2005 United Kingdom general election

United Kingdom general election, 2005

5 May 2005
All 646 seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tony Blair Michael Howard Charles Kennedy Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 21 July 1994 6 November 2003 9 August 1999 Leader's seat Sedgefield Folkestone & Hythe Ross, Skye, & Lochaber Last election 413 seats, 40.7% 166 seats, 31.7% 52 seats, 18.3% Seats won 355 198 62 Seat change -47* +33* +11* Popular vote 9,552,436 8,784,915 5,985,454 Percentage 35.2% 32.4% 22.0% Swing -5.5% +0.7% +3.8%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Indicates boundary change - so this is a nominal figure
PM before election Tony Blair Labour Subsequent PM Tony Blair Labour

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The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons. The general election took place in 646 constituencies across the United Kingdom, under the first-past-the-post system, for seats in the House of Commons. All but one constituency polled on 5 May; the South Staffordshire vote was postponed and took place on 23 June due to the death of a candidate. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66, and failed to gain any new seats.

Blair's decline in popularity was largely attributed to the decision to send British troops to invade Iraq in 2003. The 2005 election also saw Britain gain more independent and small party members of parliament than it had done for 60 years.

Overview

For events leading up to the date of the election, see pre-election day events of the United Kingdom general election, 2005.

The governing Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, was looking to secure a third consecutive term in office and to retain a large majority. The Conservative Party was seeking to regain seats lost to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats since the 1992 General Election, and move from being the Official Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both main parties, but especially the Conservative Party, with a "decapitation" strategy targeting members of the Shadow Cabinet. The Lib Dems had also wished to become the governing party, but more realistically hoped of making enough gains to become the Official Opposition and/or play a major part in a parliament led by a minority Labour or Conservative government. In Northern Ireland the Democratic Unionist Party sought to make further gains over the Ulster Unionist Party in unionist politics, and Sinn Féin hoped to overtake the Social Democratic and Labour Party in nationalist politics. (Note that Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats in the House of Commons -- they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen as required). The pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) stood candidates in every constituency in Scotland and Wales respectively.

Many seats were contested by other parties, including several parties without incumbents in the House of Commons. Parties that were not represented at Westminster, but had seats in the devolved assemblies and European Parliament included the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party. The Health Concern party stood again as well. A full list of parties which declared their intention to run can be found on the list of parties contesting the 2005 general election.

All parties campaigned through such tools as party manifestos, party political broadcasts and touring the country in what are commonly referred to as battle busses.

Local elections in parts of England and in Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for fifteen hours, from 07:00 to 22:00 BST (UTC+1). The election came just over three weeks after the dissolution of Parliament on 11 April by Queen Elizabeth II, at the request of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Ballot

Unofficial tellers, wearing party rosettes, sit outside polling stations collecting voter registration numbers

At the close of voting (2200 BST) the ballot boxes were sealed and returned to the counting centre where counting proceeded under the supervision of the returning officer who was obliged to declare the result as soon as it was known. As previously, there was serious competition amongst constituencies to be first to declare. Sunderland South repeated its performance in the last three elections and declared Labour incumbent Chris Mullin re-elected as MP with a majority of 11,059 at approximately 2245 BST (failing by two minutes to beat its previous best, but making it eligible for entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as longest consecutive delivery of first results). The vote itself represented a swing (in a safe Labour seat, in a safe Labour region) of approximately 4% to the Conservatives and 4.5% to the Liberal Democrats, somewhat below the prediction of BBC/ITV exit polls published shortly after 2200 BST.

Sunderland North was the next to declare, followed by Houghton & Washington East, both Labour holds but with reductions in the incumbent majorities of up to 9%. The first Scottish seat to declare was Rutherglen and Hamilton West — another safe Labour seat, also a Labour hold, but with the majority reduced by 4%. The first seat to change hands was Putney, where Labour's majority of around 2,500 fell to a strong Conservative challenge, with a total swing of about 5,000 (6.2%). This was also the first seat to be declared for the Conservatives. The first Liberal Democrat seat to be declared was North East Fife, the constituency of LibDem party deputy leader Sir Menzies Campbell which he has held since 1987.

The Constituency of Crawley in West Sussex had the slimmest majority of any seat with Labour holding off the Conservatives by 37 votes after three recounts.

Exit polling

Following problems with exit polls in previous British elections, the BBC and ITV agreed for the first time to pool their respective data, using results from Mori and NOP. More than twenty thousand people were interviewed for the poll at one hundred and twenty polling stations across the country. The predictions were very accurate—initial projections saw the Labour party returned to power with a majority of 66 (down from 160), and the final result (including Staffordshire South, where the election was postponed due to the death of a candidate) would indeed be a Labour majority of 66.

The projected shares of the vote on mainland Britain were Labour 35% (down 8% on 2001), Conservatives 33% (up 2%), Liberal Democrats 22% (up 3%) and other parties 8% (up 2%). The Conservatives were expected to make the biggest gains, however — forty-four seats according to the exit numbers — with the Liberal Democrats expected to take as few as two. Whilst the exit-poll-predicted vote share for the Lib Dems was accurate (22.6% vs an actual 22.0%), they had actually done better in some Lib Dem-Labour marginals than predicted on the basis of the national share of the vote, producing a net gain of 11 seats.

Results

For results by county/region and analysis, see Results breakdown of the United Kingdom general election, 2005.

For results by constituency, see Constituency results of the United Kingdom general election, 2005.

For details by MP, see MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005.

Votes cast by age group: Con, Lab, LD, other parties (green) and those not voting (grey).

At 04:28 BST, it was announced that Labour had won Corby, giving them 324 seats in the House of Commons out of those then declared and an overall majority, Labour's total reaching 356 seats out of the 646 House of Commons seats. Labour received 35.3% of the popular vote, equating to approximately 22% of the electorate on a 61.3% turnout, up from 59.4% turnout in 2001. Increased turnout was mostly attributed to the extension and promotion of the postal voting system, which has however been criticised by many as being too insecure increasing the risk of electoral fraud.

As expected, voter disenchantment led to an increase of support for many opposition parties, and caused many eligible to vote, not to turnout. Labour achieved a third successive term in office for the first time in their history, though with reduction of the Labour majority from 163 to 67 (as it was before the declaration of South Staffordshire). As it became clear that Labour had won an overall majority, Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, announced his intention to retire from front-line politics. The final seat to declare was the delayed poll in South Staffordshire, at just after 1 a.m. on Friday 24 June.

The election was followed by further criticism of the UK electoral system. Calls for reform came particularly from Lib Dem supporters, citing that they received only just over 10% of the overall seats with 22.3% of the popular vote. The only parties to win a higher percentage of seats than they achieved in votes were Labour, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, and Health Concern, which ran only one candidate. The results of the election give a Gallagher index of dis-proportionality of 16.76.

Seats won in the election (outer ring) against number of votes (inner ring).

The Labour Government claimed that being returned to office for a third term for the first time ever showed the remarkable achievements of New Labour and the continued unpopularity of the Conservatives. Nevertheless, Labour's vote declined to 35.3%, the lowest share of the popular vote to have formed a majority government in the history of the UK House of Commons.

The Conservatives claimed that their increased number of seats showed disenchantment with the Labour government and was a precursor of a Conservative breakthrough at the next election. Following three consecutive elections of declining representation and then in 2001 a net gain of just one seat, 2005 was the first General Election since 1983 where the number of Conservative seats increased appreciably, although the Conservatives' vote share increased only slightly and this election did mark the third successive General Election in which the Conservatives polled below 35%.

The Liberal Democrats claimed that their continued gradual increase in seats and percentage vote showed they were in a position to make further gains from both parties. They pointed in particular to the fact that they were now in second place in roughly one hundred and ninety constituencies and that having had net losses to Labour in the 1992 General Election and having not taken a single seat off Labour in 1997, they had held their gains off Labour from the 2001 General Election and had actually made further gains from them.

The Liberal Democrats increased their percentage of the vote by 3.7%, the Conservatives by 0.6%, and Labour's dropped by 5.4%. Most seats lost by Labour changed to the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of two seats to the Conservative Party, possibly because of Lib Dem voters' tactical unwind.

The results were interpreted by the UK media as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and in Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular.

It was the first General Election since 1929 that no party received more than ten million votes. It was the most "three-cornered" election since 1923, though the Liberal Democrats failed to match the higher national votes of the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the 1980s either in absolute or percentage terms. The total combined vote for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats proved to be the lowest main three party vote since 1922.

A map showing the constituency winners of the UK General Elections by their party colours. Plaid Cymru and SDLP seats are light green.

 Summary of the results of the 5 May 2005 United Kingdom general election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

Political party		Leader	Candidates	Elected	Seats gained	Seats lost	Net change in seats	% of seats	Number of votes	% of votes	Change in % of vote	Votes per seat won
	Labour	Tony Blair	627	355	0	47	–47	55.2	9,552,436	35.2	–5.5	26,908
	Conservative	Michael Howard	630	198	36	3	+33	30.7	8,784,915	32.4	+0.7	44,368
	Liberal Democrats	Charles Kennedy	626	62	16	5	+11	9.6	5,985,454	22.0	+3.8	96,540
	UKIP	Roger Knapman	496	0	0	0	0	0.0	605,973	2.2	+0.8	N/A
	SNP	Alex Salmond	59	6	2	0	+2	0.9	412,267	1.5	–0.2	68,711
	Green	Caroline Lucas and Keith Taylor	182	0	0	0	0	0.0	257,758	1.0	+0.4	N/A
	DUP	Ian Paisley	18	9	4	0	+4	1.4	241,856	0.9	+0.2	26,873
	BNP	Nick Griffin	119	0	0	0	0	0.0	192,745	0.7	+0.5	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	Ieuan Wyn Jones	40	3	0	1	–1	0.5	174,838	0.6	–0.1	58,279
	Sinn Féin	Gerry Adams	18	5	1	0	+1	0.8	174,530	0.6	–0.1	34,906
	Ulster Unionist	David Trimble	18	1	0	5	–5	0.2	127,414	0.5	–0.3	127,414
	SDLP	Mark Durkan	18	3	1	1	0	0.5	125,626	0.5	–0.1	41,875
	Independent	N/A	180	1	1	0	+1	0.2	122,416	0.5	+0.1	122,416
	Respect	Linda Smith	26	1	1	0	+1	0.2	68,094	0.3	N/A	68,094
	Scottish Socialist	Colin Fox	58	0	0	0	0	0.0	43,514	0.2	–0.1	N/A
	Veritas	Robert Kilroy-Silk	65	0	0	0	0	0.0	40,607	0.1	N/A	N/A
	Alliance	David Ford	12	0	0	0	0	0.0	28,291	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Scottish Green	Shiona Baird and Robin Harper	19	0	0	0	0	0.0	25,760	0.1	+0.1	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Arthur Scargill	49	0	0	0	0	0.0	20,167	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Liberal	Michael Meadowcroft	14	0	0	0	0	0.0	19,068	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Health Concern	Richard Taylor	1	1	0	0	0	0.2	18,739	0.1	0.0	18,739
	Speaker	N/A	1	1	0	0	0	0.2	15,153	0.1	0.0	15,153
	English Democrat	Robin Tilbrook	24	0	0	0	0	0.0	15,149	0.1	N/A	N/A
	Socialist Alternative	Peter Taaffe	17	0	0	0	0	0.0	9,398	0.0	N/A	N/A
	National Front	Tom Holmes	13	0	0	0	0	0.0	8,079	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Legalise Cannabis	Alun Buffry	21	0	0	0	0	0.0	6,950	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Howling Laud Hope	19	0	0	0	0	0.0	6,311	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Community Action	Peter Franzen	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	5,984	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Christian Vote	George Hargreaves	10	0	0	0	0	0.0	4,004	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	Dick Cole	4	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,552	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Forward Wales	John Marek	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,461	0.0	N/A	N/A
	CPA	Alan Craig	9	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,291	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Rainbow George Weiss	23	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,463	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Community Group	Martin Williams	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,365	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Ashfield Independents	Roy Adkins	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,292	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Mike Davies	5	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,978	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Residents Association of London	Malvin Brown	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,850	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Workers' Party	Seán Garland	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,669	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Socialist Environmental	Goretti Horgan	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,649	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Scottish Unionist	Daniel Houston	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,266	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	Sheila Torrance	10	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,241	0.0	0.0	N/A
	New England	Michael Tibby	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,224	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Communist	Robert Griffiths	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,124	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Community Group		1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,118	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Peace and Progress	Chris Cooper	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,036	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Scottish Senior Citizens	John Swinburne	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,017	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Your Party	Daniel Thompson	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,006	0.0	N/A	N/A
	SOS! Northampton	Yvonne Dale	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	932	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Ind. Working Class	None	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	892	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Democratic Labour	Brian Powell	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	770	0.0	N/A	N/A
	British Public Party	Kashif Rana	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	763	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Free Scotland Party	Brian Nugent	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	743	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Pensioners Party Scotland	George Rodger	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	716	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Publican Party	Kit Fraser and Don Lawson	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	678	0.0	N/A	N/A
	English Independence Party	Andrew Constantine	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	654	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Socialist Unity	None	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	581	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Local Community Party	Jack Crossfield	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	570	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Clause 28	David Braid	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	516	0.0	N/A	N/A
	UK Community Issues Party	Michael Osman	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	502	0.0	N/A	N/A
Total			646					Turnout	27,148,510	61.4		42,026

The percentage of votes gained

Popular vote Labour   36.91% Conservative   33.86% Liberal Democrat   23.09% UK Independence   2.32% Scottish National   1.59% Others   2.23%

Parliamentary seats Labour   55.11% Conservative   30.65% Liberal Democrat   9.60% Democratic Unionist   1.39% Scottish National   0.93% Sinn Féin   0.77% Others   1.55%

See also the list of parties standing in Northern Ireland.

Post election events

Formation of government

Following the election result, Labour remained in power and Tony Blair remained Prime Minister, reshuffling government positions over the following weekend, with formal announcements made on 9 May 2005. The most senior positions of Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary remained the same, but a few new faces were added; most notably David Blunkett returned to cabinet as the Work and Pensions Secretary, although he was forced to resign again due to another scandal before the end of the year that spawned a national press and opposition campaign for his dismissal. Patricia Hewitt became the new Health Secretary, Tessa Jowell remained as Culture Secretary, whilst Alan Johnson was promoted to Trade and Industry Secretary. In other moves Ruth Kelly retained the Education job and Margaret Beckett stayed put at Environment.

The new Parliament met on 11 May for the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

New party leaders

On 6 May Michael Howard announced he would be standing down as leader of the Conservative Party, but not before a review of the leadership rules. The formal leadership election began in October, and was ultimately won by David Cameron. See Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005. The following day David Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. His successor, Sir Reg Empey, was elected at the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on 24 June. See Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, 2005.

End of the term

The prime minister Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace on 6 April 2010 and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 12 April. The next election was held on 6 May 2010.

External links

• 2001-2005 Polls from Polling Report UK
• Candidates by Party all 3405 candidates listed by their 124 distinct party labels
• 2005 UK general election from SourceWatch with a focus on the strategists and public relations experts involved in the campaigns of the various parties
• Strategic Voter 2005 information for each constituency to strategically vote against the invasion of Iraq
• Catalogue of 2005 general election ephemera at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
• OSCE Final Report on the United Kingdom general election on 2005-05-05, by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
• Maps of the 2005 results by constituencies (in French)
• NSD: European Election Database - UK

Manifestos

• Conservatives: It's Time For Action/The British Dream
• Labour: Britain: forward not back
• Liberal Democrats: The REAL Alternative
• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: Alliance works. Tribal politics costs (PDF File)
• British National Party: Rebuilding British Democracy (Abbreviated) (PDF)
• Democratic Unionist Party: Leadership That's Working (PDF File)
• Green Party of England and Wales: People, Planet, Peace
• Scottish Green Party: People, Planet, Peace
• Scottish National Party: Make Scotland Matter (PDF file)
• Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales: We can build a better Wales (PDF file)
• English Democrats: See Web Site- Putting England First
• Respect – The Unity Coalition: Policy
• Scottish Socialist Party: Make Capitalism History
• Social Democratic and Labour Party: A Better Way to a Better Ireland (PDF File)
• Sinn Féin: Manifesto
• Ulster Unionist Party: Simply British
• United Kingdom Independence Party: We want our country back

News coverage

• Election 2005 from BBC News
• Election 2005 from Channel 4
• UK General Election 2005 from The Guardian
• Election 2005 Blog from The Guardian