By the end of the First World War, in 1918, the right to vote
was still by no means universal. Less than a third of the
total adult population could vote, in many outlying districts
land-owning 'influence' persisted, and the Liberal
government had stubbornly resisted the pressures of the
suffragette movement for women to be given the vote.
With the Representation of the People Act, introduced by
Lloyd George's Liberals in 1918, Britain finally took steps
towards becoming a modern parliamentary democracy, with a
universal right to vote. As well as making important changes in the
conduct of elections, it virtually tripled the electorate, by making all adult males over 18 eligible to vote, and virtually all women over 30. The voting age for women was eventually lowered to 21 in the 1928 Equal Franchise Act.
