2010 United Kingdom general election

United Kingdom general election, 2010

6 May 2010
All 650 seats of the House of Commons
Leader Gordon Brown David Cameron Nick Clegg Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 24 June 2007 6 December 2005 18 December 2007 Leader's seat Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath Witney Sheffield Hallam Last election 356 seats, 35.3% 198 seats, 32.3% 62 seats, 22.1% Seats needed –23 +116 +264
Incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown Labour

The United Kingdom general election of 2010 will be held on 6 May to elect one MP in each of the 650 constituencies to the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The election was called on 6 April, and Parliament was dissolved on 12 April for the ensuing campaign. Voting will take place between 7.00 am and 10.00 pm. Local elections will also be held in some areas on that day.

The governing Labour Party will be looking to secure a fourth consecutive term in office and to restore support lost since 1997. The Conservative Party will seek to gain a dominant position in UK politics after losses in the 1990s, and to replace Labour as the governing party. The Liberal Democrats hope to make gains from both sides; their most realistic ambition, as the campaign began, was to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament. Since the televised debates between the three leaders, their poll ratings have risen to the point where many are considering the possibility of a Liberal Democrat role in Government.

The Scottish National Party, encouraged by their victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections, have set themselves a target of 20 MPs and will also be hoping to find themselves in a balance of power position. Equally, Plaid Cymru is seeking gains in Wales. Smaller parties who have had successes at local elections and the 2009 European elections (United Kingdom Independence Party, Green Party, British National Party) will look to extend their representation to seats in the House of Commons. The Democratic Unionist Party will be looking to maintain, if not extend, their number of seats, currently the 4th largest party in the House of Commons

The election is the first to be faced by the Labour leader Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, having become party leader in 2007 after the resignation of Tony Blair. It is also the first election to be faced by the main opposition party leaders, David Cameron of the Conservatives and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats. It is thus the first time since 1979 that none of the three main party leaders has headed a previous general election campaign. For the first time at a British election, the three main party leaders will have engaged in a series of televised debates, modelled on the debates held in U.S. Presidential elections.

Timeline

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, almost to the day, since the previous election on 5 May 2005. The key dates are as follows:

• Monday 12 April: Dissolution
• Tuesday 20 April: Last day to file nomination papers, to register to vote, and to request a postal vote
• Thursday 6 May: Election day
• Tuesday 18 May: Parliament assembles
• Tuesday 25 May: State Opening of Parliament
• Thursday 27 May: Voting takes place in the delayed election in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton.

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. They would be hosted by ITV newscaster Alastair Stewart, Sky News political editor Adam Boulton and BBC Question Time presenter David Dimbleby. In March 2010, it was also confirmed that a debate would take place between the financial spokesmen of the three main parties, Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable which took place on Monday 29 March.

The dates of the leaders' debates were fixed as:

• Thursday 15 April: First debate (domestic policy)
• Thursday 22 April: Second debate (international affairs)
• Thursday 29 April: Third debate (economy and taxes)

Other parties criticized the decision to hold television debates. The SNP has insisted that as the leading political party in Scotland in the latest opinion poll, it should be included in any debate broadcast in Scotland, adding "The broadcasters would do well to recall the debacle experienced by the BBC’s Panorama programme in 1995, when they were forced not to broadcast an interview with the Prime Minister in Scotland because it breached the rules of impartiality during a Scottish local election." On 22 December 2009, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader, Lord Pearson stated that his party should be included because it "would be wrong for UKIP, which came second in the last test of national political opinion, to be excluded from these debates."

The first leaders' debate, hosted by ITV, was on 15 April and covered domestic affairs. Instant polling after the event declared Nick Clegg the winner. The debates caused a large, immediate, and unexpected impact on opinion polls in favour of the Liberal Democrats.

The second leaders' debate, hosted by Sky News, was on 22 April and focused on foreign affairs. Following this, 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.

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 now planned to raise the £50,000 that would allow them to proceed with legal action over the prime ministerial debate on BBC 1 on Thursday. 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 the 28th.

Contesting parties

Main parties

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 will go 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 on 24 June 2007 and as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007. Nick Clegg was elected as leader of the Liberal Democrats in December 2007, succeeding Sir Menzies Campbell who resigned on 15 October 2007 after having replaced Charles Kennedy, who had himself resigned 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 is attempting to make a pitch towards "Middle England" — the people who it is said have abandoned the Conservative Party since 1992 for Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

Other parties

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 and Plaid Cymru from Scotland and Wales respectively, and Respect - The Unity Coalition and Health Concern, both of which hold 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.

Within Northern Ireland, none of the main parties from Great Britain has any representation. At the 2005 election, Sinn Féin (whose MPs do not take their seats as they will not swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen) won five seats whilst the Democratic Unionist Party won nine. This continued their expansion at the expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (3 seats) and the Ulster Unionist Party (1 seat) respectively. 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 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 will be contested by other, smaller parties. Parties that won no representatives at Westminster in 2005 but have seats in the devolved assemblies or European Parliament include the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the Progressive Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, the British National Party, the United Kingdom 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 would be for the electoral support of UKIP to force a hung parliament. The Green Party of England and Wales has voted to have a position of leader for the first time; the first leadership election was won by Caroline Lucas, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate to contest the constituency of Brighton Pavilion.

In addition to a wide number of smaller parties which currently have no parliamentary representation, a new loose coalition will contest 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 have 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, have chosen not to participate in the TUSC campaign. The coalition will not run candidates against left-wing Labour or Respect candidates.

MPs not seeking re-election

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

This election has 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, 148 MPs (99 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) have decided not to contest the election.

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 will end 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. This follows from the fact that Labour in the previous election, most efficiently spread its votes to gain seats, while the Liberal Democrats, and to a lesser extent the Conservatives, 'wasted' their votes on safe seats, thus requiring a much larger number of votes per seat won.

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 in the government.

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 April 15, 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:

Below is a graph showing YouGov poll results since the calling of the general election on 6 April 2010.

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, four new English seats were created, and numerous changes were made to the existing constituency boundaries.

Northern Ireland will continue 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.

Marginal seats for main parties

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 have been compiled. They are the seats where the party needs to overturn the lowest percentage majority to win the seat. These are not necessarily the seats where it will be easiest to do so, or the only seats that the party will actually be targeting at the next election. For complete lists of targets for each party, see Conservative targets for next UK election, Labour targets for next UK election and Liberal Democrat targets for next UK election.

N.B. The "Winning Party" is notional, calculated on the Boundary Commission changes made to the seat (except in the case of Scottish constituencies, where revised boundaries were adopted prior to 2005, and the few seats to have seen no boundary changes). This may not be the same as the party that won the seat in the 2005 general election (for instance in the case of Solihull and Rochdale).

Labour targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Swing to gain
1	Sittingbourne and Sheppey style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.03
2	Clwyd West style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.07
3	Hemel Hempstead style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.18
4	Kettering style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.20
5	North East Somerset style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.23
6	Finchley and Golders Green style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.35
7	Shipley style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.48
8	Dundee East style="width: 2px; background-color: #FDF38E;" data-sort-value="Scottish National Party" |	SNP	0.48
9	Rochester and Strood style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.57
10	Wellingborough style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.62

Conservative targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Swing to gain
1	Gillingham and Rainham style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.02
2	Crawley style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.04
3	York Outer style="width: 2px; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	0.22
4	Romsey and Southampton North style="width: 2px; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	0.23
5	Harlow style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.29
6	Cheltenham style="width: 2px; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	0.33
7	Croydon Central style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.36
8	Portsmouth North style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.38
9	Battersea style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.41
10	Hove style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.50

Liberal Democrat targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Swing to gain
1	Guildford style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.09
2	Solihull style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.12
3	Rochdale style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.17
4	Oxford East style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.37
5	Edinburgh South style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.47
6	Hampstead and Kilburn style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.57
7	Eastbourne style="width: 2px; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |	Conservative	0.70
8	Islington South and Finsbury style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.78
9	Watford style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	1.17
10	Ealing Central and Acton style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	1.37

Scottish National Party targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Swing to gain
1	Ochil and South Perthshire style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.74
2	Dundee West style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	7.29

Plaid Cymru targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Swing to gain
1	Ceredigion style="width: 2px; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats" |	Liberal Democrats	0.31
2	Arfon style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	0.91
3	Ynys Môn style="width: 2px; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |	Labour	1.75

Northern Ireland targets

Rank	Constituency	Winning party		Challenging party		Swing to gain
1	Belfast South style="width: 2px; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" |	SDLP style="width: 2px; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" |	DUP	1.93
2	South Antrim style="width: 2px; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" |	DUP style="width: 2px; background-color: #9999FF;" data-sort-value="Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force" |	UCU-NF	4.54
3	Fermanagh and South Tyrone style="width: 2px; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" |	Sinn Féin style="width: 2px; background-color: #DCDCDC;" data-sort-value="Independent (politician)" |	Independent	4.70
4	Belfast South style="width: 2px; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" |	SDLP style="width: 2px; background-color: #9999FF;" data-sort-value="Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force" |	UCU-NF	4.80

Rochdale gaffe

The Rochdale gaffe occurred on 28 April 2010 during campaigning for the 2010 United Kingdom general election. A 65-year-old pensioner from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, gained media celebrity when sitting Prime Minister Gordon Brown called her a "bigoted woman" after she asked questions about Eastern European immigration at a walkabout. Among the topics she confronted Mr Brown about was immigration, complaining about the number of people from Eastern Europe now living in the UK. She has said that she and her family have been lifelong Labour Party supporters.

Brown spent nearly five minutes answering the voter's questions on a range of issues, including tax on pensions, the national debt, and education policy. In response to her query about Eastern European immigrants, he explained that, "A million people have come from Europe but a million British people have gone into Europe. You do know that there’s a lot of British people staying in Europe as well."

At the end of their talk, he told her: "It's been very good to meet you." He smiled at the woman and then got into a waiting car. However, a microphone picked up his words to an aide as he drove away. Brown was caught saying: "That was a disaster. His aide asked: "What did she say?" Brown replied: "Well, just...You should never have put me with that woman. "Whose idea was that?" The aide responded: "I don't know, I didn't see her. It was Sue I think..." Brown went on: "It's just ridiculous." The aide said: "They're pictures, I'm not sure they'll go with that one." "They'll go with it," Brown said. "What did she say," his aide asked. Mr Brown replied: "Oh, everything, she's just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to vote Labour."

After hearing what the Prime Minister had said about her, she said it was "very upsetting". She added: "He's an educated person, why has he come out with words like that? Soon after the incident, Brown talked to Jeremy Vine live on BBC Radio 2 where he publicly apologised to the voter. He is also reported to have made a personal apology to the voter via a telephone call.

Subsequently Brown visited the voter in her house for forty-two minutes in order to apologise in person. Upon emerging, he described himself as a "repentant sinner", while the voter refused to speak to the press.

External links

• British General Election, 2010 resources from Politics Science Resources
• YourNextMP crowd-sourced information on UK candidates, with API feeds licensed under CreativeCommons BY-SA
• TheyWantYourVote information on election candidates in England, Scotland and Wales
• 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). The Swingometer filter also appears to let you filter based on who wins as a result of predicted swings (not just Lab-Con but Con-Lib and Lab-Lib)

Manifestos

Main parties

• Conservatives: Invitation to join the government of Britain
• Labour: A future fair for all
• Liberal Democrats: Change that works for you/Building a fairer Britain

Other parties

• Animals Count: A Blueprint For A Better World For Everyone
• British National Party: Democracy, Freedom, Culture and Identity
• British National Front: National Front 2010 Election Manifesto
• Communist Party of Britain: Britain For The People Not The Bankers
• Co-operative Party: A Cooperative Agenda For A Fourth Term
• Democratic Unionist Party: Let's Keep Northern Ireland Moving Forward
• English Democrats Party: English Democrats 2010 Manifesto
• England First Party: England First Party Brief Manifesto
• Green Party of England and Wales: Fair is Worth Fighting For
• Green Party of Northern Ireland: Make A Difference Vote Green
• Liberal Party: Principle, Policy and Purpose
• Mebyon Kernow: Key Campaign Priorities
• Official Monster Raving Loony Party: The Monster Raving Loony Manifesto
• Pirate Party UK: The 2010 Election Manifesto of the Pirate Party UK
• Plaid Cymru: Think Different. Think Plaid.
• Respect Party: Homes, Jobs and Peace, Manifesto for a Hung Parliament
• Scottish National Party: Elect a local champion.
• Scottish Green Party: A Living Wage For All, Protect Public Services, Support New Green Jobs
• Scottish Socialist Party: For An Independent Socialist Scotland
• Social Democratic and Labour Party: For Your Future
• Socialist Equality Party: Socialist Equality Party Manifesto for the 2010 British General Election
• Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition: No To Cuts and Privatisation! Make the Bosses Pay!
• Traditional Unionist Voice: Putting It Right
• Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force: Invitation to join the government of the United Kingdom
• United Kingdom Independence Party: Empowering the people
• United Kingdom Libertarian Party: For Life, Liberty, and Prosperity

News coverage

Newspapers

• General Election 2010 at the Daily Express
• UK General Election 2010 at the Financial Times
• General Election 2010 at The Guardian
• Election 2010 at The Independent
• General Election 2010 at the Daily Mail
• General Election 2010 at the Daily Mirror
• General Election 2010 at The Sun
• General Election 2010 at The Daily Telegraph
• General Election 2010 at The Times

TV

• General Election 2010 at BBC News Online
• Vote 2010 at Channel 4 News
• Election 2010 at ITV News
• Decision Time at Sky News

Other

• General Election 2010 at LSE Blog

Polls

• Independent and anonymous poll showing how the online community currently plan to vote in the UK General Election on May 6th 2010.]
• Latest polling results and seat projections from Angus Reid Public Opinion
• Voting Intentions from UK Polling Report with Swing Calculator
• Election Prediction Project UK 2010
• Electoral Calculus

Boundary Commissions

• Boundary Commission for England
• Boundary Commission for Scotland
• Boundary Commission for Wales
• June 2006: Boundary changes make it more difficult for Labour to win an overall majority