Khaki election

A khaki election is a term in British political history. It refers to the British general election of 1900, in which the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was returned to office with an increased majority over the Liberal Party. The reason for this rather bizarre name is that the issues of the election were overshowed completely by the issue of the 2nd Boer War, as "khaki" was the colour of the relatively new military uniform of the British army that had been universally adopted in the Second Boer War. A "khaki election" is now therefore any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment.

The term was later used about two later British elections, the 1918 general election, fought at the end of World War I and resulting in the huge victory of David Lloyd George's wartime coalition government, and the 1945 general election, fought at the end of World War II.

Khaki election, 1900

This was the first time a government increased its majority whilst in power since 1865 and the Unionists (the Conservatives of the time often being called Unionists to show their opposition to Irish home rule) exploited patriotic sentiment arising from the Second Boer War. This is enforced by the fact that the Unionists had a further two years left of power before another election had to be held (in this period a government could stay in power for seven years before calling another election). At this point the war created great support for the Unionists as it was young and seemed to be going well. The Liberals had been divided on the issue; some promoted the war, some protested against it and the majority supported it but were critical of the government's handling of it. This badly weakened the Liberal party and made them an easy target for the Unionists in 1900. However, the war would go on for a further two years and would turn into a humiliation partially contributing to the Conservatives spectacular defeat in 1906 (though this is mainly attributable to a Unionist split over free trade and tariff reform).