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All670 seats in theHouse of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 4,317,312 77.4% ( | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours denote the winning party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Diagram displaying the composition of the House of Commons following the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1892 United Kingdom general election was held from 4 to 26 July 1892. It saw theConservatives, led byLord Salisbury again win the greatest number of seats, but no longera majority asWilliam Ewart Gladstone'sLiberals won 80 more seats than in the1886 general election. TheLiberal Unionists who had previously supported the Conservative government saw their vote and seat numbers go down.
Despite being split betweenParnellite andanti-Parnellite factions, the Irish Nationalist vote held up well. As the Liberals did not have a majority on their own, Salisbury refused to resign on hearing the election results and waited to be defeated in avote of no confidence on 11 August. Gladstone formed a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support.
The Liberals had engaged in failed attempts at reunification between 1886 and 1887. Gladstone however was able to retain control of much of the Liberal party machinery, particularly theNational Liberal Federation. Gladstone used the annual NLF meetings as a platform to consolidate various Liberal causes, particularly the Newcastle meeting of 1891, which gave its name to the radicalNewcastle Programme. This programme placed Irish Home Rule first, followed by Welsh and Scottish disestablishment, reduction in factory work hours, free education, electoral reform, land reform, reform or abolition of the House of Lords, and the removal of duties on basic foods. This programme would later be disowned by the party leadership following the Liberal defeat in the 1895 election.[1]

| Candidates | Votes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Leader | Stood | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | |
| Conservative and Liberal Unionist | Lord Salisbury | 606 | 314 | 21 | 100 | −79 | 46.87 | 46.99 | 2,028,586 | −4.4 | |
| Liberal | William Ewart Gladstone | 535 | 271 | 98 | 19 | +79 | 40.44 | 45.37 | 1,958,598 | +0.2 | |
| Irish National Federation | Justin McCarthy | 85 | 72 | +72 | 10.75 | 5.20 | 224,528 | N/A | |||
| Irish National League | John Redmond | 44 | 9 | +9 | 1.34 | 1.55 | 67,119 | N/A | |||
| Independent Labour | N/A | 9 | 3 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 0.45 | 0.51 | 22,198 | N/A | |
| Ind. Conservative | N/A | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.13 | 5,556 | N/A | |
| Independent Liberal | N/A | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.15 | 0.08 | 3,572 | N/A | |
| Scottish Trades Councils | Chisholm Robertson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.05 | 2,313 | N/A | |
| Ind. Nationalist | N/A | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.05 | 2,180 | N/A | |
| Scottish Parliamentary Labour | Keir Hardie | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.04 | 1,866 | N/A | |
| Social Democratic Federation | H. M. Hyndman | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.02 | 659 | N/A | |
| Independent | N/A | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 137 | N/A | |
| Conservative and Liberal Unionist | 46.99% | |||
| Liberal | 45.37% | |||
| Irish National Federation | 5.20% | |||
| Irish National League | 1.55% | |||
| Independent Labour | 0.51% | |||
| Independent Conservative | 0.13% | |||
| Independent Liberal | 0.08% | |||
| Others | 0.17% | |||
| Conservative and Liberal Unionist | 46.72% | |||
| Liberal | 40.60% | |||
| Irish National Federation | 10.75% | |||
| Irish National League | 1.34% | |||
| Independent Labour | 0.45% | |||
| Independent Liberal | 0.15% | |||