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General Election Dates 1832-2024

The table below shows the dates of all general election since 1832.

For information on Prime Ministers since 1832 see the Commons Library briefing, Prime Ministers. This includes details on changes of Prime Ministers between general elections since 1900.

Polling days

Before 1918 elections were held across a period of a few weeks. This was partly to do with the distance from Westminster. Writs, the instruction telling returning officers to hold elections, took longer to arrive the further from Westminster a constituency was.   

The Representation of the People Act 1918 required that polling day was on the same day across the country (section 21). The first general election held on the same day was Saturday 14 December 1918.

The act did not specify which day should be a polling day. Instead, the length of the election timetable set when the election started and when polling day would fall.

Polling day on a Thursday

Polling day for a UK general election is Thursday by convention.

The timing of polling day is determined by the dissolution (ending) of the previous Parliament. At dissolution all Parliamentary business ceases and MPs are no longer MPs. Those seeking re-election become candidates in their chosen constituency.

Currently dissolution is day 0 and polling day is 25 working-days later (bank holidays, Christmas Eve, Saturdays and Sundays are not counted). This has been the case since the 2015 general election. Before 2015 the general election timetable was 17 working-days. The Commons Library briefing, Election timetables provides more detail on the timing of a general election.

The last general election not on a Thursday was on Tuesday 27 October 1931. The timetable was shorter at the time and Saturday was treated as a working day. It was not disregarded in general election timetables until 1979.

General elections are announced in advance of Parliament dissolving. There are usually a few sitting days between the announcement of an election and Parliament dissolving. This is known as ‘wash-up’ and is used to finish any important business before the Parliament formally ends.

Commons Library briefing, Election timetables, gives the dates of election announcements and the subsequent dissolution date since 1918 in section 4 of the briefing.

Maximum length of a Parliament

From 1715 to 1911 the maximum length of a Parliament was seven years. This was set by the Septennial Act 1715.

The Parliament Act 1911 amended the Septennial Act so that the maximum length of a Parliament was five years. The 1911 act said:

Five years shall be substituted for seven years as the time fixed for the maximum duration of Parliament under the [1 Geo. 1, stat. 2, c. 38.] Septennial Act, 1715.

Parliaments had a maximum duration of five years, but early elections could be called. These would either be at the request of the Prime Minister or if a sitting government could no longer command the confidence of the House of Commons. The Commons Library briefing, Votes of no confidence, provides more detail. The last time a vote of no confidence was successful in prompting an election was 1979. On 28 March, the Labour Government was defeated on a motion of no confidence by 311 votes to 310. Following the result, Prime Minister Jim Callaghan, announced he would request a dissolution of Parliament and a general election.

This remained the case until the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. This fixed a parliament to five years but provided for a mechanism for early elections. The 2010 to 2015 Parliament was the only parliament where the fixed-term was achieved. After the 2015 general election early elections were held in 2017 and in 2019.

After the 2019 general election a new act was passed. The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and reinstated the position before, where a Parliament could run a maximum of five years, but where a government could call an early election at a time of its choosing or a vote of no confidence led to an early election. Commons Library briefing, Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022: Progress through Parliament, provides more detail.

The five-year maximum period is calculated from the day on which it first met. This is the day the House of Commons assembles to elect the Speaker for that Parliament.

If no early election is called a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.

The two World Wars and postponed elections

During both the First and Second World Wars general elections were postponed. This required primary legislation to overrule the provisions of the Septennial Act, as amended.

Acts were passed to prolong the life of the wartime parliaments:

• Parliament and Registration Act 1916
• Parliament and Local Elections Act 1916
• Parliament and Local Elections Act 1917
• Parliament and Local Elections (No. 2) Act 1917
• Parliament and Local Elections Act 1918
• Prolongation of Parliament Act 1940
• Prolongation of Parliament Act 1941
• Prolongation of Parliament Act 1942
• Prolongation of Parliament Act 1943
• Prolongation of Parliament Act 1944

When elections were held at the end of hostilities votes were not counted until several weeks after polling day. This was to give time for the votes of armed forces personnel to be included in the results in 1918 and in 1945.

The 1945 election also saw polling day on July 12 in 22 constituencies and 19 July in one constituency (polling day was Thursday 5 July in all other seats). This was because the pattern of local holidays known as wake weeks in Lancashire and Scotland. Wake weeks were holidays in industrial towns that were staggered through the summer. The polling dates for the affected seats were moved by the Postponement of Polling Day Act 1945.

Secret ballots

Voting by secret ballot and placing a ballot paper in a box started after the passing of the Ballot Act 1872.

Before 1872 voting was done by public declaration. The last general election conducted by public polling was 1868. 

In borough seats, tables and chairs or booths would be set up. Voters in county constituencies had to travel to the town allocated as the place for polling. Nominations and hustings would be held before the process of voting started. This was all done in public where voters and non-voters could watch proceedings.

Public scrutiny was seen as an important part of elections, particularly for non-voters, “Rather than being completely excluded from the electoral process, non-electors could see and judge how everyone had polled. As a result, they were often able to play a part in trying to influence how voters behaved.”

The victorious MPs were then usually ‘chaired’. Chairing was a victory parade, where the winning candidate would sit in a chair (or ride on horseback or in a carriage) and would be paraded around the constituency.

The first secret ballot was a by-election in Pontefract in August 1872. One of the ballot boxes used is held in Pontefract Museum. The by-election was called only weeks after the 1872 act had been given Royal Assent. Dr Kathryn Rix, an expert on Victorian elections, has written that the lack of time to prepare meant the first secret ballot did not go entirely to plan:

There were reports of ‘bewildered’ voters being ‘coached’ by party activists on how to mark their papers, and three elderly voters who forgot their spectacles had to be assisted using the procedure for blind voters.

…

This resulted in some rather imperfect arrangements: at one polling station, ill-fitting boards meant that voters could see between the compartments. Pontefract’s town hall could no longer be used for polling, as it lacked a separate entrance and exit, and in a hastily adapted schoolroom, voters had to leave through a window which had been knocked out, with rather wobbly boards leading to the playground below.