For most of British history, only a small minority of the population could vote in general elections. The Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884 widened the franchise to most adult men. Working-class voters drove the rise of the Labour Party, founded in 1900, which displaced the Liberals as the main opposition to the Conservatives during and after the First World War.
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The vote was extended to women aged 30 and over in 1918 and to women on equal terms with men in 1928, creating the modern democratic franchise. Today, every adult British, qualifying Commonwealth or Republic of Ireland citizen aged 18 or over and resident in the UK has the right to vote in general elections — provided they are on the electoral register and bring acceptable photo ID.
You may be asked when the Labour Party was founded (1900), or which Acts widened the right to vote in the nineteenth century.
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