1951 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 25 October 1951, just twenty months after the previous general election in 1950; the Labour government called the election in hopes of increasing its parliamentary majority. However, this backfired, as even though Labour won the most votes, it was the Conservatives who won a majority, with the collapse of the Liberal vote allowing the Conservatives to gain seats by default.

Up to that point, the Labour Party achieved the most votes cast for a party; however, this would be surpassed several times, with the Conservatives breaking the record in 1992 and 2019. (13,948,385 is also the highest number of votes Labour ever won in a general election.) The Conservatives would also exceed the popular vote percentage (48.8%) achieved by Labour, in 1955 and 1959, winning over 49% in both cases. Turnout in this election declined slightly.

The election marked the return of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister and the beginning of Labour's 13-year spell in opposition. It was the third and final general election to be held during the reign of King George VI, as he died the following year on 6 February and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. It was the last election in which the Conservatives did better in Scotland than in England.

The 1951 election was the second one to be covered on BBC Television. On election night, the results were televised from the BBC Alexandra Palace studio in London. Graham Hutton, David Butler and H. G. Nicholas headed the election night coverage from 10.15pm to 4.00am on the television service. On the following day, television coverage started at 10.00am and continued throughout the day until 5.00pm.