United Kingdom general election, 1900

← 1895

26 September – 24 October 1900

1906 →

All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Lord Salisbury	Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Party	Conservative and Liberal Unionist	Liberal
Leader since	April 1881	December 1898
Leader's seat	Marquess of Salisbury	Stirling Burghs
Last election	411 seats, 49.0%	177 seats, 45.7%
Seats won	402	183
Seat change	9	6
Popular vote	1,767,958	1,572,323
Percentage	50.3%	44.7%
Swing	1.3%	1.0%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	John Redmond	Keir Hardie
Party	Irish Parliamentary	Labour
Leader since	6 February 1900	28 February 1900
Leader's seat	Waterford City	Merthyr Tydfil
Last election	82 seats, 4.0%	N/A
Seats won	77	2
Seat change	5	N/A
Popular vote	57,576	62,698
Percentage	1.6%	1.8%
Swing	1.4%	N/A

PM before election

Lord Salisbury
Conservative

Subsequent PM

Lord Salisbury
Conservative

1892 election • MPs
1895 election • MPs
1900 election • MPs
1906 election • MPs
Jan 1910 election • MPs

Lord Salisbury
Conservative

The United Kingdom general election of 1900 was held between 26 September and 24 October 1900, following the dissolution of Parliament on 25 September. Also known as the khaki election (the first of several elections to bear this sobriquet), it was held at a time when it was widely believed that the Second Boer War had effectively been won (though in fact it was to continue for a further two years). The Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury with their Liberal Unionist allies, secured a large majority of 130, despite securing only 5.6% more votes than Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Liberals. This was largely due to the Conservatives winning 163 uncontested seats. The Labour Representation Committee, later to become the Labour Party, participated in a general election for the first time even though they had only been in existence for a few months. As a result, Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only LRC members of parliament in 1900.

This was the first time that Winston Churchill was elected to the House of Commons. He had stood in the same seat, Oldham, in a by-election the previous year, but had lost. It was also the final general election of the Victorian era and the 19th century.

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