1955 general election
Held on 1955-05-26. The result below is the official outcome; underneath it, where we hold the polls, is how close each pollster’s final poll came.
Result
| Party | Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Conservative Party | 49.3% |
| Labour Party | 47.4% |
| Liberal Democrats | 2.8% |
How the final polls compared
Each pollster’s last poll in the 30 days before this election, and how far it was from the result. Only parties the pollster reported are counted.
| Pollster | Final poll | Days before | Parties scored | Difference | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallup | 1955-05-21 | 5 | 3 | 1.0 percentage points | ||||||||||||||||
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How this is measured: for each past election we take each pollster’s last poll in the 30 days before polling day and compare it, party by party, with the result. The figure is the mean absolute difference across the parties that appear in both. Only parties the pollster actually reported are counted. A late shift in opinion is not the same thing as a polling error.