The first Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1832, known as the first Reform Act or Great Reform Act:
- disenfranchised 56 boroughs in England and Wales and reduced another 31 to only one MP
- created 67 new constituencies
- broadened the franchise's property qualification in the counties, to include small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers
- created a uniform franchise in the boroughs, giving the vote to all householders who paid a yearly rental of pound £ 10 or more and some lodgers
Another change brought by the 1832 Reform Act was the formal exclusion of women from voting in Parliamentary elections, as a voter was defined in the Act as a male person. Before 1832 there were occasional, although rare, instances of women voting.
Limited change had been achieved but for many it did not go far enough. The property qualifications meant that the majority of working men still could not vote. But it had been proved that change was possible and over the next decades the call for further parliamentary reform continued.
