At the third time of asking Winston Churchill finally beat Labour in an election. His victory was a narrow one, giving the Conservatives a parliamentary majority of 17 seats.

But it was an unusually bitter blow for his rival of the UK’s last three general elections, Labour leader Clement Attlee.

Despite winning more votes than the Tories Labour took fewer seats, leaving the Conservatives to take back power.

For the cash-strapped Liberals this election saw their decline reach new depths.

They returned six MPs, and saw their share of the vote reduced to a paltry 2.5%, after only being able to afford to put up around 100 candidates to cover over 600 parliamentary constituencies.