Rye was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Rye in East Sussex. It returned two Members of Parliament to the Parliament of England before 1707, Parliament of Great Britain until 1801 and the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until its representation was halved under the Reform Act 1832.

The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election in 1951. It was a snap election: after Winston Churchill retired in April 1955, Anthony Eden took over and immediately called the election in order to gain a mandate for his government. It resulted in a majority of 60 seats for the government; the result remains the largest party share of the vote at a post-war general election. This was the first general election to be held during the reign of Elizabeth II. She had succeeded her father George VI the year after the previous election.