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1935–1945 Parliament of the United Kingdom
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Palace of Westminster in 1942
Overview
Legislative body	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Term	14 November 1935 (1935-11-14) – 26 July 1945 (1945-07-26)
Election	1935 United Kingdom general election
Government	Third National Government Fourth National Government Chamberlain war ministry Churchill war ministry Churchill caretaker ministry
House of Commons
Members	614
Speaker	Edward FitzRoy Douglas Clifton Brown
Leader	Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill Stafford Cripps Anthony Eden
Prime Minister	Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill
Leader of the Opposition	Clement Attlee Hastings Lees-Smith Frederick Pethick-Lawrence Arthur Greenwood Clement Attlee
Third-party leader	Archibald Sinclair
House of Lords
Lord Chancellor	Viscount Hailsham Baron Maugham Viscount Caldecote

This is a list of members of Parliament elected at the 1935 general election, held on 14 November. Due to the onset of the Second World War, this was the last general election before 1945, making it the longest UK parliament in history and the longest parliament to sit in Westminster since the Cavalier Parliament of 1661–1679.

History

• A declaration was made to Parliament 3 September 1939 by PM Neville Chamberlain that "this country is at war with Germany", as it had been since 9am that day upon the expiration of an unobserved deadline to cease German fire in Poland.
• The King commissioned a change in Administration on 10 May 1940, and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister on 13 May 1940 with a resolution "That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion."
• On 29 January 1942, Clement Attlee's motion was voted, "That this House has confidence in His Majesty's Government and will aid it to the utmost in the vigorous prosecution of the War", and passed by a margin of 464 Ayes to 1 Noe (Maxton, J.).
• A motion to censure the Government of Churchill, "That this House, while paying tribute to the heroism and endurance of the Armed Forces of the Crown in circumstances of exceptional difficulty, has no confidence in the central direction of the war," was defeated on 2 July 1942 by a count of 475 Noes to 25 Ayes. Sir John Wardlaw-Milne was mover, and Mr. Aneurin Bevan was seconder.

Composition

This diagram show the composition of the parties in the 1935 general election.

Note: This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time. The Commons Chamber was hit by bombs and the roof of Westminster Hall was set on fire. The fire service said that it would be impossible to save both, so it was decided to concentrate on saving the Hall. The Commons Chamber was entirely destroyed by the fire which spread to the Members' Lobby and caused the ceiling to collapse. By the following morning, all that was left of the Chamber was a smoking shell. As the Commons Chamber was totally destroyed and the Lords Chamber was damaged, both Houses moved to the Church House annexe and sat there from 13 May. From late June 1941 until October 1950, the Commons met in the Lords Chamber, while the Lords met in the Robing Room (a fact which was kept secret during the war).

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• By-elections
• History
• See also
• References

By-elections

See the list of United Kingdom by-elections.

See also

• UK general election, 1935
• List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1935–1945)
• List of parliaments of the United Kingdom

References

Notes

1. ^ During World War II a succession of three Labour politicians acted as Leader of the Opposition for the purpose of allowing the House of Commons to function normally; however as in the mid World War I ministry, opposition did not run under a party-whipped system. As the Government 1940–45 was a coalition government in which Labour politicians functioned fully as members of the Government, neither Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee nor these three received the salary for the post of Leader of the Opposition. The largest party that opposed the war and was not part of the coalition – and therefore, in theory, the opposition – was the Independent Labour Party, led by James Maxton. With only three MPs, it tried to take over the opposition frontbench but was widely opposed in this venture.

Citations

1. Hansard, 3 September 1939 record of Parliament
2. "His Majesty's Government". Hansard 1803–2005. 13 May 1940. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023.
3. "Motion of Confidence in His Majesty's Government". Hansard 1803–2005. 29 January 1942. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023.
4. "Central Direction of the War". Hansard 1803–2005. 2 July 1942. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023.
5. "Bomb damage". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023.

Whitaker's Almanacks for 1939 and 1944

• Lists of MPs elected in United Kingdom general elections
• 1935 United Kingdom general election
• UK MPs 1935–1945
• 1935-related lists