the Liberal Party was officially created.

In Irish politics,Daniel O'Connell was continuing his campaign for repeal of theAct of Union. He had founded the IrishRepeal Association and it presented candidates independent of the two principal parties.

Following the passage of theReform Act 1832 and related legislation to reform the electoral system and redistribute constituencies, thetenth United Kingdom Parliament was dissolved on 3 December 1832. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 29 January 1833, for a maximum seven-year term from that date. The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, before its term expired.

At this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ (a royal command) for the election to be held, the localreturning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days.

The general election took place between December 1832 and January 1833. The first nomination was on 8 December, with the first contest on 10 December and the last contest on 8 January 1833. It was usual for polling in theuniversity constituencies and inOrkney and Shetland to take place about a week after other seats. Disregarding contests in the Universities and Orkney and Shetland, the last poll was on 1 January 1833.

For the distribution of constituencies in theunreformed House of Commons, before this election, see the1831 United Kingdom general election. Apart from the disenfranchisement ofGrampound for corruption in 1821 and the transfer of its two seats as additional members forYorkshire from 1826, there had been no change in the constituencies of England since the 1670s. In some cases the county and borough seats had remained unaltered since the 13th century. Welsh constituencies had been unchanged since the 16th century. Those in Scotland had remained the same since 1708 and in Ireland since 1801.

In 1832 politicians were facing an unfamiliar electoral map, as well as an electorate including those qualified under a new uniform householder franchise in the boroughs. However the reform legislation had not removed all the anomalies in the electoral system.

Table of largest and smallest electorates 1832–33, by country, type and number of seats

Monmouthshire (1 County constituency with 2 MPs and one single member Borough constituency) is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England.

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Country	BC	CC	UC	Total C	BMP	CMP	UMP	Total MPs
England	186	68	2	256	322	142	4	468
Wales	15	13	0	28	15	17	0	32
Scotland	21	30	0	51	23	30	0	53
Ireland	33	32	1	66	39	64	2	105
Total	255	143	3	401	399	253	6	658

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Country	BCx1	BCx2	BCx4	CCx1	CCx2	CCx3	UCx2	Total C
England	52	133	1	1	60	7	2	256
Wales	15	0	0	9	4	0	0	28
Scotland	19	2	0	30	0	0	0	51
Ireland	27	6	0	0	32	0	1	66
Total	113	141	1	40	96	7	3	401

• List of United Kingdom general elections
• List of MPs elected in the 1832 United Kingdom general election
• The House of Commons, 1833, painting by George Hayter

• Craig, F. W. S. (1989),British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower,ISBN 0900178302
• Rallings, Colin;Thrasher, Michael, eds. (2000),British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, Ashgate Publishing Ltd
• Walker, B. M., ed. (1978),Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801–1922, Royal Irish Academy

• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

• 1832 United Kingdom general election
• 1832 elections in the United Kingdom
• 1832 in the United Kingdom
• General elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
• December 1832
• January 1833
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

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