Representation of the People Act 1918
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| Long title | An Act to Amend the Law with respect to Parliamentary and Local Government Franchises, and the Registration of Parliamentary and Local Government Electors, and the conduct of elections, and to provide for the Redistribution of Seats at Parliamentary Elections, and for other purposes connected therewith. |
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| Royal assent | 6 February 1918 |
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Status: Current legislation
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The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. This act was the first to include practically all men in the political system and began the inclusion of women, extending the franchise by 5.6 million men and 8.4 million women.
Even after the passing of the Third Reform Act in 1884, only 60% of male householders over the age of 21 had the vote. Following the horrors of World War I, millions of returning soldiers would still not have been entitled to vote in the long overdue general election. (The previous election had been in December 1910. The Parliament Act 1911 had set the maximum term of a Parliament at five years, but an amendment to the Act postponed the general election to after the war's conclusion.)
British politicians thus faced a crisis when the overthrow of the centuries-old Romanov monarchy and the Russian nobility in March of the previous year, and the subsequent revolution of workers and soldiers in November, raised the possibility of a similar socialist revolution in Britain.
The issue of a female right to vote first gathered momentum during the later half of the nineteenth century based on the work of liberal thinkers such as John Stuart Mill. The Suffragettes and Suffragists had pushed for their own right to be represented prior to World War I but very little was achieved before the war, despite criminally violent agitation by the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst and the WSPU.
The issue was raised by Suffragist Millicent Fawcett at the Speaker's Conference in 1916. She called for the age for voting to be lowered to 18 overthrowing the male majority. She also suggested that, if this would not be possible, women 30–35 years old should be enfranchised.
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