


only men with money and property rights could vote

no women regardless of their wealth could vote


only men could be in the Houses of Commons and Lords

With Britain’s growing dependence on its working class to actually keep the Industrial Revolution going – without the workers factories and mines etc. would have simply ground to a halt – why was there no recognition of their importance in the political world ?

The answer is simple. Those who controlled society wished for that situation to remain. During the 1790’s, France had experienced a revolution in which many of the rich families that controlled France were executed by the guillotine including the King (Louis XVI) and his wife Marie Antoinette. France then descended into a period of total chaos. That was exactly what those in Britain wanted to avoid.


There was a fear of the working class but also a belief that they should be kept in their place. Men such as the Duke of Wellington did not want rail lines built as they would give the poor the ability to travel and in his mind the chance to cause trouble. He believed that only his ‘type’ knew how to govern and those not in his class would simply have to put up with it.

As a result of this attitude, some political absurdities occurred. The important cities of the Industrial Revolution were barely represented in the House of Commons – Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham etc) yet so-called rotten boroughs existed. These were ancient constituencies in which barely nobody could vote and yet they were a district of land which returned Members of Parliament (MP’s) to the House of Commons. The two most famous were Old Sarum and Dunwich

Old Sarum was, by a local joke, “one man, two cows and a field” – and it returned two MP’s !! In fact, it had three houses and fifteen people living there.  

Dunwich was arguably worse – this was a village on the coast of Suffolk which had all but collapsed into the sea and yet still returned two MP’s to the House of Commons. 



A painting of the Peterloo Massacre



Despite the government’s attempts to stop protests – or even because of them – the desire for political change grew and grew. More worryingly for those in power, the calls for change also came from the educated middle class – men who were lawyers, accountants etc. The upper class became seemingly more and more isolated.

In 1830, William IV became king. He did not like the idea of change but he felt that if change was to take place it should be controlled by Parliament and not forced on the country by revolutionaries. In 1832, the first political change in centuries took place – The Great Reform Act. What did it introduce ?

56 rotten boroughs were removed as constituencies

30 small constituencies which retuned two MP’s now only returned one

the large industrial cities were given more MP’s in keeping with their size and importance

in general, the middle class was given the right to vote

the number of those who could vote rose from 435,000 to 652,000

But for all these improvements there were still three major weaknesses :

no women could vote

only one in seven men could vote


Some people at the time saw this act as the start of a great new age of democracy while others saw it as a great lost opportunity. However, what no-one denied was that it was a start and that there was no going back. In fact, after 1832, the ‘new’ type of Parliament passed more reformist acts than any before it, including numerous factory and mines acts which forbade the abuse of child and women workers.


the powerful men in society did not want this


The working class was not represented by the Great Reform Act but a group called the Chartists developed in the late 1830’s which pressed for sweeping changes to the political system so that the working class was represented. Chartism came to an end in 1848 but it was a sign that the workers could organise themselves.

The workers also started to organise themselves at a work level. It became clear to them that industry would weaken if they did not play their part. Here was Great Britain celebrating its title as “workshop of the world” but the workers who played such a vital part in this industrial strength had no political rights. New Model Unions developed from 1851 on. These were for skilled men but by the end of the century, trade unions had developed which were for all workers – skilled or not. Their political power was to lead to the birth of what is now called the Labour Party.


better off workers from the industrial cities could vote

those who could vote increased to 2.5 million


But :

no women regardless of their wealth could vote

not all men could vote – there were still many poor men who were denied the right to vote

there was still no secret ballot



In 1872 the Secret Ballot Act was passed. This was a very important development as up to 1872, elections had been in public and voters had to vote in public – as commented by Charles Dickens in “Pickwick Papers”. This left the system very open to abuse as the person voting might rent a house from a potential MP. If that person voted ‘incorrectly’ he might be evicted from the home he rented. Everybody would know who he voted for. The act of 1872 stopped this absurd abuse and brought in secret voting – men voted behind a curtain so no-one would ever know who he voted for. This law still exists to this day.



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