2010 United Kingdom general election

United Kingdom general election, 2010

6 May 2010 (2010-05-06)
All 650 seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader David Cameron Gordon Brown Nick Clegg Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 6 December 2005 24 June 2007 18 December 2007 Leader's seat Witney Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath Sheffield Hallam Last election 198 seats, 32.3% 356 seats, 35.3% 62 seats, 22.1% Seats before 209 349 63 Seats won 305 258 57 Seat change +96 −91 −6 Popular vote 10,683,787 8,604,358 6,827,938 Percentage 36.1% 29.0% 23.0% Swing +3.8% −6.2% +1.0%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.
Prime Minister before election Gordon Brown Labour Subsequent Prime Minister David Cameron Conservative

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 6 May 2010 to elect members to the House of Commons. The general election took place in 649 constituencies across the United Kingdom, under the first-past-the-post system. The Conservative Party under David Cameron won the largest number of votes and seats, but fell short of the 326 seats needed to have an overall majority. It was the first time since 1974, and only the second time since the Second World War, that a British general election returned a hung parliament.

For the first time in a British election, the three main party leaders engaged in a series of televised debates. The third largest party, the Liberal Democrats, achieved a breakthrough in opinion polls after the first debate, in which their leader Nick Clegg was widely seen as the strongest performer. However, on polling day itself their share of the vote increased by only 1%, and they suffered a net loss of five seats. Still, this was the Liberal Democrats' largest popular vote since the party's creation in 1988, and they found themselves in a pivotal role in the formation of the new government.

On 11 May, as coalition talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats seemed to be drawing to a successful conclusion, Gordon Brown announced his resignation as Prime Minister, marking the end of 13 years of Labour government. This made way for David Cameron to be sworn in as Prime Minister just one hour after Queen Elizabeth II accepted Brown's resignation. Just after midnight on 12 May 2010, the Liberal Democrats emerged from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been "approved overwhelmingly", meaning that David Cameron would be leading a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

This was the first time since 1979 that none of the three main party leaders had headed a previous general election campaign. 35% of voters supported a party other than Labour or the Conservatives—the highest such figure since the 1918 general election. The Green Party won its first seat in the Commons, and the Alliance Party won its first seat at the ballot box.

Background

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace on 6 April and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 12 April, confirming in a live press conference in Downing Street, as had long been speculated, that the election would be held on 6 May, five years since the previous election on 5 May 2005. The election was called on 6 April, and Parliament was dissolved on 12 April for the ensuing campaign. The election took place on 6 May in 649 constituencies across the United Kingdom, under the first-past-the-post system, for seats in the House of Commons. Voting in the Thirsk and Malton constituency was postponed for three weeks because of the death of a candidate. There were reports of electors being prevented from voting as polling stations closed at 10:00 p.m., mainly from insufficient time or electoral staff, but also from a lack of ballot papers.

The governing Labour Party had campaigned to secure a fourth consecutive term in office and to restore support lost since 1997. The Conservative Party sought to gain a dominant position in UK politics after losses in the 1990s, and to replace Labour as the governing party. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both sides and hoped to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament. Since the televised debates between the three leaders, their poll ratings had risen to the point where many considered the possibility of a Liberal Democrat role in Government. Polls just before election day saw a slight swing from the Liberal Democrats back to Labour and Conservatives, with the majority of final polls falling within one point of Conservatives 36%, Labour 28%, Liberal Democrats 27%. However, record numbers of undecided voters raised uncertainty about the outcome. The Scottish National Party, encouraged by their victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections, set themselves a target of 20 MPs and were hoping to find themselves in a balance of power position. Equally, Plaid Cymru sought gains in Wales. Smaller parties who have had successes at local elections and the 2009 European elections (UK Independence Party, Green Party, British National Party) looked to extend their representation to seats in the House of Commons. The Democratic Unionist Party looked to maintain, if not extend, their number of seats, having been the fourth largest party in the House of Commons.

The key dates are as follows:

Monday 12 April	Dissolution of Parliament (the 54th) and campaigning officially began
Tuesday 20 April	Last day to file nomination papers, to register to vote, and to request a postal vote
Thursday 6 May	Polling day
Tuesday 11 May	David Cameron is made Prime Minister through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Tuesday 18 May	New Parliament (the 55th) assembles
Tuesday 25 May	State Opening of Parliament
Thursday 27 May	Voting takes place in the delayed poll in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton

Contesting parties

Main three

See also: Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005; Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006; Labour Party leadership election, 2007; and Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2007

All three main parties went into the general election having changed leaders since the last election. David Cameron became Conservative leader in December 2005, replacing Michael Howard. Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in June 2007. Nick Clegg was elected as leader of the Liberal Democrats in December 2007, succeeding Menzies Campbell who had replaced Charles Kennedy in January 2006. The last time all three main parties went into a general election with new leaders was in the 1979 election, when James Callaghan as Labour leader, Margaret Thatcher for the Conservatives, and David Steel with the then-Liberal Party took to the polls.

The leadership of each party may have implications beyond party popularity at the polls, especially if a hung parliament requires the formation of a coalition or minority government. Tony Blair courted the Liberal Democrats for possible coalition in the 1997 Parliament even though Labour had a clear majority, and similarly Gordon Brown made comments about the possibility of a coalition in January 2010. In 2009, it was reported that senior civil servants are to meet with the Liberal Democrats to discuss their policies, an indication of how seriously the prospect of a hung parliament is being taken. Nick Clegg and Menzies Campbell have continued the position of Charles Kennedy of not being prepared to form a coalition with either main party and of voting against any Queen's Speech unless there was an unambiguous commitment in it to introduce proportional representation.

David Cameron has made a pitch to "Middle England"—voters who supposedly abandoned the Conservative Party after 1992 for Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

Others

See also: List of parties contesting the United Kingdom general election, 2010

Other parties with representation at the previous general election at Westminster include the Scottish National Party from Scotland and Plaid Cymru from Wales, and Respect – The Unity Coalition and Health Concern, each of which held one Parliamentary seat from England. Since that election, the Scottish National Party have won the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections and currently control the Scottish Government and also won the largest share of the 2009 European Parliament election vote in Scotland. In Wales, the Labour Party remained the largest party in the Welsh Assembly, though Plaid Cymru increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition government with Labour.

The sole Ulster Unionist Party MP subsequently resigned from the party, leaving them with no representation at Westminster. This shift continued trends in both the nationalist and unionist communities that had been seen in the previous two elections, and was also replicated in the 2007 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2008, the DUP announced their intention to sit with the Conservative Party in parliament, and in 2009 the UUP and the Conservative Party announced they had formed an electoral alliance: the two parties will field joint candidates for future elections under the banner of "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force".

Many constituencies were contested by other, smaller parties. Parties that won no representatives at Westminster in 2005 but have seats in the devolved assemblies or European Parliament included the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Progressive Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, the British National Party, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and the Green parties in the UK: the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Green Party in Northern Ireland. In 2009, Nigel Farage announced his intention to resign as UKIP leader to focus his attention on becoming a Member of Parliament. Farage was replaced by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, elected by party members, whose stated intention was for the electoral support of UKIP to force a hung parliament. The Green Party of England and Wales voted to have a position of leader for the first time; the first leadership election was won by Caroline Lucas, who successfully contested the constituency of Brighton Pavilion.

In addition to a wide number of smaller parties which had no parliamentary representation, a new loose coalition contested a general election for the first time. The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), is a grouping of left-wing parties that participated in the 2009 European Parliament elections under the name of No2EU; members include the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Alliance, Socialist Resistance, and is supported by some members of UNISON, the National Union of Teachers, the University and College Union, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, and the Public and Commercial Services Union. Several members of these unions agreed to run as candidates under the TUSC banner. However, some former members of NO2EU, such as the Liberal Party and the Communist Party of Britain, chose not to participate in the TUSC campaign. The coalition did not run candidates against left-wing Labour or Respect candidates.

MPs declining re-election

Main article: MPs standing down at the United Kingdom general election, 2010

This election had an unusually high number of MPs choosing not to seek re-election with more standing down than did so at the 1945 election (which on account of the extraordinary wartime circumstances came ten years after the preceding election). This has been attributed to the expenses scandal and the fact that redundancy-style payments for departing MPs may be scrapped after the election.

In all, 149 MPs (100 Labour, 35 Conservatives, 7 Liberal Democrats, 2 Independents, 1 Independent Conservative and 1 member each from Plaid Cymru, the Scottish National Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party) decided not to contest the election.

Boundary changes

Main articles: Boundary changes for the United Kingdom general election, 2010 and Constituencies in the United Kingdom general election, 2010

The notional results of the 2005 election, if they had taken place with the new boundaries

Each of the four national Boundary Commissions is required by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (as amended by the Boundary Commissions Act 1992) to conduct a general review of all the constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every eight to twelve years to ensure the size and composition of constituencies are as fair as possible. Based on the Rallings and Thrasher studies using ward by ward data from local elections and the 2005 general election, the new boundaries to be used in 2010 would have returned nine fewer Labour MPs had they been in place at the previous election; given that there are to be four more seats in the next parliament this notionally reduces Labour's majority from 66 to 44.

Pursuant to Boundary Commission for England recommendations, the number of seats in England increased by four, and numerous changes were made to the existing constituency boundaries.

Northern Ireland continued to elect 18 MPs, but minor changes were made to the eastern constituencies in accordance with the Northern Ireland Boundary Commission's recommendations. For the first time, these changes include the splitting of an electoral ward between two constituencies.

Following the recommendations of the Boundary Commission for Wales, the total number of seats is to remain at 40, although new seats have been recommended by radical redrawing of boundaries in Clwyd and Gwynedd: Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd replace Caernarfon and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy respectively; Aberconwy replaces Conwy. Currently Welsh constituencies have electorates on average around 14,000 smaller than their counterparts in England.

Scotland saw its most recent large-scale review completed in 2004, so its 59 constituencies remain the same as at the 2005 general election.

Campaign

April

An election sign put up by the Scottish Labour Party in Stornoway in the Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency, photographed on 7 April 2010, the first full day of campaigning

The prospective Labour candidate for Moray, Stuart Maclennan, was sacked after making offensive comments on his Twitter page, referring to elderly voters as "coffin dodgers", voters in the North of Scotland as "teuchters", and insulting politicians such as David Cameron, Nick Clegg, John Bercow and Diane Abbott.

The UKIP candidate for Thirsk and Malton—John Boakes—died, causing the election in the constituency to be postponed until 27 May.

Philip Lardner, the Conservative candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran was suspended from the party for comments he made about homosexuality on his website, describing it as not "normal behaviour". Andrew Fulton, chair of the Scottish Conservative Party called the comments "deeply offensive and unacceptable", adding, "These views have no place in the modern Conservative party." However, he would still appear as a Conservative candidate because it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper.

2,378 postal voters in Bristol West were wrongly sent ballot papers for Bristol East by mistake. Bristol City Council officials asked people to tear up the wrong papers and said "Every effort will be made to ensure delivery [of new ballot papers] by 30 April."

Gordon Brown privately described a 65-year-old pensioner, Gillian Duffy, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, as a "bigoted woman" after she asked him about vulnerable people not receiving benefits because non-vulnerable people are receiving them, including "all these Eastern Europeans what are coming in". Brown's remarks were recorded by a Sky News microphone he was still wearing, and widely broadcast. Soon after the incident, Brown talked to Jeremy Vine live on BBC Radio 2 where he publicly apologised to Duffy. Subsequently Brown visited Duffy in her house for 45 minutes in order to apologise in person. Upon emerging, he described himself as a "penitent sinner", while Duffy refused to speak to the press and would not shake hands with him in front of the cameras. She said the incident had left her feeling more sad than angry and that she would not be voting for Labour or any other party.

The Scottish National Party failed in a court action to ban the broadcast in Scotland of the final party leaders debate. They had argued that "the corporation [the BBC] had breached its rules on impartiality by excluding the SNP." The judge, Lady Smith, ruled that "the SNP's case 'lacks the requisite precision and clarity'" and added she could not "conclude the BBC had breached impartiality rules." Additionally, broadcasting regulator Ofcom ruled that it had not "upheld complaints received from the SNP and Plaid Cymru about The First Election Debate broadcast on ITV1 on Thursday 15 April 2010."

The leader of the UK Independence Party, Lord Pearson, wrote an open letter to Somerset newspapers, asking voters to support Conservative candidates, rather than UKIP candidates in the Somerton and Frome, Taunton Deane and Wells constituencies. This action was criticised by UKIP candidates who refused to stand down.

Labour candidate for Bristol East and former MP Kerry McCarthy revealed information about postal votes cast in the constituency on Twitter. Avon and Somerset police said they were "looking into a possible alleged breach of electoral law." Bristol City Council stated that "This is a criminal matter and [it] will be for the police to decide what action to take."

The former Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to the campaign trail for Labour, visiting a polyclinic in Harrow West, after a troubled Labour campaign.

Postal voters in the marginal Vale of Glamorgan constituency had to be issued with new ballot papers after mistakenly being told they did not have to sign applications for postal votes.

May

In Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, 749 postal voters were sent ballot papers "which asked voters to pick three candidates instead of one." Haringey Council had to deliver new ballot papers by hand.

The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into allegations of bogus voter registration after revelations that fictitious names had been added to the electoral roll in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was also reported that a last minute surge in applications to vote before the 20 April deadline had led to 5,000 names being added to the register without being checked, enough to sway the outcome of the election.

The Labour candidate for North West Norfolk, Manish Sood, described Gordon Brown as Britain's worst ever Prime Minister. The comments, which he repeated to a variety of news outlets, took attention away from the previous day's speech by Brown to Citizens UK, widely described as his best of the campaign.

A Conservative Party activist in Peterborough was arrested after alleged incidents of postal voting fraud.

Simon Bennett resigned as the head of the British National Party's online operation, then redirected its website to his own website on which he launches an attack against the party's leadership.

Polling station in Camberwell in the Camberwell and Peckham constituency

On the morning of polling day, the former leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, was injured when a light aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed near Brackley, Northamptonshire. There were also several reports of voters being locked out of polling stations in Sheffield Hallam, Manchester and Leeds, "and police said one London polling station was open at 2230 BST." Counting in Londonderry was also suspended around 2300 UTC, after a car which was abandoned outside the counting centre caused a bomb scare.

The counts for the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies were suspended due to a security alert.

The first major shift occurred when Peter Robinson, incumbent First Minister of Northern Ireland, lost his seat to Naomi Long of the Alliance Party.

Debates

Main article: United Kingdom general election debates, 2010

Following a campaign by Sky News and with agreement of the party leaders. it was announced on 21 December 2009 that there would be three leaders' debates, each in primetime, and a subsequent announcement in March 2010 that a debate between the financial spokesmen of the three main parties, Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable would be held on 29 March.

Date	Host	Location	Moderator	Subject	Highlights
15 April	ITV	Manchester	Alastair Stewart	Domestic policy	Instant polling after the event unanimously declared Nick Clegg the winner. This first debate caused a large, immediate, and unexpected impact on opinion polls in favour of the Liberal Democrats.
22 April	Sky News	Bristol	Adam Boulton	International affairs	Nick Clegg and David Cameron came out best in the instant polls with Gordon Brown very closely behind. Nick Clegg, having received such a surge after the first debate, was judged to have fended off the Labour Party and Conservative Party attacks. Gordon Brown was judged to have drastically improved his performance, and David Cameron was judged to have overcome the nerves that commentators believed affected him in the First Debate. In the build-up, the Liberal Democrats were affected by claims Clegg had received secret donations from businessmen, although he subsequently released his financial statements to show that no improper conduct had occurred.
29 April	BBC	Birmingham	David Dimbleby	Economy and taxes	In the third and final poll, David Cameron was widely regarded as the party leader who made the best impression to the audience at home. At the end of the debating night, the Conservatives had gained a 5% lead over the Labour Party.

The SNP insisted that as the leading political party in Scotland in the latest opinion poll, it should be included in any debate broadcast in Scotland. On 22 December 2009, the UKIP leader, Lord Pearson stated that his party should also be included. Following a decision by the BBC Trust not to uphold a complaint from the SNP and Plaid Cymru over their exclusion from the planned BBC debate, the SNP announced on 25 April that they would proceed with legal action over the debate scheduled for 29 April. The party said it was not trying to stop the broadcast but it wanted an SNP politician included for balance. The SNP lost the case, in a judgement delivered on 28 April.

Polling

Main article: Opinion polling in the United Kingdom general election, 2010

See also: Exit poll, Opinion poll, Spoiler effect, Tactical voting, Voting system, and Wasted vote

Since each MP is elected separately by the first past the post voting system, it is impossible to precisely project a clear election outcome from overall UK shares of the vote. Not only can individual constituencies vary markedly from overall voting trends, but individual countries and regions within the UK may have a very different electoral contest that is not properly reflected in overall share of the vote figures.

Therefore, the first past the post system means that the number of MPs elected may not reflect the overall popular vote share across the parties. Thus, it is not necessarily the party with the largest share of the popular vote that ends up with the largest number of MPs. (See details of the elections in 1951 and February 1974) Since 1935 no party has achieved more than 50% of the popular vote in a UK general election. The voting system favours parties with relatively concentrated support: a widely distributed vote leaves a party at risk of getting a large vote share but doing poorly in terms of numbers of seats (as the SDP-Liberal Alliance did in the 1980s), whereas parties with localised votes can win seats with a relatively small share of the vote.

That said, in previous elections, approximate forecasting of results were achieved by assuming that the swing in each individual constituency will be the same across the country. This system, known as uniform national swing (UNS) is used by much of the media in the UK to assess and extrapolate electoral fortunes from opinion poll data, though there has been criticism that such predictions may be naive and unreliable, even from providers of such data. By using UNS projections, several media commentators and politicians have suggested that significant swings towards the Liberal Democrats in the opinion polls may not necessarily amount to significant gains in terms of parliamentary seats, including predictions that even if the Liberal Democrats had the most votes, and Labour the least, it could be the case that Labour retains the most seats while the Lib Dems have the fewest.

Normally governments can easily survive for a full parliamentary term on a majority of more than 20 seats over all other parties. Below that level there is a danger of by-elections and MPs crossing the floor of the House reducing the government to a minority such that it would be at increased risk of losing a vote of no confidence.

Polling since 2005

Immediately following the previous general election, the Labour party held a double-digit lead in opinion polls. However, over the course of 2005, this lead was eroded somewhat. By December 2005, the Conservative party showed its first small leads in opinion polls following the controversial 90 days detention proposals and the election of David Cameron to the leadership of the Conservative party.

In early 2006, opinion polls were increasingly mixed with small leads given alternately to Labour and Conservative. From the May 2006 local elections, in which Labour suffered significant losses, the Conservatives took a small single-digit lead in opinion polls. Labour regained the lead in June 2007 following the resignation of Tony Blair and the appointment of Gordon Brown as prime minister. From November 2007, the Conservatives again took the lead and, from then, extended their lead into double digits, particularly in response to the MPs' expenses scandal, although there was some evidence that the lead narrowed slightly towards the end of 2009. By the end of February 2010, Ipsos MORI, ICM, YouGov and ComRes polls had all found a sufficient narrowing of the Conservative lead for media speculation about a hung parliament to return.

From 15 April 2010, following the first televised debate of the party leaders, however, polling data changed dramatically, with the Lib Dem vote proportion rising to 28–33%, and the Conservative vote proportion falling, putting all three parties within the margin of error of each other. In some polls, the Liberal Democrats have taken the lead from the Conservatives. Under UNS projections, this makes a hung parliament highly probable, if Lib Dem performance were to persist.

After the second debate on 22 April the polls, on average, place the Conservatives in the lead on 33%, the Liberal Democrats in second on 30% and Labour in third on 28%. If these polls reflected the election day results on a uniform swing nationwide, Labour would have the most seats in a hung Parliament.

The following graph shows polls recorded over the entire period by ICM:

  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats   Other

The following graph shows YouGov poll results since the calling of the general election on 6 April 2010:

Exit poll

At 10 pm on election day, coinciding with the closure of the polls, the results of an exit poll collected for the BBC, Sky and ITV news services were announced. Data were gathered from individuals at 130 polling stations around the country. The results of the poll initially suggested a hung parliament with the Conservative Party 19 seats from a controlling majority; this was later adjusted to 21 seats. The distribution of seats amongst the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and other parties was initially suggested to be 307, 255, 59 and 29 respectively, although the seat numbers were later changed to 303, 251, 69, and 27 respectively.

Initial reaction to the exit poll by various commentators was of surprise at the apparent poor prospects for the Liberal Democrats because it was odds with many opinion polls undertaken in the previous weeks. However, the actual results showed that the exit poll was a good predictor.

A later BBC Exit poll (05:36 BST) predicted the Conservatives on 306, 20 short of an overall majority, Labour on 262, and Liberal Democrats on 55.

Newspaper endorsements

Main article: Newspaper endorsements in the United Kingdom general election, 2010

National newspapers in the United Kingdom traditionally endorse political parties before a general election. The following table shows which parties major papers are endorsing (or blank if they have not declared a preference).

Dailies				Sundays
Newspaper	Endorsement			Newspaper	Endorsement
Daily Express style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	Sunday Express style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |		Conservative
The Guardian style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	The Observer style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |		Liberal Democrats
Daily Mail style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	The Mail on Sunday style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |		Conservative
Daily Mirror style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	Sunday Mirror style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |		Labour
				The People		Coalition
The Sun style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	News of the World style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |		Conservative
The Daily Telegraph style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	The Sunday Telegraph style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |		Conservative
The Times style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	The Sunday Times style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |		Conservative
The Independent style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	The Independent on Sunday
Evening Standard style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative
Financial Times style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative

The Independent and The Guardian advocated tactical voting to maximise the chance of a Liberal Democrat – Labour coalition, in order to make electoral reform a possibility.

Marginal seats

Further information: Conservative targets for the 2010 United Kingdom general election, Labour targets for the 2010 United Kingdom general election, and Liberal Democrat targets for the 2010 United Kingdom general election

Following the Boundary Commissions' reports recommending changes to seats in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, various estimates have been made of the electoral effect of the changes in each constituency. The most respected of these estimates is The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, which was published in February 2007. The website UKPollingReport has also compiled estimates. The various estimates differ in detail.

Arising out of those estimates, lists of the most marginal seats were compiled. They were the seats where a party needed to overturn the lowest percentage majority to win the seat. These were not necessarily the seats where it was easiest to do so, or the only seats that the party were actually targeting.

Results

For results by county/region and analysis, see Results breakdown of the United Kingdom general election, 2010.

For results by constituency, see Constituency results of the United Kingdom general election, 2010.

For details by MP, see MPs elected in the UK general election, 2010.

At 9:41am on 7 May, the BBC confirmed a "hung parliament", as it was by then impossible for the Conservative party to gain the number of seats needed to form a majority government. (326 or 323 for a majority, as the five Sinn Féin MPs are expected to boycott the House of Commons. At that time the Conservatives stood at 290 seats, Labour at 247 and Liberal Democrats at 51.) There is one constituency seat that, due to the unexpected death of one of the candidates, will be contested on 27 May and is currently unseated.

Proportion of seats (outer ring) shown with proportion of votes (inner ring).

Of the 532 seats contested in England (a final seat will be contested on 27 May), the Conservatives won an absolute majority with 61 seats more than all other parties combined, and secured an average swing of 5.6% from Labour.

Each of Scotland's 59 seats was won by the party that won it at the 2005 election, with Labour regaining the two seats they lost in by-elections since 2005. There was a swing to Labour from the Conservatives of 0.8% (with Labour increasing its share of the vote by 2.5% and the Conservatives increasing by just 0.9%) This left the Conservatives with just a single MP representing a Scottish constituency.

There were 40 seats contested in Wales. The Conservative share rose from three to eight, taking one from the Liberal Democrats and four from Labour. Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru gained one extra seat, Arfon, from Labour. Overall, Labour lost four seats but remained the biggest party, with 26.

There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland. Both Irish nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and SDLP, held their seats. The unionist parties, DUP and UUP (the latter in an electoral pact with the Conservatives), lost one seat each. This left the nationalist parties with eight seats, the unionist parties with eight seats (all DUP), the Alliance with one seat and an independent unionist with one seat. It is the first time since the Partition of Ireland that unionist parties failed to secure a majority of Northern Ireland's Westminster seats in a general election.

 Summary of the May 2010 House of Commons of the United Kingdom election results

Political party		Leader	Candidates						Votes
			Nominated	Elected	Of total (%)	Gained	Lost	Net	Count	Proportion of total (%)	Change in proportion (%)
	Conservative	David Cameron	631	306	47.1	100	3	+97	10,703,754	36.1	+3.7
	Labour	Gordon Brown	631	258	39.7	3	94	−91	8,609,527	29.0	−6.2
	Liberal Democrats	Nick Clegg	631	57	8.8	8	13	−5	6,836,824	23.0	+1.0
	UKIP	Lord Pearson	558	0	0	0	0	0	919,546	3.1	+0.9
	BNP	Nick Griffin	338	0	0	0	0	0	564,331	1.9	+1.2
	SNP	Alex Salmond	59	6	0.9	0	0	0	491,386	1.7	+0.1
	Green	Caroline Lucas	310	1	0.2	1	0	+1	265,247	0.9	−0.2
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	17	5	0.8	0	0	0	171,942	0.6	−0.1
	DUP	Peter Robinson	16	8	1.2	0	1	−1	168,216	0.6	−0.3
	Plaid Cymru	Ieuan Wyn Jones	40	3	0.5	1	0	+1	165,394	0.6	−0.1
	SDLP	Margaret Ritchie	18	3	0.5	0	0	0	110,970	0.4	−0.1
	UCU-NF	Reg Empey	17	0	0	0	1	−1	102,361	0.3	−0.1
	English Democrat	Robin Tilbrook	107	0	0	0	0	0	64,826	0.2	0.2
	Alliance	David Ford	18	1	0.2	1	0	+1	42,762	0.1	0.0
	Respect	Salma Yaqoob	11	0	0	0	1	−1	33,251	0.1	−0.1
	TUV	Jim Allister	10	0	0	0	0	0	26,300	0.1	—
	Speaker	—	1	1	0.2	0	0	0	22,860	0.1	0.0
	Independent – Rodney Connor	—	1	0	0	0	0	0	21,300	0.1	—
	Independent – Sylvia Hermon	—	1	1	0.2	1	0	+1	21,181	0.1	—
	Christian	George Hargreaves	71	0	0	0	0	0	18,623	0.1	+0.1
	Scottish Green	Eleanor Scott and Patrick Harvie	20	0	0	0	0	0	16,827	0.1	0.0
	Health Concern	Richard Taylor	1	0	0	0	1	−1	16,150	0.1	0.0
	Independent – Bob Spink	—	1	0	0	0	0	0	12,174	0.0	—
	TUSC	Dave Nellist	37	0	0	0	0	0	12,275	0.0	—
	National Front	Ian Edward	17	0	0	0	0	0	10,784	0.0	0.0
	Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy	John Stevens	1	0	0	0	0	0	10,331	0.0	—
	Monster Raving Loony	Howling Laud Hope	27	0	0	0	0	0	7,510	0.0	0.0
	Socialist Labour	Arthur Scargill	23	0	0	0	0	0	7,196	0.0	−0.1
	Liberal	Rob Wheway	5	0	0	0	0	0	6,781	0.0	−0.1
	Blaenau Gwent PV	Dai Davies	1	0	0	0	1	−1	6,458	0.0	−0.1
	CPA	Alan Craig	17	0	0	0	0	0	6,276	0.0	0.0
	Mebyon Kernow	Dick Cole	6	0	0	0	0	0	5,379	0.0	0.0
	Lincolnshire Independent	Marianne Overton	3	0	0	0	0	0	5,311	0.0	—
	Mansfield Independent Forum		1	0	0	0	0	0	4,339	0.0	—
	Green (NI)	Mark Bailey and Karly Greene	4	0	0	0	0	0	3,542	0.0	0.0
	Socialist Alternative	Peter Taaffe	4	0	0	0	0	0	3,298	0.0	0.0
	Trust	Stuart Wheeler	2	0	0	0	0	0	3,233	0.0	—
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox and Frances Curran	10	0	0	0	0	0	3,157	0.0	−0.1
	People Before Profit	—	1	0	0	0	0	0	2,936	0.0	—
	Local Liberals People Before Politics		1	0	0	0	0	0	1,964	0.0	—
	Independent – Esther Rantzen	—	1	0	0	0	0	0	1,872	0.0	—
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Mike Davies	6	0	0	0	0	0	1,581	0.0	0.0
	SDP	Peter Johnson	2	0	0	0	0	0	1,551	0.0	—
	Pirate	Andrew Robinson	9	0	0	0	0	0	1,348	0.0	—
	Common Sense Party	Howard Thomas	2	0	0	0	0	0	1,173	0.0	0.0
	Staffordshire Independent Group		1	0	0	0	0	0	1,208	0.0	0.0
	Tendring First		1	0	0	0	0	0	1,078	0.0	0.0
	Solihull and Meriden Residents Association		2	0	0	0	0	0	977	0.0	0.0
	Communist	Robert Griffiths	6	0	0	0	0	0	947	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Labour	Brian Powell	1	0	0	0	0	0	842	0.0	0.0
	English Independence Party		1	0	0	0	0	0	803	0.0	0.0
	Democratic Nationalist Party		2	0	0	0	0	0	753	0.0	—
	Save King George Hospital		1	0	0	0	0	0	746	0.0	0.0
	Workers Revolutionary	Sheila Torrance	7	0	0	0	0	0	738	0.0	0.0
	Peace	John Morris	3	0	0	0	0	0	737	0.0	0.0
	Animal Protection	—	4	0	0	0	0	0	675	0.0	0.0
	Christian Movement for Great Britain		2	0	0	0	0	0	598	0.0	0.0
	New Millennium Bean Party	Captain Beany	1	0	0	0	0	0	558	0.0	0.0
Total			3,720	650	100	115	115	0	29,687,604	Turnout: 65.1

Notable defeated incumbents

Although an unusually large number of MPs stood down prior to the election, there were several notable cases of incumbent MPs being defeated.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland a swing of more than 20% resulted in First Minister Peter Robinson losing his Belfast East seat to the Alliance Party's Naomi Long, giving Alliance its first ever Westminster election win, and their second MP in the party's existence.

Sylvia Hermon retained her seat in North Down, significantly increasing her percentage of the popular vote despite a slightly lower voter turnout and her defection from the UUP/Conservative alliance to stand as an independent.

Reg Empey, a sitting MLA and leader of the UUP/Conservative alliance, lost standing for the first time in South Antrim. This election therefore saw the leaders of both the main Unionist parties in Northern Ireland failing to win seats. Also, the Ulster Unionist Party now has no MPs at Westminster.

However, on the Nationalist side, party leader Margaret Ritchie (SDLP) won her first seat. Also Westminster abstentionist party leader Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin) and former SDLP leader Mark Durkan both retained their seats.

Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew retained her seat in Fermanagh & South Tyrone, winning by just four votes over the independent unionist unity candidate, Rodney Connor, after three recounts.

Liberal Democrats

• Lembit Öpik lost his Montgomeryshire seat having previously held a 7000-vote majority
• Science spokesman Evan Harris lost Oxford West and Abingdon by 176 votes
• Communities and Local Government spokesman Julia Goldsworthy lost Camborne and Redruth by 66 votes
• Heritage spokesman Richard Younger-Ross lost Newton Abbot to the Conservatives by 523 votes
• Susan Kramer lost her Richmond Park seat to environmental journalist Zac Goldsmith
• Health spokesman Sandra Gidley lost Romsey and Southampton North by 125 votes

Labour ministers

Former Labour Home Secretaries Jacqui Smith (Redditch) and Charles Clarke (Norwich South) lost to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats respectively. The following incumbent ministers also lost their seats:

• Minister of State for Third Sector - Angela Evans Smith (Basildon)
• Minister of State for the Armed Forces - Bill Rammell (Harlow)
• Minister of State for Health Services - Mike O'Brien (North Warwickshire)
• Minister of State for Health - Phil Hope (Corby)
• Solicitor General for England and Wales - Vera Baird (Redcar)
• Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform - Jim Knight (South Dorset)
• Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury - Sarah McCarthy-Fry (Portsmouth North)
• Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury - Bob Blizzard (Waveney)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities - Shahid Malik (Dewsbury)
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Energy and Climate Change - David Kidney (Stafford)
• Minister of State for Public Health - Gillian Merron (Lincoln)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equality - Michael (Jabez) Foster (Hastings and Rye)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development - Michael Foster (Worcester)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport - Chris Mole (Ipswich)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport - Paul Clark (Gillingham and Rainham)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for Disabled People - Jonathan Shaw (Chatham and Aylesford)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Services - Ann Keen (Brentford and Isleworth)
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice - Claire Ward (Watford) all also lost their seats.
• Cabinet Office minister Dawn Butler (Brent Central; lost to Sarah Teather after both their seats (Brent South and Brent East) were abolished in boundary changes)

In addition, former Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform and Minister for London Tony McNulty lost Harrow East.

Ed Balls held his seat in Morley and Outwood by just 1,001, despite much anticipation of a "Portillo moment". Former junior transport minister and actress Glenda Jackson retained Hampstead and Kilburn by just 42 votes.

Others

Respect MP George Galloway chose not to contest his Bethnal Green & Bow seat, instead challenging Minister of State for Farming and the Environment Jim Fitzpatrick in the nearby Poplar and Limehouse constituency. Galloway lost, leaving the House of Commons after 23 years as an MP.

Richard Taylor of Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern lost his Wyre Forest seat to the Conservatives.

Green leader Caroline Lucas won Brighton Pavilion.

BNP leader Nick Griffin finished in third place after a heavy loss in Barking to Labour MP Margaret Hodge.

Parliamentary demographics

The election resulted in an increase in the number of MPs from ethnic minorities from 14 to 27, including the first black, Asian female Conservative MPs, Helen Grant and Priti Patel, and the first female Muslim MPs, Rushanara Ali, Shabana Mahmood and Yasmin Qureshi. The number of female MPs rose to 141, an increase from 19.5% to 22% of all MPs, and the highest ever total; the number of Conservative MPs rose from 18 to 48.

Effect of the expenses scandal

The predicted backlash from the 2009 expenses scandal of a rise in the number of successful Independents in the election failed to materialise. In addition, few results in seats were attributed solely to the scandal, even though cleaning up politics and Westminster became a major theme of all three main parties' election campaigns.

Independents supported by the Jury Team or the Independent Network, support networks who both attempted to select and promote high quality Independents who had signed up for the so called Nolan Principles of public life, set out in the Committee on Standards in Public Life, failed to have any significant impact, particularly Esther Rantzen's bid to take the Luton South constituency on an anti-sleaze platform, eventually polling in 4th place with just 4.4% of the vote.

Similarly, while not an Independent, the UKIP Leader Nigel Farage failed in his attempt to unseat Speaker John Bercow, heavily criticised for his handling of the expenses scandal. Going against the normal political convention, Farage decided to stand in the Speaker's seat, which is normally not contested by major parties. His bid failed after he polled third in the vote for the Buckingham constituency with 17.4%, behind the re-elected speaker with 47.3%, although an Independent John Stevens, standing on the Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy ticket, polled second with 21.4%.

One high profile loss that was attributed to the scandal was the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's loss of her Redditch seat, following a 9.2% swing to the Conservatives. Ann Keen lost Brentford and Isleworth, but her husband Alan Keen retained Feltham and Heston. The couple were criticised for claiming for a second home in central London while rarely staying in their nearby constituency home. Former Home Office minister Tony McNulty lost Harrow East to the Conservative Bob Blackman and Conservative David Heathcoat-Amory lost Wells to the Liberal Democrat Tessa Munt. McNulty had apologised in the House of Commons after using expenses to allow his parents to live rent-free in his constituency home, and Heathcoat-Amory was criticised for claiming manure on expenses.

Voting problems

Problems occurred with voting in various areas of the country, a situation which was condemned by politicians of various parties. Jenny Watson, chair of the Electoral Commission, the independent body that oversees the electoral process, was forced on to television to defend preparations and procedures. The Electoral Commission has announced it will be carrying out a "thorough investigation".

In Chester there were reports that 600 voters who were registered to vote were unable to vote due to the electoral roll not having been updated, while in Hackney, Islington, Leeds, Lewisham, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield long queues led to many voters being turned away and unable to vote as the 10 pm deadline arrived. Some dissatisfied voters staged sit-ins to protest against what some of them had called "disenfranchisement". In Liverpool, higher than expected turnout meant several polling stations ran out of ballot papers, with defeated council leader Warren Bradley stating that some residents were unable to cast their votes.

In parts of Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam seat it was reported that students from the city's two universities were placed in separate queues from 'local' residents, who were given priority, resulting in many students being unable to cast their votes.

Just days after the election Clegg spoke at a Take Back Parliament rally saying the results showed the British system is broken and needs fixing, while vowing the voices of the protesters would be heard. The rally demanded Clegg affirm his promise to push for "democratic and proportional representation of the British public".

Due to closure of United Kingdom airspace as a result of the Icelandic eruption, potential expat voters in New Zealand were denied a vote when postal voting papers arrived too late to be returned to the UK. , although Australian broadcaster SBS suggested that given the extremely tight timetabling of overseas votes, there is very little chance that voting papers [for voters outside Europe] will be received, let alone returned, in time to be counted.

Post-election events

When it became clear that no party would achieve an overall majority the three main party leaders made public statements offering to discuss the options for forming the next government with the other parties.

On 11 May 2010, as coalition talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats seemed to be drawing to a successful conclusion, Gordon Brown announced that he was resigning as Prime Minster and also as Labour leader. He then left Downing Street, accompanied by his wife and children driving to Buckingham Palace where he tendered his resignation to the Queen and advised her to call for David Cameron. This made way for David Cameron to be sworn in as Prime Minister just one hour after the Queen had accepted Brown's resignation. In his first address outside 10 Downing Street, he announced his intention to form a coalition government, the first since the Second World War, with the Liberal Democrats. As one of his first moves, Cameron appointed Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.

Just after midnight on 12 May 2010, the Liberal Democrats emerged from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been "approved overwhelmingly", meaning that David Cameron would be leading a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

On 12 May 2010, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats jointly published the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement laying out the terms of the coalition deal. This document is expected to form the foundations of the Queen's Speech on 25 May 2010. It emphasises policies which the two parties hold in common, and sets out the compromises that were agreed where they differ. It also sets out specific issues upon which no agreement could be reached, and on which the Liberal Democrat MPs may abstain in a Commons vote. These included the Conservatives' proposed tax breaks for married couples, higher education funding reform, and construction of new nuclear power stations.

External links

• British General Election, 2010 resources from Politics Science Resources
• Your Candidate Finder allows you to filter all the candidates in the database based on everything from what type of education they had, to their age, gender, profession, county and role (i.e. contesting, defending, standing for the first time or again)
• NSD: European Election Database - UK publishes regional level election data (NUTS 1); allows for comparisons of election results, 1992-2010.
• Parties and issues from the BBC