2015 United Kingdom general election

2015 United Kingdom general election

← 2010 7 May 2015 2017 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 650 seats in the House of Commons[1] 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	46,354,197
Turnout	66.4%[2] (1.3%)
First party Second party   Leader David Cameron Ed Miliband Party Conservative Labour Leader since 6 December 2005 25 September 2010 Leader's seat Witney Doncaster North Last election 306 seats, 36.1% 258 seats, 29.0% Seats won 330* 232 Seat change 24 26 Popular vote 11,334,726 9,347,324 Percentage 36.9% 30.4% Swing 0.5 pp 1.5 pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Nick Clegg Party SNP Liberal Democrats Leader since 14 November 2014 18 December 2007 Leader's seat Did not stand[n 1] Sheffield Hallam Last election 6 seats, 1.7% 57 seats, 23.0% Seats won 56 8 Seat change 50 49 Popular vote 1,454,436 2,415,862 Percentage 4.7% 7.9% Swing 3.1 pp 15.2 pp
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Figure does not include the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who was included in the Conservative seat total by some media outlets.
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election David Cameron Conservative Prime Minister after election David Cameron Conservative

The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. It was the only general election to be held under the rules of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and was the last general election to be held before the United Kingdom voted to end its membership of the European Union (EU) in June 2016. Local elections took place in most areas of England on the same day and is to date the most recent general election to coincide with local elections. The governing Conservative Party led by the prime minister, David Cameron, won an unexpected victory; opinion polls and political commentators had predicted that the results of the election would cause a second consecutive hung parliament whose composition would be similar to the previous Parliament, which was in effect from the previous national election in 2010. However, opinion polls turned out to have underestimated the Conservatives, as they won 330 of the 650 seats and 36.9 per cent of the votes, giving them a majority of ten seats.

The opposition Labour Party led by Ed Miliband saw a small increase in its share of the vote to 30.4 per cent, but it won 26 fewer seats than in 2010. This gave them 232 MPs. This was the fewest seats the party had won since the 1987 general election, when it had 229 MPs returned. Many senior Labour MPs, including Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander, and Jim Murphy, lost their seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP) won a landslide victory in Scotland, mainly at the expense of Labour, who had held a majority of Scottish seats in the House of Commons at every general election since 1964. The SNP won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats and became the third-largest party in the House of Commons.

The Liberal Democrats, led by the outgoing deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, had their worst result since their formation in 1988, losing 49 of their 57 seats. The Cabinet ministers Vince Cable, Ed Davey, and Danny Alexander lost re-election. The UK Independence Party received 12.6 per cent of the vote, replacing the Liberal Democrats as the third-most popular party, but won only a single seat, Clacton. The party's leader, Nigel Farage, failed to win in South Thanet. The Green Party of England and Wales won its highest ever vote share of 3.8 per cent, and retained their only seat, Brighton Pavilion.^[3] In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two seats after their five-year long absence, and the Alliance Party lost its only seat despite an increase in their vote share. Following the election Miliband and Clegg resigned their leaderships.

The election is considered to have begun a political realignment in the UK, possibly marking a return to the traditional two-party politics dominated by the Conservatives and Labour, seen throughout the second half of the 20th century. The SNP began its domination of Scottish politics. Charles Kennedy, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, made his last public appearance during the election, prior to his death on 1 June 2015.

Notable MPs who retired at this election included the former prime minister Gordon Brown, the former chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, the former leader of the Conservative Party William Hague, and the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell. Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included: Ian Blackford, the future leader of the SNP in the Commons; Angela Rayner, the future deputy leader of the Labour Party; Keir Starmer, the future leader of the Labour Party; and Rishi Sunak, the future prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party. Another future prime minister, Boris Johnson, who had previously left Parliament in 2008 so he could serve as the mayor of London, returned to Parliament as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).