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Representation of the People Act 1918

Representation
of the People Act 1918
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn 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.
Citation7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent6 February 1918
Other legislation
AmendsParliamentary Elections Act 1695
Repeals/revokes
Repealed byRepresentation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928
Status: Repealed

The Representation of the People Act 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act.[1] The Act extended the franchise in parliamentary elections, also known as the right to vote, to men aged over 21, whether or not they owned property, and to women aged over 30 who resided in the constituency whilst occupying land or premises with a rateable value above £5, or whose husbands did.[2][3] At the same time, it extended the local government franchise to include women aged over 30 on the same terms as men.[4]: xxv  It came into effect at the 1918 general election.

As a result of the Act, the male electorate was extended by 5.2 million[2] to 12.9 million.[5] The female electorate was 8.5 million.[6][3] The Act also created new electoral arrangements, including making residence in a specific constituency the basis of the right to vote, institutionalising the first-past-the-post method of election, and rejecting proportional representation, although this failed by only seven votes in the Commons during the Act's progress.[7]

It was not until the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 that women gained electoral equality. The 1928 Act gave the vote to all women aged over 21, regardless of any property qualification, which added another five million women to the electorate.[8]

  1. ^ Dawson, Michael (25 March 2010). "Money and the real impact of the Fourth Reform Act". The Historical Journal. 35 (2): 369–381. doi:10.1017/S0018246X0002584X. S2CID 155070834.
  2. ^ a b Harold L. Smith (12 May 2014). The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866–1928: Revised 2nd Edition. Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-317-86225-3.
  3. ^ a b "6 February 1918: Women get the vote for the first time", BBC, 6 February 2018.
  4. ^ https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-study-the-right-to-vote/the-right-to-vote/birmingham-and-the-equal-franchise/1918-representation-of-the-people-act/ [bare URL]
  5. ^ Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (30 November 2012). British Electoral Facts 1832-2012 (1st ed.). Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1849541343.
  6. ^ Martin Roberts (2001). Britain, 1846–1964: The Challenge of Change. Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-913373-4.
  7. ^ Blackburn, Robert (24 January 2011). "Laying the Foundations of the Modern Voting System: The Representation of the People Act 1918". Parliamentary History. 30 (1): 33–52. doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2010.00237.x.
  8. ^ Heater, Derek (2006). Citizenship in Britain: A History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 145.

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