Parliamentary run-up to the 1818 United Kingdom general election

Background. The 1818 election was the fifth general election following the Acts of Union 1800. The fifth Parliament, elected in 1812, reached its statutory end and was dissolved on 10 June 1818. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 4 August 1818 for a maximum seven-year term. The Earl of Liverpool was the Tory leader and Prime Minister.

Political Context. Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, a British Tory statesman, served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827, and was confirmed as prime minister on 8 June 1812. At the 1818 election he was the Tory leader. The last Whig Prime Minister, Lord Grenville, had retired from active politics in 1817, and George Ponsonby had been Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons until his death in 1817.

Dissolution and Summons. The fifth Parliament was dissolved on 10 June 1818. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 4 August 1818. The sixth Parliament lasted only about a year and a half, as King George III's death on 29 January 1820 triggered a dissolution. The election itself took place from mid-June to mid-July 1818.