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2010 United Kingdom general election

February 13, 2023

The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters[1] entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies[note 2] across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.

2010 United Kingdom general election
← 2005 6 May 2010 (2010-05-06) 2015 →
All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout65.1% (3.7%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader David Cameron Gordon Brown Nick Clegg
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
Last election 198 seats, 32.4% 355 seats, 35.2% 62 seats, 22.0%
Seats before 193 349 62
Seats won 306† 258 57
Seat change 96‡ 91‡ 5‡
Popular vote 10,703,754 8,609,527 6,836,824
Percentage 36.1% 29.0% 23.0%
Swing 3.7 pp 6.2 pp 1.0 pp
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results
  • † excluding the Speaker
  • ‡ owing to electoral boundaries changing, this figure is notional
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election

Gordon Brown
Labour

Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister after negotiations

David Cameron (Conservative)
Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat)

The election resulted in a large swing to the Conservative Party similar to that seen in 1979, the last time a Conservative opposition had ousted a Labour government. The Labour Party lost the 66-seat majority it had previously enjoyed, but no party achieved the 326 seats needed for a majority. The Conservatives, led by David Cameron, won the most votes and seats, but still fell 20 seats short. This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons. This was only the second general election since the Second World War to return a hung parliament, the first being the February 1974 election.

For the leaders of all three major political parties, this was their first general election contest as party leader. Prime minister Gordon Brown had taken office in June 2007 following the end of Tony Blair's 10-year reign as prime minister and 13 years as leader of the Labour Party, while David Cameron had succeeded Michael Howard in December 2005 and Nick Clegg had succeeded Menzies Campbell (who never contested a general election) in December 2007.

However, a hung parliament had been largely anticipated by the opinion polls in the run-up to the election, so politicians and voters were better prepared for the constitutional process that would follow such a result.[2] The coalition government that was subsequently formed was the first to result directly from a UK election. The hung parliament came about in spite of the Conservatives managing both a higher vote total and a higher share of the vote than the previous Labour government had done in 2005, when it had secured a comfortable majority (although vastly reduced from its landslide victories at the previous two elections). A total of 149 sitting MPs stood down at the election, the highest since 1945, including many former New Labour Cabinet ministers such as former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Alan Milburn, Geoff Hoon, Ruth Kelly, James Purnell and John Reid. One reason for the very high number of MPs standing down was the parliamentary expenses scandal a year earlier.

Coalition talks began immediately between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and lasted for five days. There was an aborted attempt to put together a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition (although 11 seats from other smaller parties would have been required). To facilitate this, Gordon Brown announced on the evening of Monday 10 May that he would resign as Leader of the Labour Party. Realising that a deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was imminent, Brown resigned the next day, on Tuesday 11 May, as Prime Minister, marking the end of 13 years of Labour government.[3] This was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II, who then invited David Cameron to form a government in her name and become Prime Minister. Just after midnight on 12 May, the Liberal Democrats approved the agreement "overwhelmingly",[4][5] sealing a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

None of the three main party leaders had previously led a general election campaign, a situation which had not occurred since the 1979 election. During the campaign, the three main party leaders engaged in the first televised debates. 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. Nonetheless, on polling day their share of the vote increased by only 1%, with a net loss of five seats. This was still the Liberal Democrats' largest popular vote since the party's creation in 1988; they found themselves in a pivotal role in the formation of the new government. The share of votes for parties other than Labour or the Conservatives was 35%, the largest since the 1918 general election. In terms of votes it was the most "three-cornered" election since 1923, as well as in terms of seats since 1929. The Green Party of England and Wales won its first ever seat in the House of Commons, and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland also gained its first elected member.[6] The general election saw a 5.1% national swing from Labour to the Conservatives, the third-largest since 1945. The result in one constituency, Oldham East and Saddleworth, was subsequently declared void on petition because of illegal practices during the campaign, the first such instance since 1910.

150 new MPs were elected at the election. Notable newcomers who were elected to parliament in 2010 included future Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss, future Home Secretaries Priti Patel and Sajid Javid, future Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg, future Health Secretary Matt Hancock and future Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Smith.

Background

On 6 April 2010, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, visited Buckingham Palace for a meeting with the Queen to ask permission 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,[7] five years since the previous election on 5 May 2005. 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[note 2] was postponed for three weeks because of the death of a candidate.

The governing Labour Party campaigned to secure a fourth consecutive term in office, and to restore support lost since 2001.[8] The Conservative Party sought to gain a dominant position in British 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.[9] 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 29%, Liberal Democrats 23%.[10][11] However, record numbers of undecided voters raised uncertainty about the outcome.[12][13] The Scottish National Party, encouraged by their victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections, set itself a target of 20 MPs and was hoping to find itself holding a balance of power.[14] Equally, Plaid Cymru sought gains in Wales. Smaller parties which had 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, its number of seats, having been the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons.

Key dates

The key dates were:

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[15]
Thursday 6 May Polling day
Tuesday 11 May David Cameron became Prime Minister through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Tuesday 18 May New Parliament (the 55th) assembled
Tuesday 25 May State Opening of Parliament
Thursday 27 May Voting took place in the delayed poll in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton[note 2]
Friday 5 November Oldham East and Saddleworth election result voided on petition at an election court, causing a by-election

MPs declining re-election

Main article: List of MPs who stood down at the 2010 United Kingdom general election

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 general election (which on account of the extraordinary wartime circumstances came ten years after the preceding election).[17] This has been attributed to the 2009 expenses scandal and the fact there was talk that redundancy-style payments for departing MPs might be scrapped after the election.[18]

In all, 149 MPs (100 Labour, 35 Conservatives, 7 Liberal Democrats, 2 Independents, 1 Independent Conservative and 1 member each from the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, and the SDLP) decided not to contest the election. Additionally, three seats were vacant at the time of the dissolution of Parliament; two due to the deaths of Labour MPs and one due to the resignation in January 2010 of a DUP member.

Boundary changes

 
The hypothetical results of the 2005 election, if they had taken place with the new boundaries
Main articles: Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

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 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 nationally reduces Labour's majority from 66 to 48.[19]

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.[20]

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.[21] 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 remained at 40, although new seats caused by radical redrawing of boundaries in Clwyd and Gwynedd were fought for the first time: Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd replaced Caernarfon and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, respectively; Aberconwy replaced Conwy. At the time of the election Welsh constituencies had electorates on average around 14,000 smaller than their counterparts in England.[22]

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

Hypothetical UK General Election 2005 on new 2010 boundaries
Party Seats Votes
Count Gain Loss Net Of total (%) Of total (%) Count ±
  Labour 349 −6 53.7 35.2 9,552,436
  Conservative 210 +12 32.3 32.4 8,784,915
  Liberal Democrats 62 9.5 22.1 5,985,454
  Plaid Cymru 2 −1 0.3 0.6 174,838
  Other parties 27 4.2 9.7 2,650,867
  Total 650 27,148,510

Contesting parties

Main parties

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

All three main parties went into the general election having changed leaders since 2005. 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 prospect of a coalition or minority government was being considered well before polling day. Gordon Brown made comments about the possibility of a coalition in January 2010.[23] In 2009, it was reported that senior civil servants were to meet with the Liberal Democrats to discuss their policies, an indication of how seriously the prospect of a hung parliament was being taken.[24] Nick Clegg[25] and Menzies Campbell[26] had 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.

Other parties

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

Other parties with representation at Westminster after the previous general election included the Scottish National Party, with six parliamentary seats, Plaid Cymru from Wales with three seats, and Respect – The Unity Coalition and Health Concern, each of which held one parliamentary seat in England. Since that election, the SNP had won the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections and gained control of the Scottish Government, and also won the largest share of the 2009 European Parliament election vote in Scotland.[27] In Wales, the Labour Party remained the largest party in the Welsh Assembly, although Plaid Cymru increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition government with Labour.[28]

In 2009 the Ulster Unionist Party and the Conservative Party announced they had formed an electoral alliance whereby the two parties would field joint candidates for future elections under the banner of "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force".[29] However, this caused the sole UUP MP Lady Sylvia Hermon to resign from the party on 25 March 2010, leaving them with no representation at Westminster for the first time in their history.[30]

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 on becoming an MP. Farage was replaced in an election by party members by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, 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, a new loose coalition, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), contested a general election for the first time. TUSC was a grouping of left wing parties that participated in the 2009 European Parliament elections under the name of No2EU; members included 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 ran as candidates under the TUSC banner.[31] However, some former members of NO2EU, such as the Liberal Party[citation needed] and the Communist Party of Britain,[32] chose not to participate in the TUSC campaign. The coalition did not run candidates against left wing Labour or Respect candidates.[33][34]

Campaign

April

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" and voters in the North of Scotland as "teuchters", and insulting politicians such as Cameron, Clegg, John Bercow and Diane Abbott.[35]

The UKIP candidate for Thirsk and Malton—John Boakes—died, causing the election in the constituency to be postponed until 27 May.[36][37][38][39]

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, the chairman 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 still appeared as a Conservative candidate because it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper.[40]

A total of 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."[41]

The SNP attempted but failed to ban the broadcast of the final party leaders' debate in Scotland, in a court action. 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".[42]

 
An election sign in a residential property.

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.[43]

The 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: "This is a criminal matter and [it] will be for the police to decide what action to take."[44]

The former Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to the campaign trail for Labour, visiting a polyclinic in Harrow West, after a troubled Labour campaign.[45]

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.[46]

A group of entrepreneurs warned on the dangers of a Labour-Liberal coalition in an open letter to The Times on 29 April.[47][48][49]

Bigotgate

On 28 April, Gordon Brown met Gillian Duffy, a 65-year-old woman and lifelong Labour voter from Rochdale, a Labour–Liberal Democrat marginal seat. She asked him about vulnerable people supposedly not receiving benefits because immigrants were receiving them, adding: "You can't say anything about the immigrants because you're saying that you're ... but all these eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?" Brown replied: "A million people have come from Europe but a million British people have gone into Europe."[50][51] In a private conversation with his communications director Justin Forsyth after the meeting, Brown described Duffy as "just a sort of bigoted woman. She said she used be Labour. I mean it's just ridiculous."[52]

Brown's remarks were inadvertently recorded by a Sky News microphone he was still wearing, and widely broadcast. Labour sources later stated that Brown had misheard Duffy and thought she had asked, "where are they fucking from?"[53][54][55] Soon after the incident, Brown talked to Jeremy Vine live on BBC Radio 2 and publicly apologised to Duffy. American comedian Jon Stewart commented that the clip showed the moment when Brown's "political career leaves his body".[56] Brown subsequently visited Duffy to apologise in person. Upon emerging, he described himself as a "penitent sinner",[57] 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.[58] The incident was subsequently dubbed "Bigotgate", which was later added to the Collins English Dictionary.[59] Despite this, Labour went on to gain the Rochdale seat from the Liberal Democrats, one of the few gains they made in the election.

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 send correct versions by hand.[60]

The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Times reported on 2 May that the investigation had revealed some names on the register were fictitious, with a late surge in applications to be added to the electoral register (before 20 April deadline) leading to 5,000 additions without time for full checks.[61] In terms of the outcome of the borough's two seats, the narrower majority in any event exceeded 5,000 votes in Poplar and Limehouse, at 6,030 votes.

The Labour candidate for North West Norfolk, Manish Sood, described Gordon Brown as Britain's worst ever Prime Minister.[62] 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 in the campaign.[63][64]

A Conservative Party activist in Peterborough was arrested after alleged postal voting fraud, calling into question 150 postal votes.[65]

 
Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, talking to voters in Romford Market.

Simon Bennett resigned as the head of the British National Party's online operation then redirected its website to his own on which he attacked the party's leadership.[66]

 
Polling station in Camberwell

On the morning of polling day, 6 May, the former and later leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage, standing in Buckingham against the Speaker, was injured when a light banner-towing aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed near Brackley, Northamptonshire.[67]

Groups of voters waiting in queues at 10 pm were locked out of polling stations in Sheffield Hallam, Manchester and Leeds; and police said one London polling station was open until 10.30 pm, which triggered a national review of polling station requirements led by the Electoral Commission.[68]

The counts for the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies were suspended because of a security alert around 11 pm after a car was abandoned outside the counting centre, causing a bomb scare.

Debates

Main article: 2010 United Kingdom general election debates

Following a campaign by Sky News and with agreement of the party leaders,[69] it was announced on 21 December 2009 that there would be three leaders' debates, each broadcast on prime time television,[70] 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.[71]

Date Host Location Moderator Subject
15 April ITV Manchester Alastair Stewart Domestic policy
Highlights
In instant polling after the event Nick Clegg was judged the clear winner.[72] 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
Highlights
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 Labour 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.[73] 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.[74]
29 April BBC Birmingham David Dimbleby Economy and taxes
Highlights
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.[75][76][77][78][79] At the end of the debating night, the Conservatives had gained a 5% lead over Labour.

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.[80] 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.[81] 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.[82]

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2010 United Kingdom general election
See also: Exit poll and Opinion poll
 
A polling station in Wetherby, West Yorkshire

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.

Immediately following the previous general election, Labour 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.[83]

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.[84]

  •  

      Conservative;   Labour;   Liberal Democrats;   Other
    Graph of poll results since 2005

  •  

    Graph of YouGov poll results from 6 April 2010

From 15 April 2010, following the first televised debate of the party leaders, polling data changed dramatically, with the Lib Dem vote proportion rising to 28–33%, and the Conservative vote proportion falling. In some polls, the Liberal Democrats took the lead from the Conservatives. Under UNS projections, this made a hung parliament highly probable, if Lib Dem performance had persisted.[85]

The following graph shows ComRes poll results recorded over the period 11 April – 6 May 2010, including annotations of the three TV debates:

 

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

Exit poll

At 22:00 on election day, coinciding with the closure of the polls, the results of an exit poll completed by GfK NOP and Ipsos MORI on behalf of the BBC, Sky and ITV news services was announced. Data were gathered from individuals at 130 polling stations around the country.

Parties Seats Change
Conservative Party 307   97
Labour Party 255   94
Liberal Democrats 59   3
Others 29 N/A
 Conservatives 19 short of majority

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 between the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and other parties was initially suggested to be 307, 255, 59 and 29, respectively,[86] although the seat numbers were later changed to 303, 251, 69 and 27, respectively.[87]

Initial reaction to the exit poll by various commentators was of surprise at the apparent poor prospects for the Liberal Democrats[88] because it was at odds with many opinion polls undertaken in the previous weeks. 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.[87]

Endorsements

Main article: Endorsements in the 2010 United Kingdom general election

National newspapers in England traditionally endorse political parties before a general election. The following table shows which parties the major papers endorsed.

The Independent and The Guardian advocated tactical voting to maximise the chance of a Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition to make electoral reform including of the House of Lords and introduction of domestic proportional representation more likely.[92][101]

Results

↓ 
306 57 258 29
Conservative Liberal Democrats Labour Oth
 

 

Party Leader MPs Votes
Of total Of total
Conservative Party David Cameron 306 47.1%
306 / 650
 10,703,754 36.1%
Labour Party Gordon Brown 258 39.7%
258 / 650
 8,609,527 29.0%
Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg 57 8.8%
57 / 650
 6,836,825 23.0%
Democratic Unionist Party Peter Robinson 8 1.2%
8 / 650
 168,216 0.6%
Scottish National Party Alex Salmond 6 0.9%
6 / 650
 491,386 1.7%
Sinn Féin Gerry Adams 5 0.8%
5 / 650
 171,942 0.6%
Plaid Cymru Ieuan Wyn Jones 3 0.5%
3 / 650
 165,394 0.6%
Social Democratic & Labour Party Margaret Ritchie 3 0.5%
3 / 650
 110,970 0.4%
Green Party Caroline Lucas 1 0.2%
1 / 650
 285,616 0.9%
Alliance David Ford 1 0.2%
1 / 650
 42,762 0.1%
Speaker John Bercow 1 0.2%
1 / 650
 22,860 0.08%[102]
Independent Sylvia Hermon 1 0.2%
1 / 650
 21,181 0.07%[103]

Turnout nationally was 65%, a rise from the 61% turnout in the 2005 general election.[104]


e • d Summary of the May 2010 House of Commons of the United Kingdom election results[105]
 
Political party Leader Candidates Votes
Nominated Elected Of total (%) Gained Lost Net Count Proportion
of total (%) 		Change in
proportion (%)
Conservative[table 1] 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
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
  1. ^ This figure excludes John Bercow (Buckingham)

On 27 May 2010 the Conservatives won the final seat of Thirsk and Malton, thus giving them 306 seats. The election in that constituency had been delayed because of the death of the UKIP candidate.[106]

Vote share
Conservative
 
 36.1%
Labour
 
 29.0%
Liberal Democrat
 
 23.0%
UK Independence
 
 3.1%
British National
 
 1.9%
Scottish National
 
 1.7%
Others
 
 5.2%
Parliamentary seats
Conservative
 
 47.1%
Labour
 
 39.7%
Liberal Democrat
 
 8.8%
Democratic Unionist
 
 1.2%
Scottish National
 
 0.9%
Sinn Féin
 
 0.8%
Others
 
 1.5%

Voting distribution per constituency

 

Election petitions

Two results were also challenged by defeated candidates through election petitions – Fermanagh and South Tyrone, and Oldham East and Saddleworth. These candidates had lost by 4 and 103 votes respectively.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone

The defeated Unionist 'Unity' candidate, Rodney Connor, lodged a petition against the successful Sinn Féin candidate, Michelle Gildernew, in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, alleging irregularities in the counting of the votes had affected the result. Gildernew had won with a plurality of four votes. However, the court found that there were only three ballot papers which could not be accounted for, and even if they were all votes for Connor, Gildernew would have had a plurality of one. The election was therefore upheld.[107]

Oldham East and Saddleworth

See also: 2011 Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election

On 28 May 2010, the defeated Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins lodged a petition against the election of Phil Woolas (Labour) in Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency.[108] The petition challenged leaflets issued by Woolas's campaign as having contained false statements of fact concerning Watkins' personal character, which is an illegal practice under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. The statements attempted to link Watkins with Muslim extremists and death threats to Woolas, accused him of reneging on a promise to live in the constituency, and implied that his campaign was funded by illegal foreign political donations.[109][110]

During the court case a number of emails between Woolas and his campaign team emerged. In one, Woolas's agent, Joe Fitzpatrick, emailed Woolas and campaign adviser Steven Green, to say: "Things are not going as well as I had hoped ... we need to think about our first attack leaflet."[111] A reply from Fitzpatrick said: "If we don't get the white vote angry he's gone."[112] The court hearing finished on 17 September 2010, with the judges reserving their judgement until 5 November 2010.[113] On that day Woolas was found to have breached section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 in relation to three of the four statements complained about, and the judges ruled that his election was void.[114] Phil Woolas applied for a judicial review into the ruling,[115] stating that "this election petition raised fundamental issues about the freedom to question and criticise politicians" and that it "will inevitably chill political speech".[116] He succeeded in overturning the finding in respect of one of the three statements but the main findings of the election court judgment were upheld. A by-election on 13 January 2011 resulted in the election of Debbie Abrahams (Labour).

Analysis

For results by county/region and analysis, see Results breakdown of the 2010 United Kingdom general election.
For results by constituency, see Results of the 2010 United Kingdom general election.
For details by MP, see List of MPs elected in the 2010 United Kingdom general election.
 
The disproportionality of the house of parliament in the 2010 election was 15.57 according to the Gallagher Index, with the Liberal Democrats losing out to both the Conservatives and Labour.

At 9:41 on 7 May, the BBC confirmed a hung parliament. The Conservatives stood at 290 seats, Labour at 247 and Liberal Democrats at 51.[2][117] One constituency seat (Thirsk and Malton) was contested on 27 May because of the death of the UKIP candidate and was won by the Conservative Party, whilst another seat (Oldham East and Saddleworth) later had its result declared void; Labour won the resulting by-election.

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

The result showed an overall 5.1% swing from Labour to the Conservatives, the third largest national swing achieved in a General Election since 1945 and similar to the 5.3% swing achieved by the Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher in 1979.[117] The 97 net seat gains made by the Conservatives outdid their previous best gains total in 1950, when they gained 85. Labour's loss of 91 seats was worse than their previous greatest loss of seats, when they lost 77 seats in 1970.

Of the 532 seats contested in England (a final seat, Thirsk and Malton, was contested on 27 May), the Conservatives won 298 seats and an absolute majority of 61 seats over all other parties combined, securing an average swing of 5.6% from Labour.[118] Labour did poorly in many Southern areas, notably in the Eastern Region where they won only two of their 14 seats from 2005: Luton North and Luton South. Labour did, however, gain two seats: Bethnal Green and Bow and Chesterfield. The Conservatives made 95 of their gains in England, but they also suffered three losses, all to the Liberal Democrats. For the Liberal Democrats, their eight gains were overshadowed by their 12 losses – one to Labour and 11 to the Conservatives.

None of Scotland's 59 seats changed hands and all were held by the same party that had won them at the 2005 election, with Labour regaining the two seats they had 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%) The Conservatives finished with just a single MP representing a Scottish constituency.

Of the 40 seats contested in Wales, the Conservatives more than doubled their seats from three to eight, taking one from the Liberal Democrats and four from Labour. Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru's number of seats was reduced from three to two on the new seat boundaries, but they managed to gain one seat, Arfon, from Labour. Labour did, however, regain Blaenau Gwent, which had once been Labour's safest seat in Wales until it had been taken by an Independent, Peter Law, in 2005.[119] Overall, Labour made a net loss of 4 seats but remained the biggest party, with 26.

There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland. Both Irish nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), held their seats. The unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) (the latter in an electoral pact with the Conservatives), lost one seat each. This left the nationalist parties unchanged with eight seats, the main 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, and also the first time Sinn Féin obtained the largest share of the vote in Northern Ireland at a general election.[120]

Notable results

Demographics

Candidate demographics

The election resulted in an increase in the number of MPs from ethnic minorities from 14 to 27, including the first black and Asian female Conservative MPs, Helen Grant and Priti Patel,[129] and the first female Muslim MPs, Rushanara Ali, Shabana Mahmood and Yasmin Qureshi.[130] This means that 4.2% of MPs are from an ethnic minority—in the 2001 Census, it was reported that ethnic minorities comprised 7.9% of the population. The number of female MPs rose to 141, an increase from 19.5% to 21.7% of all MPs, and the highest ever total; the number of female Conservative MPs rose from 18 (8.6% of all Conservatives) to 48 (15.7%).[131]

Voter demographics

Polling after the election suggested the following demographic breakdown:

The 2010 UK general election vote in Great Britain[132][133]
Social group Con Lab Lib Dem Others Lead
Total vote 37 30 24 19 7
Gender
Male 38 28 22 12 10
Female 36 31 26 8 4
Age
18–24 30 31 30 9 1
25–34 35 30 29 7 5
35–44 34 31 26 9 3
45–54 34 28 26 12 6
55–64 38 28 23 12 10
65+ 44 31 16 9 13
Men by age
18–24 29 34 27 4 5
25–34 42 23 30 6 12
35–54 36 28 23 13 8
55+ 41 29 16 14 12
Women by age
18–24 30 28 34 9 4
25–34 27 38 27 8 11
35–54 33 31 29 8 2
55+ 42 30 21 7 12
Social class
AB 39 26 29 7 10
C1 39 28 24 9 11
C2 37 29 22 12 8
DE 31 40 17 12 9
Men by social class
AB 44 23 27 7 17
C1 40 28 22 10 12
C2 33 33 19 10 0
DE 32 35 13 20 3
Women by social class
AB 44 28 16 12 16
C1 34 29 31 6 3
C2 41 25 25 9 16
DE 29 45 19 7 16
Housing tenure
Owned 45 24 21 11 21
Mortgage 36 29 26 9 7
Social renter 24 47 19 11 23
Private renter 35 29 27 9 6
Ethnic group
White 38 28 24 8 11
BAME 23 65 20 10 40

Northern Ireland

Main article: 2010 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland a swing of more than 20% resulted in DUP First Minister Peter Robinson losing his Belfast East[134] seat to the Alliance Party's Naomi Long, giving Alliance its first elected MP in Westminster.

Sir Reg Empey, leader of the UUP/Conservative alliance (UCUNF), standing for the first time in South Antrim, lost to the DUP incumbent William McCrea. Thus both leaders of the main Unionist parties failed to win seats while the UUP for the first time had no MPs at Westminster. A few days after the election, Empey announced that he would resign before the party conference, triggering a leadership election.

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

New SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie, succeeding Eddie McGrady MP, won against Sinn Féin's Caitriona Ruane in South Down. All of the Sinn Féin and SDLP incumbents held their seats, although Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew retained her seat in Fermanagh & South Tyrone by only four votes over the Independent Unionist Unity candidate, Rodney Connor, after three recounts.[135]

MPs who lost their seats

Main article: List of MPs who lost their seat in the 2010 United Kingdom general election

MPs first elected in 2010

Main article: MPs first elected in 2010 to the 55th UK Parliament

Effect of the expenses scandal

Main article: United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal

Many of the MPs who were most prominently caught up in the scandal decided, or were ordered, not to stand for re-election in 2010. Among them were Margaret Moran,[136] Elliot Morley,[137] David Chaytor,[138] Nicholas and Ann Winterton,[139] Derek Conway,[140] John Gummer,[141] Douglas Hogg,[142] Anthony Steen,[143] Peter Viggers,[144] Julie Kirkbride and her husband Andrew MacKay.[145]

Where sitting MPs did stand for re-election after their expenses claims were criticised, there were some notable losses. Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lost her marginal Redditch seat, which showed a large 9.2% swing to the Conservatives. Smith had claimed expenses on a large family home in Redditch by declaring her house-share with her sister in London as her main home, which had been described as "near fraudulent" by the former chairman of the committee on Standards in Public life,[146] although she had only been ordered to apologise rather than repay the money.[147] Former Home Office minister Tony McNulty lost Harrow East to the Conservatives on an 8% swing, after repaying over £13,000 claimed on a second home, occupied by his parents, which was 8 miles away from his primary residence.[148] Ann Keen lost Brentford and Isleworth on a 6% swing, 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.[149]

Shahid Malik lost his Dewsbury seat on a 5.9% swing to the Conservatives. Malik had been required to repay some of his expense claims and, at the time of the election, was under investigation for other claims.[150] David Heathcoat-Amory was one of only two sitting Conservatives to be defeated when he lost Wells to the Liberal Democrats by 800 votes. Heathcoat-Amory was criticised for claiming manure on expenses.[151] Phil Hope, who repaid over £40,000 in expenses,[152] was defeated in his Corby constituency although the swing was lower than the national average at 3.3%.

Hazel Blears, who had paid more than £13,000 to cover capital gains tax which she had avoided by "flipping" the designation of her main residence,[153] suffered a large drop in her vote in Salford and Eccles, but was still comfortably re-elected; a 'Hazel must go' candidate won only 1.8%.[154] Conversely, Brian Jenkins lost his Tamworth seat on a large 9.5% swing despite being described as a "saint" by The Daily Telegraph on account of his low expenses.[155] Ironically, his successor in the seat was Conservative Chris Pincher, whose future sexual assault scandal would bring down the premiership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson twelve years later.[156][157][158]

Predictions[159] of a rise in the number of successful Independents in the election as a result of the 2009 expenses scandal failed to materialise. 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. Broadcaster Esther Rantzen gathered a great deal of publicity for her campaign in Luton South constituency where the former MP Margaret Moran had stood down, but ended up losing her deposit in 4th place with 4.4% of the vote; the winner was Moran's successor as Labour candidate.

There was also a high-profile campaign over expenses directed against Speaker John Bercow, who had 'flipped' his designation of second home. An imperfectly observed convention states that the major parties do not oppose the Speaker seeking re-election; Bercow faced two main opponents in Buckingham. Independent former Member of the European Parliament John Stevens, standing on the Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy ticket, campaigned with a man dressed in a dolphin costume whom he called 'Flipper'[160] and polled second with 21.4%. Former leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage also fought the seat but came third in the vote with 17.4%. Bercow won with 47.3%.

Voting problems

Problems occurred with voting at 27 polling places in 16 constituencies, and affected approximately 1,200 people.[161] This situation 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 announced it would be carrying out a "thorough investigation".[162] Under the law in force at the 2010 election, voters had to have been handed their ballots by the 10 pm deadline; people who were waiting in queues to vote at 10 pm were not allowed to vote.[163]

In Chester there were reports that 600 registered voters were unable to vote because the electoral roll had not been updated,[164] 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.[162] Some dissatisfied voters staged sit-ins to protest against what some of them had called "disenfranchisement".[162] 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.[165] In Wyre and Preston North, a 14-year-old boy cast a vote after being sent a polling card.[166]

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.[167]

Because of closure of United Kingdom airspace as a result of the Iceland volcanic eruption, potential expat voters in New Zealand were denied a vote when postal voting papers arrived too late to be returned to the UK,[168] 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.[169]

Post-election government formation

Main article: 2010 United Kingdom government formation

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,[3] Gordon Brown announced that he was resigning as Prime Minister 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.[170][171] Cameron became Prime Minister one hour after the Queen accepted Brown's resignation.[172] 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.[172]

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",[4][5] meaning that David Cameron would lead a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Later that day, the two parties jointly published the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement specifying the terms of the coalition deal.[173][174][175]

A film of the election was made by candidate and filmmaker John Walsh entitled ToryBoy The Movie, exploring the candidate's selection process and the work that goes into an election campaign. One of the film's subjects, the British Labour Party MP Sir Stuart Bell, was later described as "Britain's laziest MP".[176] The film received cinema releases in 2011 and again ahead of the 2015 general election.[177]

Party political and administration costs

UK parties spent £31.1m on the campaign of which Conservatives spent 53%, the Labour Party spent 25% and the Liberal Democrats 15%.[178] Figures from returning officers show that the average administration cost per constituency was £173,846 meaning the average cost per vote was £3.81.[179]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Reflects the notional winners of seats in light of boundary changes
  2. ^ a b c The poll in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton was postponed until 27 May because of the death of the UKIP candidate, John Boakes. UKIP did not name a candidate until after 6 May out of respect for Boakes.[16]

Further reading

  • Adonis, Andrew (2013). 5 days in May: the coalition and beyond. London: Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781849545662.
  • Baldini, Gianfranco; Hopkin, Jonathan (2012). Coalition Britain: the UK election of 2010. Manchester New York: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719083709.
  • Cowley, Philip; Kavanagh, Dennis (2010). The British General Election of 2010. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230521902.
  • Cutts, David; Goodwin, Matthew J. (February 2014). "Getting out the right-wing extremist vote: extreme right party support and campaign effects at a recent British general election". European Political Science Review. 6 (1): 93–114. doi:10.1017/S1755773912000288. S2CID 154753788.
  • Fisher, Justin; Wlezien, Christopher (2012). The UK general election of 2010: explaining the outcome. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415583015.
  • Worcester, Robert; Mortimore, Roger; Baines, Paul; Gill, Mark (2012). The UK general election of 2010 : explaining the outcome. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415583015.

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2010 United Kingdom general election.
  • RESEARCH PAPER 10/36, House of Commons Library: General Election 2010
  • OSCE/ODIHR Election Assessment Mission Report, report by independent observers, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
  • Report on the administration of the 2010 UK general election by the Electoral Commission
  • resources from Political Science Resources
  • Telegraph – 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
  • BAFTA asks an expert panel, was TV the real winner of the General Election?
  • Catalogue of 2010 general election ephemera at the of the London School of Economics.
  • General Election 2010 – Commons Library Research Paper RP10/36 from Parliament.uk. Gives the results at UK, GB, country and region level. See also the introduction.

Manifestos

Main parties
Smaller parties already holding seats
Other parties

Boundary Commissions

  • Boundary Commission for Wales
  • Boundary changes favour Tories 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine ePolitix, 26 June 2006

February 13, 2023
2010, united, kingdom, general, election, held, thursday, 2010, with, registered, voters, entitled, vote, elect, members, house, commons, election, took, place, constituencies, note, across, united, kingdom, under, first, past, post, system, 2005, 2010, 2010, . The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010 with 45 597 461 registered voters 1 entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons The election took place in 650 constituencies note 2 across the United Kingdom under the first past the post system 2010 United Kingdom general election 2005 6 May 2010 2010 05 06 2015 outgoing memberselected members All 650 seats in the House of Commons326 seats needed for a majorityOpinion pollsTurnout65 1 3 7 First party Second party Third party Leader David Cameron Gordon Brown Nick CleggParty Conservative Labour Liberal DemocratsLast election 198 seats 32 4 355 seats 35 2 62 seats 22 0 Seats before 193 349 62Seats won 306 258 57Seat change 96 91 5 Popular vote 10 703 754 8 609 527 6 836 824Percentage 36 1 29 0 23 0 Swing 3 7 pp 6 2 pp 1 0 ppColours denote the winning party as shown in the main table of results excluding the Speaker owing to electoral boundaries changing this figure is notionalComposition of the House of Commons after the electionPrime Minister before electionGordon BrownLabour Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister after negotiations David Cameron Conservative Nick Clegg Liberal Democrat The election resulted in a large swing to the Conservative Party similar to that seen in 1979 the last time a Conservative opposition had ousted a Labour government The Labour Party lost the 66 seat majority it had previously enjoyed but no party achieved the 326 seats needed for a majority The Conservatives led by David Cameron won the most votes and seats but still fell 20 seats short This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons This was only the second general election since the Second World War to return a hung parliament the first being the February 1974 election For the leaders of all three major political parties this was their first general election contest as party leader Prime minister Gordon Brown had taken office in June 2007 following the end of Tony Blair s 10 year reign as prime minister and 13 years as leader of the Labour Party while David Cameron had succeeded Michael Howard in December 2005 and Nick Clegg had succeeded Menzies Campbell who never contested a general election in December 2007 However a hung parliament had been largely anticipated by the opinion polls in the run up to the election so politicians and voters were better prepared for the constitutional process that would follow such a result 2 The coalition government that was subsequently formed was the first to result directly from a UK election The hung parliament came about in spite of the Conservatives managing both a higher vote total and a higher share of the vote than the previous Labour government had done in 2005 when it had secured a comfortable majority although vastly reduced from its landslide victories at the previous two elections A total of 149 sitting MPs stood down at the election the highest since 1945 including many former New Labour Cabinet ministers such as former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott Alan Milburn Geoff Hoon Ruth Kelly James Purnell and John Reid One reason for the very high number of MPs standing down was the parliamentary expenses scandal a year earlier Coalition talks began immediately between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats and lasted for five days There was an aborted attempt to put together a Labour Liberal Democrat coalition although 11 seats from other smaller parties would have been required To facilitate this Gordon Brown announced on the evening of Monday 10 May that he would resign as Leader of the Labour Party Realising that a deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was imminent Brown resigned the next day on Tuesday 11 May as Prime Minister marking the end of 13 years of Labour government 3 This was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II who then invited David Cameron to form a government in her name and become Prime Minister Just after midnight on 12 May the Liberal Democrats approved the agreement overwhelmingly 4 5 sealing a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats None of the three main party leaders had previously led a general election campaign a situation which had not occurred since the 1979 election During the campaign the three main party leaders engaged in the first televised debates 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 Nonetheless on polling day their share of the vote increased by only 1 with a net loss of five seats This was still the Liberal Democrats largest popular vote since the party s creation in 1988 they found themselves in a pivotal role in the formation of the new government The share of votes for parties other than Labour or the Conservatives was 35 the largest since the 1918 general election In terms of votes it was the most three cornered election since 1923 as well as in terms of seats since 1929 The Green Party of England and Wales won its first ever seat in the House of Commons and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland also gained its first elected member 6 The general election saw a 5 1 national swing from Labour to the Conservatives the third largest since 1945 The result in one constituency Oldham East and Saddleworth was subsequently declared void on petition because of illegal practices during the campaign the first such instance since 1910 150 new MPs were elected at the election Notable newcomers who were elected to parliament in 2010 included future Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss future Home Secretaries Priti Patel and Sajid Javid future Leader of the House Jacob Rees Mogg future Health Secretary Matt Hancock and future Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Smith Contents 1 Background 1 1 Key dates 1 2 MPs declining re election 1 3 Boundary changes 2 Contesting parties 2 1 Main parties 2 2 Other parties 3 Campaign 3 1 April 3 1 1 Bigotgate 3 2 May 4 Debates 5 Opinion polls 5 1 Exit poll 6 Endorsements 7 Results 7 1 Voting distribution per constituency 7 2 Election petitions 7 2 1 Fermanagh and South Tyrone 7 2 2 Oldham East and Saddleworth 8 Analysis 8 1 Notable results 9 Demographics 9 1 Candidate demographics 9 2 Voter demographics 9 3 Northern Ireland 9 4 MPs who lost their seats 9 5 MPs first elected in 2010 10 Effect of the expenses scandal 11 Voting problems 12 Post election government formation 13 Party political and administration costs 14 See also 15 Notes 16 Further reading 17 References 18 External links 18 1 Manifestos 18 2 Boundary CommissionsBackground EditOn 6 April 2010 the prime minister Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace for a meeting with the Queen to ask permission 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 7 five years since the previous election on 5 May 2005 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 note 2 was postponed for three weeks because of the death of a candidate The governing Labour Party campaigned to secure a fourth consecutive term in office and to restore support lost since 2001 8 The Conservative Party sought to gain a dominant position in British 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 9 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 29 Liberal Democrats 23 10 11 However record numbers of undecided voters raised uncertainty about the outcome 12 13 The Scottish National Party encouraged by their victory in the 2007 Scottish parliament elections set itself a target of 20 MPs and was hoping to find itself holding a balance of power 14 Equally Plaid Cymru sought gains in Wales Smaller parties which had 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 its number of seats having been the fourth largest party in the House of Commons Key dates Edit The key dates were Monday 12 April Dissolution of Parliament the 54th and campaigning officially beganTuesday 20 April Last day to file nomination papers to register to vote and to request a postal vote 15 Thursday 6 May Polling dayTuesday 11 May David Cameron became Prime Minister through a coalition with the Liberal Democrats Tuesday 18 May New Parliament the 55th assembledTuesday 25 May State Opening of ParliamentThursday 27 May Voting took place in the delayed poll in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton note 2 Friday 5 November Oldham East and Saddleworth election result voided on petition at an election court causing a by electionMPs declining re election Edit Main article List of MPs who stood down at the 2010 United Kingdom general election 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 general election which on account of the extraordinary wartime circumstances came ten years after the preceding election 17 This has been attributed to the 2009 expenses scandal and the fact there was talk that redundancy style payments for departing MPs might be scrapped after the election 18 In all 149 MPs 100 Labour 35 Conservatives 7 Liberal Democrats 2 Independents 1 Independent Conservative and 1 member each from the SNP Plaid Cymru the DUP and the SDLP decided not to contest the election Additionally three seats were vacant at the time of the dissolution of Parliament two due to the deaths of Labour MPs and one due to the resignation in January 2010 of a DUP member Boundary changes Edit The hypothetical results of the 2005 election if they had taken place with the new boundaries Main articles Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 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 nationally reduces Labour s majority from 66 to 48 19 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 20 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 21 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 remained at 40 although new seats caused by radical redrawing of boundaries in Clwyd and Gwynedd were fought for the first time Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd replaced Caernarfon and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy respectively Aberconwy replaced Conwy At the time of the election Welsh constituencies had electorates on average around 14 000 smaller than their counterparts in England 22 Scotland saw its most recent large scale review completed in 2004 so its 59 constituencies remained the same as at the 2005 general election Hypothetical UK General Election 2005 on new 2010 boundaries Party Seats VotesCount Gain Loss Net Of total Of total Count Labour 349 6 53 7 35 2 9 552 436 Conservative 210 12 32 3 32 4 8 784 915 Liberal Democrats 62 9 5 22 1 5 985 454 Plaid Cymru 2 1 0 3 0 6 174 838 Other parties 27 4 2 9 7 2 650 867 Total 650 27 148 510Contesting parties EditMain parties Edit See also 2005 Conservative Party leadership election 2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election 2007 Labour Party leadership election UK and 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election All three main parties went into the general election having changed leaders since 2005 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 prospect of a coalition or minority government was being considered well before polling day Gordon Brown made comments about the possibility of a coalition in January 2010 23 In 2009 it was reported that senior civil servants were to meet with the Liberal Democrats to discuss their policies an indication of how seriously the prospect of a hung parliament was being taken 24 Nick Clegg 25 and Menzies Campbell 26 had 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 Other parties Edit See also List of parties contesting the 2010 United Kingdom general election Other parties with representation at Westminster after the previous general election included the Scottish National Party with six parliamentary seats Plaid Cymru from Wales with three seats and Respect The Unity Coalition and Health Concern each of which held one parliamentary seat in England Since that election the SNP had won the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections and gained control of the Scottish Government and also won the largest share of the 2009 European Parliament election vote in Scotland 27 In Wales the Labour Party remained the largest party in the Welsh Assembly although Plaid Cymru increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition government with Labour 28 In 2009 the Ulster Unionist Party and the Conservative Party announced they had formed an electoral alliance whereby the two parties would field joint candidates for future elections under the banner of Ulster Conservatives and Unionists New Force 29 However this caused the sole UUP MP Lady Sylvia Hermon to resign from the party on 25 March 2010 leaving them with no representation at Westminster for the first time in their history 30 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 on becoming an MP Farage was replaced in an election by party members by Lord Pearson of Rannoch 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 a new loose coalition Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition TUSC contested a general election for the first time TUSC was a grouping of left wing parties that participated in the 2009 European Parliament elections under the name of No2EU members included 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 ran as candidates under the TUSC banner 31 However some former members of NO2EU such as the Liberal Party citation needed and the Communist Party of Britain 32 chose not to participate in the TUSC campaign The coalition did not run candidates against left wing Labour or Respect candidates 33 34 Campaign EditApril Edit 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 and voters in the North of Scotland as teuchters and insulting politicians such as Cameron Clegg John Bercow and Diane Abbott 35 The UKIP candidate for Thirsk and Malton John Boakes died causing the election in the constituency to be postponed until 27 May 36 37 38 39 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 the chairman 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 still appeared as a Conservative candidate because it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper 40 A total of 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 41 The SNP attempted but failed to ban the broadcast of the final party leaders debate in Scotland in a court action 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 42 An election sign in a residential property 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 43 The 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 This is a criminal matter and it will be for the police to decide what action to take 44 The former Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to the campaign trail for Labour visiting a polyclinic in Harrow West after a troubled Labour campaign 45 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 46 A group of entrepreneurs warned on the dangers of a Labour Liberal coalition in an open letter to The Times on 29 April 47 48 49 Bigotgate Edit On 28 April Gordon Brown met Gillian Duffy a 65 year old woman and lifelong Labour voter from Rochdale a Labour Liberal Democrat marginal seat She asked him about vulnerable people supposedly not receiving benefits because immigrants were receiving them adding You can t say anything about the immigrants because you re saying that you re but all these eastern Europeans what are coming in where are they flocking from Brown replied A million people have come from Europe but a million British people have gone into Europe 50 51 In a private conversation with his communications director Justin Forsyth after the meeting Brown described Duffy as just a sort of bigoted woman She said she used be Labour I mean it s just ridiculous 52 Brown s remarks were inadvertently recorded by a Sky News microphone he was still wearing and widely broadcast Labour sources later stated that Brown had misheard Duffy and thought she had asked where are they fucking from 53 54 55 Soon after the incident Brown talked to Jeremy Vine live on BBC Radio 2 and publicly apologised to Duffy American comedian Jon Stewart commented that the clip showed the moment when Brown s political career leaves his body 56 Brown subsequently visited Duffy to apologise in person Upon emerging he described himself as a penitent sinner 57 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 58 The incident was subsequently dubbed Bigotgate which was later added to the Collins English Dictionary 59 Despite this Labour went on to gain the Rochdale seat from the Liberal Democrats one of the few gains they made in the election May Edit 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 send correct versions by hand 60 The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets The Times reported on 2 May that the investigation had revealed some names on the register were fictitious with a late surge in applications to be added to the electoral register before 20 April deadline leading to 5 000 additions without time for full checks 61 In terms of the outcome of the borough s two seats the narrower majority in any event exceeded 5 000 votes in Poplar and Limehouse at 6 030 votes The Labour candidate for North West Norfolk Manish Sood described Gordon Brown as Britain s worst ever Prime Minister 62 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 in the campaign 63 64 A Conservative Party activist in Peterborough was arrested after alleged postal voting fraud calling into question 150 postal votes 65 Nick Griffin leader of the British National Party talking to voters in Romford Market Simon Bennett resigned as the head of the British National Party s online operation then redirected its website to his own on which he attacked the party s leadership 66 Polling station in Camberwell On the morning of polling day 6 May the former and later leader of UKIP Nigel Farage standing in Buckingham against the Speaker was injured when a light banner towing aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed near Brackley Northamptonshire 67 Groups of voters waiting in queues at 10 pm were locked out of polling stations in Sheffield Hallam Manchester and Leeds and police said one London polling station was open until 10 30 pm which triggered a national review of polling station requirements led by the Electoral Commission 68 The counts for the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies were suspended because of a security alert around 11 pm after a car was abandoned outside the counting centre causing a bomb scare Debates EditMain article 2010 United Kingdom general election debates Following a campaign by Sky News and with agreement of the party leaders 69 it was announced on 21 December 2009 that there would be three leaders debates each broadcast on prime time television 70 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 71 Date Host Location Moderator Subject15 April ITV Manchester Alastair Stewart Domestic policyHighlightsIn instant polling after the event Nick Clegg was judged the clear winner 72 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 affairsHighlightsNick 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 Labour 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 73 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 74 29 April BBC Birmingham David Dimbleby Economy and taxesHighlightsIn the third and final poll David Cameron was widely regarded as the party leader who made the best impression to the audience at home 75 76 77 78 79 At the end of the debating night the Conservatives had gained a 5 lead over Labour 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 80 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 81 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 82 Opinion polls EditMain article Opinion polling for the 2010 United Kingdom general election See also Exit poll and Opinion poll A polling station in Wetherby West Yorkshire 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 Immediately following the previous general election Labour 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 83 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 84 Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Other Graph of poll results since 2005 Graph of YouGov poll results from 6 April 2010From 15 April 2010 following the first televised debate of the party leaders polling data changed dramatically with the Lib Dem vote proportion rising to 28 33 and the Conservative vote proportion falling In some polls the Liberal Democrats took the lead from the Conservatives Under UNS projections this made a hung parliament highly probable if Lib Dem performance had persisted 85 The following graph shows ComRes poll results recorded over the period 11 April 6 May 2010 including annotations of the three TV debates After the second debate on 22 April the polls on average placed the Conservatives in the lead on 33 the Liberal Democrats in second on 30 and Labour in third on 28 If these polls had reflected the election day results on a uniform swing nationwide Labour would have had the most seats in a hung Parliament Exit poll Edit At 22 00 on election day coinciding with the closure of the polls the results of an exit poll completed by GfK NOP and Ipsos MORI on behalf of the BBC Sky and ITV news services was announced Data were gathered from individuals at 130 polling stations around the country Parties Seats ChangeConservative Party 307 97Labour Party 255 94Liberal Democrats 59 3Others 29 N A Conservatives 19 short of majorityThe 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 between the Conservatives Labour Liberal Democrats and other parties was initially suggested to be 307 255 59 and 29 respectively 86 although the seat numbers were later changed to 303 251 69 and 27 respectively 87 Initial reaction to the exit poll by various commentators was of surprise at the apparent poor prospects for the Liberal Democrats 88 because it was at odds with many opinion polls undertaken in the previous weeks 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 87 Endorsements EditMain article Endorsements in the 2010 United Kingdom general election National newspapers in England traditionally endorse political parties before a general election The following table shows which parties the major papers endorsed Dailies Sundays WeekliesNewspaper Endorsement Newspaper Endorsement Newspaper EndorsementThe Times Conservative 89 Sunday Times Conservative 90 The Economist Conservative 91 The Guardian Liberal Democrats 92 The Observer Liberal Democrats 93 The Daily Telegraph Conservative 94 The Sunday Telegraph Conservative 95 Financial Times Conservative 96 The Independent Undeclared 95 The Independent on Sunday Undeclared 95 Evening Standard Conservative 97 Daily Mail Conservative 95 The Mail on Sunday Conservative 95 Daily Express Conservative 98 Sunday Express Conservative 95 Daily Mirror Labour 95 Sunday Mirror Labour 95 The People Any coalition 95 The Sun Conservative 99 News of the World Conservative 99 The Daily Star Undeclared 95 Daily Star Sunday Undeclared 100 The Independent and The Guardian advocated tactical voting to maximise the chance of a Liberal Democrat Labour coalition to make electoral reform including of the House of Lords and introduction of domestic proportional representation more likely 92 101 Results Edit 306 57 258 29Conservative Liberal Democrats Labour Oth Party Leader MPs VotesOf total Of totalConservative Party David Cameron 306 47 1 306 650 10 703 754 36 1 Labour Party Gordon Brown 258 39 7 258 650 8 609 527 29 0 Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg 57 8 8 57 650 6 836 825 23 0 Democratic Unionist Party Peter Robinson 8 1 2 8 650 168 216 0 6 Scottish National Party Alex Salmond 6 0 9 6 650 491 386 1 7 Sinn Fein Gerry Adams 5 0 8 5 650 171 942 0 6 Plaid Cymru Ieuan Wyn Jones 3 0 5 3 650 165 394 0 6 Social Democratic amp Labour Party Margaret Ritchie 3 0 5 3 650 110 970 0 4 Green Party Caroline Lucas 1 0 2 1 650 285 616 0 9 Alliance David Ford 1 0 2 1 650 42 762 0 1 Speaker John Bercow 1 0 2 1 650 22 860 0 08 102 Independent Sylvia Hermon 1 0 2 1 650 21 181 0 07 103 Turnout nationally was 65 a rise from the 61 turnout in the 2005 general election 104 e d Summary of the May 2010 House of Commons of the United Kingdom election results 105 Political party Leader Candidates VotesNominated Elected Of total Gained Lost Net Count Proportion of total Change in proportion Conservative table 1 David Cameron 631 306 47 1 100 3 97 10 703 754 36 1 3 7Labour Gordon Brown 631 258 39 7 3 94 91 8 609 527 29 0 6 2Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg 631 57 8 8 8 13 5 6 836 824 23 0 1 0UKIP Lord Pearson 558 0 0 0 0 0 919 546 3 1 0 9BNP Nick Griffin 338 0 0 0 0 0 564 331 1 9 1 2SNP Alex Salmond 59 6 0 9 0 0 0 491 386 1 7 0 1Green Caroline Lucas 310 1 0 2 1 0 1 265 247 0 9 0 2Sinn Fein Gerry Adams 17 5 0 8 0 0 0 171 942 0 6 0 1DUP Peter Robinson 16 8 1 2 0 1 1 168 216 0 6 0 3Plaid Cymru Ieuan Wyn Jones 40 3 0 5 1 0 1 165 394 0 6 0 1SDLP Margaret Ritchie 18 3 0 5 0 0 0 110 970 0 4 0 1UCU NF Reg Empey 17 0 0 0 1 1 102 361 0 3 0 1English Democrat Robin Tilbrook 107 0 0 0 0 0 64 826 0 2 0 2Alliance David Ford 18 1 0 2 1 0 1 42 762 0 1 0 0Respect Salma Yaqoob 11 0 0 0 1 1 33 251 0 1 0 1TUV 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 0Independent 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 1Green Eleanor Scott and Patrick Harvie 20 0 0 0 0 0 16 827 0 1 0 0Health Concern Richard Taylor 1 0 0 0 1 1 16 150 0 1 0 0Independent 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 0Buckinghamshire 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 0Socialist Labour Arthur Scargill 23 0 0 0 0 0 7 196 0 0 0 1Liberal Rob Wheway 5 0 0 0 0 0 6 781 0 0 0 1Blaenau Gwent PV Dai Davies 1 0 0 0 1 1 6 458 0 0 0 1CPA Alan Craig 17 0 0 0 0 0 6 276 0 0 0 0Mebyon Kernow Dick Cole 6 0 0 0 0 0 5 379 0 0 0 0Lincolnshire 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 0Socialist Alternative Peter Taaffe 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 298 0 0 0 0Trust 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 1People 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 0SDP 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 0Staffordshire Independent Group 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 208 0 0 0 0Tendring First 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 078 0 0 0 0Solihull and Meriden Residents Association 2 0 0 0 0 0 977 0 0 0 0Communist Robert Griffiths 6 0 0 0 0 0 947 0 0 0 0Democratic Labour Brian Powell 1 0 0 0 0 0 842 0 0 0 0English Independence Party 1 0 0 0 0 0 803 0 0 0 0Democratic 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 0Workers Revolutionary Sheila Torrance 7 0 0 0 0 0 738 0 0 0 0Peace John Morris 3 0 0 0 0 0 737 0 0 0 0Animal Protection 4 0 0 0 0 0 675 0 0 0 0Christian Movement for Great Britain 2 0 0 0 0 0 598 0 0 0 0New Millennium Bean Party Captain Beany 1 0 0 0 0 0 558 0 0 0 0Total 3 720 650 100 115 115 0 29 687 604 Turnout 65 1 This figure excludes John Bercow Buckingham On 27 May 2010 the Conservatives won the final seat of Thirsk and Malton thus giving them 306 seats The election in that constituency had been delayed because of the death of the UKIP candidate 106 Vote shareConservative 36 1 Labour 29 0 Liberal Democrat 23 0 UK Independence 3 1 British National 1 9 Scottish National 1 7 Others 5 2 Parliamentary seatsConservative 47 1 Labour 39 7 Liberal Democrat 8 8 Democratic Unionist 1 2 Scottish National 0 9 Sinn Fein 0 8 Others 1 5 Voting distribution per constituency Edit Election petitions Edit Two results were also challenged by defeated candidates through election petitions Fermanagh and South Tyrone and Oldham East and Saddleworth These candidates had lost by 4 and 103 votes respectively Fermanagh and South Tyrone Edit The defeated Unionist Unity candidate Rodney Connor lodged a petition against the successful Sinn Fein candidate Michelle Gildernew in Fermanagh and South Tyrone alleging irregularities in the counting of the votes had affected the result Gildernew had won with a plurality of four votes However the court found that there were only three ballot papers which could not be accounted for and even if they were all votes for Connor Gildernew would have had a plurality of one The election was therefore upheld 107 Oldham East and Saddleworth Edit See also 2011 Oldham East and Saddleworth by election On 28 May 2010 the defeated Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins lodged a petition against the election of Phil Woolas Labour in Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency 108 The petition challenged leaflets issued by Woolas s campaign as having contained false statements of fact concerning Watkins personal character which is an illegal practice under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 The statements attempted to link Watkins with Muslim extremists and death threats to Woolas accused him of reneging on a promise to live in the constituency and implied that his campaign was funded by illegal foreign political donations 109 110 During the court case a number of emails between Woolas and his campaign team emerged In one Woolas s agent Joe Fitzpatrick emailed Woolas and campaign adviser Steven Green to say Things are not going as well as I had hoped we need to think about our first attack leaflet 111 A reply from Fitzpatrick said If we don t get the white vote angry he s gone 112 The court hearing finished on 17 September 2010 with the judges reserving their judgement until 5 November 2010 113 On that day Woolas was found to have breached section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 in relation to three of the four statements complained about and the judges ruled that his election was void 114 Phil Woolas applied for a judicial review into the ruling 115 stating that this election petition raised fundamental issues about the freedom to question and criticise politicians and that it will inevitably chill political speech 116 He succeeded in overturning the finding in respect of one of the three statements but the main findings of the election court judgment were upheld A by election on 13 January 2011 resulted in the election of Debbie Abrahams Labour Analysis EditFor results by county region and analysis see Results breakdown of the 2010 United Kingdom general election For results by constituency see Results of the 2010 United Kingdom general election For details by MP see List of MPs elected in the 2010 United Kingdom general election The disproportionality of the house of parliament in the 2010 election was 15 57 according to the Gallagher Index with the Liberal Democrats losing out to both the Conservatives and Labour At 9 41 on 7 May the BBC confirmed a hung parliament The Conservatives stood at 290 seats Labour at 247 and Liberal Democrats at 51 2 117 One constituency seat Thirsk and Malton was contested on 27 May because of the death of the UKIP candidate and was won by the Conservative Party whilst another seat Oldham East and Saddleworth later had its result declared void Labour won the resulting by election Proportion of seats outer ring shown with proportion of votes inner ring The result showed an overall 5 1 swing from Labour to the Conservatives the third largest national swing achieved in a General Election since 1945 and similar to the 5 3 swing achieved by the Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher in 1979 117 The 97 net seat gains made by the Conservatives outdid their previous best gains total in 1950 when they gained 85 Labour s loss of 91 seats was worse than their previous greatest loss of seats when they lost 77 seats in 1970 Of the 532 seats contested in England a final seat Thirsk and Malton was contested on 27 May the Conservatives won 298 seats and an absolute majority of 61 seats over all other parties combined securing an average swing of 5 6 from Labour 118 Labour did poorly in many Southern areas notably in the Eastern Region where they won only two of their 14 seats from 2005 Luton North and Luton South Labour did however gain two seats Bethnal Green and Bow and Chesterfield The Conservatives made 95 of their gains in England but they also suffered three losses all to the Liberal Democrats For the Liberal Democrats their eight gains were overshadowed by their 12 losses one to Labour and 11 to the Conservatives None of Scotland s 59 seats changed hands and all were held by the same party that had won them at the 2005 election with Labour regaining the two seats they had 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 The Conservatives finished with just a single MP representing a Scottish constituency Of the 40 seats contested in Wales the Conservatives more than doubled their seats from three to eight taking one from the Liberal Democrats and four from Labour Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru s number of seats was reduced from three to two on the new seat boundaries but they managed to gain one seat Arfon from Labour Labour did however regain Blaenau Gwent which had once been Labour s safest seat in Wales until it had been taken by an Independent Peter Law in 2005 119 Overall Labour made a net loss of 4 seats but remained the biggest party with 26 There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland Both Irish nationalist parties Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labour Party SDLP held their seats The unionist Democratic Unionist Party DUP and Ulster Unionist Party UUP the latter in an electoral pact with the Conservatives lost one seat each This left the nationalist parties unchanged with eight seats the main 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 and also the first time Sinn Fein obtained the largest share of the vote in Northern Ireland at a general election 120 Notable results Edit Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families Ed Balls held his seat in Morley and Outwood by 1 101 votes despite much anticipation of a Portillo moment 121 Despite this he would indeed lose the seat at the following election Minister of State for Borders and Immigration Phil Woolas retained Oldham East and Saddleworth by just 103 votes However following a legal challenge by his Liberal Democrat opponent Elwyn Watkins which found the local Labour campaign to have used negative and false information against Watkins a new by election was ordered and held on 13 January 2011 Woolas was barred from standing in this by election whilst Watkins stood again but Labour held the seat with an increased majority 122 Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke lost Norwich South by 310 votes to the Liberal Democrats 123 Another former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lost Redditch on an above average 9 2 swing to the Conservatives She had held the seat since 1997 and the seat was a key Conservative target Her role in the 2009 expenses scandal contributed to her defeat 124 Minister of State for Health Mike O Brien unexpectedly lost North Warwickshire a seat he had held for 18 years by just 54 votes to Conservative challenger Dan Byles 125 Green Party leader Caroline Lucas won Brighton Pavilion becoming their first Westminster MP 126 127 British National Party leader Nick Griffin finished in third place after a heavy loss in Barking to incumbent Labour MP Margaret Hodge 128 In the wake of job losses at the local steel works Solicitor General Vera Baird lost her seat of Redcar on a swing of 21 8 to Ian Swales of the Liberal Democrats Glenda Jackson held Hampstead and Kilburn by just 42 votes only 32 of the vote ahead of the Conservatives with the Liberal Democrats trailing less than 1 000 votes behind both other main parties Incidentally the seat has since become a safe Labour seat in the two elections held towards the end of the decade Peter Robinson lost Belfast East after 31 years as MP for the constituency to the Alliance Party candidate Naomi Long A scandal involving his wife s and fellow MP Iris Robinson s extramarital affair and her procuring 50 000 for her lover to start a restaurant had led to Robinson s resignation as First Minister earlier that year and assisted in the almost 23 swing to the Alliance Party Gisela Stuart held onto her Birmingham Edgbaston seat despite many predictions that she would lose it This was the only one of the 50 most marginal seats Labour held that was not lost by the party Demographics EditCandidate demographics Edit The election resulted in an increase in the number of MPs from ethnic minorities from 14 to 27 including the first black and Asian female Conservative MPs Helen Grant and Priti Patel 129 and the first female Muslim MPs Rushanara Ali Shabana Mahmood and Yasmin Qureshi 130 This means that 4 2 of MPs are from an ethnic minority in the 2001 Census it was reported that ethnic minorities comprised 7 9 of the population The number of female MPs rose to 141 an increase from 19 5 to 21 7 of all MPs and the highest ever total the number of female Conservative MPs rose from 18 8 6 of all Conservatives to 48 15 7 131 Voter demographics Edit Polling after the election suggested the following demographic breakdown The 2010 UK general election vote in Great Britain 132 133 Social group Con Lab Lib Dem Others LeadTotal vote 37 30 24 19 7GenderMale 38 28 22 12 10Female 36 31 26 8 4Age18 24 30 31 30 9 125 34 35 30 29 7 535 44 34 31 26 9 345 54 34 28 26 12 655 64 38 28 23 12 1065 44 31 16 9 13Men by age18 24 29 34 27 4 525 34 42 23 30 6 1235 54 36 28 23 13 855 41 29 16 14 12Women by age18 24 30 28 34 9 425 34 27 38 27 8 1135 54 33 31 29 8 255 42 30 21 7 12Social classAB 39 26 29 7 10C1 39 28 24 9 11C2 37 29 22 12 8DE 31 40 17 12 9Men by social classAB 44 23 27 7 17C1 40 28 22 10 12C2 33 33 19 10 0DE 32 35 13 20 3Women by social classAB 44 28 16 12 16C1 34 29 31 6 3C2 41 25 25 9 16DE 29 45 19 7 16Housing tenureOwned 45 24 21 11 21Mortgage 36 29 26 9 7Social renter 24 47 19 11 23Private renter 35 29 27 9 6Ethnic groupWhite 38 28 24 8 11BAME 23 65 20 10 40Northern Ireland Edit Main article 2010 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland a swing of more than 20 resulted in DUP First Minister Peter Robinson losing his Belfast East 134 seat to the Alliance Party s Naomi Long giving Alliance its first elected MP in Westminster Sir Reg Empey leader of the UUP Conservative alliance UCUNF standing for the first time in South Antrim lost to the DUP incumbent William McCrea Thus both leaders of the main Unionist parties failed to win seats while the UUP for the first time had no MPs at Westminster A few days after the election Empey announced that he would resign before the party conference triggering a leadership election Sylvia Hermon Lady Hermon retained her seat in North Down significantly increasing her percentage of the vote despite a slightly lower turnout and her defection from the UUP Conservative alliance to stand as an independent New SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie succeeding Eddie McGrady MP won against Sinn Fein s Caitriona Ruane in South Down All of the Sinn Fein and SDLP incumbents held their seats although Sinn Fein s Michelle Gildernew retained her seat in Fermanagh amp South Tyrone by only four votes over the Independent Unionist Unity candidate Rodney Connor after three recounts 135 MPs who lost their seats Edit Main article List of MPs who lost their seat in the 2010 United Kingdom general election MPs first elected in 2010 Edit Main article MPs first elected in 2010 to the 55th UK ParliamentEffect of the expenses scandal EditMain article United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal Many of the MPs who were most prominently caught up in the scandal decided or were ordered not to stand for re election in 2010 Among them were Margaret Moran 136 Elliot Morley 137 David Chaytor 138 Nicholas and Ann Winterton 139 Derek Conway 140 John Gummer 141 Douglas Hogg 142 Anthony Steen 143 Peter Viggers 144 Julie Kirkbride and her husband Andrew MacKay 145 Where sitting MPs did stand for re election after their expenses claims were criticised there were some notable losses Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lost her marginal Redditch seat which showed a large 9 2 swing to the Conservatives Smith had claimed expenses on a large family home in Redditch by declaring her house share with her sister in London as her main home which had been described as near fraudulent by the former chairman of the committee on Standards in Public life 146 although she had only been ordered to apologise rather than repay the money 147 Former Home Office minister Tony McNulty lost Harrow East to the Conservatives on an 8 swing after repaying over 13 000 claimed on a second home occupied by his parents which was 8 miles away from his primary residence 148 Ann Keen lost Brentford and Isleworth on a 6 swing 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 149 Shahid Malik lost his Dewsbury seat on a 5 9 swing to the Conservatives Malik had been required to repay some of his expense claims and at the time of the election was under investigation for other claims 150 David Heathcoat Amory was one of only two sitting Conservatives to be defeated when he lost Wells to the Liberal Democrats by 800 votes Heathcoat Amory was criticised for claiming manure on expenses 151 Phil Hope who repaid over 40 000 in expenses 152 was defeated in his Corby constituency although the swing was lower than the national average at 3 3 Hazel Blears who had paid more than 13 000 to cover capital gains tax which she had avoided by flipping the designation of her main residence 153 suffered a large drop in her vote in Salford and Eccles but was still comfortably re elected a Hazel must go candidate won only 1 8 154 Conversely Brian Jenkins lost his Tamworth seat on a large 9 5 swing despite being described as a saint by The Daily Telegraph on account of his low expenses 155 Ironically his successor in the seat was Conservative Chris Pincher whose future sexual assault scandal would bring down the premiership of Prime Minister Boris Johnson twelve years later 156 157 158 Predictions 159 of a rise in the number of successful Independents in the election as a result of the 2009 expenses scandal failed to materialise 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 Broadcaster Esther Rantzen gathered a great deal of publicity for her campaign in Luton South constituency where the former MP Margaret Moran had stood down but ended up losing her deposit in 4th place with 4 4 of the vote the winner was Moran s successor as Labour candidate There was also a high profile campaign over expenses directed against Speaker John Bercow who had flipped his designation of second home An imperfectly observed convention states that the major parties do not oppose the Speaker seeking re election Bercow faced two main opponents in Buckingham Independent former Member of the European Parliament John Stevens standing on the Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy ticket campaigned with a man dressed in a dolphin costume whom he called Flipper 160 and polled second with 21 4 Former leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage also fought the seat but came third in the vote with 17 4 Bercow won with 47 3 Voting problems EditProblems occurred with voting at 27 polling places in 16 constituencies and affected approximately 1 200 people 161 This situation 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 announced it would be carrying out a thorough investigation 162 Under the law in force at the 2010 election voters had to have been handed their ballots by the 10 pm deadline people who were waiting in queues to vote at 10 pm were not allowed to vote 163 In Chester there were reports that 600 registered voters were unable to vote because the electoral roll had not been updated 164 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 162 Some dissatisfied voters staged sit ins to protest against what some of them had called disenfranchisement 162 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 165 In Wyre and Preston North a 14 year old boy cast a vote after being sent a polling card 166 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 167 Because of closure of United Kingdom airspace as a result of the Iceland volcanic eruption potential expat voters in New Zealand were denied a vote when postal voting papers arrived too late to be returned to the UK 168 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 169 Post election government formation EditMain article 2010 United Kingdom government formation 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 3 Gordon Brown announced that he was resigning as Prime Minister 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 170 171 Cameron became Prime Minister one hour after the Queen accepted Brown s resignation 172 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 172 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 4 5 meaning that David Cameron would lead a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats Later that day the two parties jointly published the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition agreement specifying the terms of the coalition deal 173 174 175 A film of the election was made by candidate and filmmaker John Walsh entitled ToryBoy The Movie exploring the candidate s selection process and the work that goes into an election campaign One of the film s subjects the British Labour Party MP Sir Stuart Bell was later described as Britain s laziest MP 176 The film received cinema releases in 2011 and again ahead of the 2015 general election 177 Party political and administration costs EditUK parties spent 31 1m on the campaign of which Conservatives spent 53 the Labour Party spent 25 and the Liberal Democrats 15 178 Figures from returning officers show that the average administration cost per constituency was 173 846 meaning the average cost per vote was 3 81 179 See also EditCameron Clegg coalition List of MPs elected in the 2010 United Kingdom general election List of MPs for constituencies in England 2010 2015 List of MPs for constituencies in Northern Ireland 2010 2015 List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland 2010 2015 List of MPs for constituencies in Wales 2010 2015 2010 United Kingdom local elections Results of the 2010 United Kingdom general election Results breakdown of the 2010 United Kingdom general election 2010s in United Kingdom political historyNotes Edit a b Reflects the notional winners of seats in light of boundary changes a b c The poll in the constituency of Thirsk and Malton was postponed until 27 May because of the death of the UKIP candidate John Boakes UKIP did not name a candidate until after 6 May out of respect for Boakes 16 Further reading EditAdonis Andrew 2013 5 days in May the coalition and beyond London Biteback Publishing ISBN 9781849545662 Baldini Gianfranco Hopkin Jonathan 2012 Coalition Britain the UK election of 2010 Manchester New York Manchester University Press ISBN 9780719083709 Cowley Philip Kavanagh Dennis 2010 The British General Election of 2010 Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 9780230521902 Cutts David Goodwin Matthew J February 2014 Getting out the right wing extremist vote extreme right party support and campaign effects at a recent British general election European Political Science Review 6 1 93 114 doi 10 1017 S1755773912000288 S2CID 154753788 Fisher Justin Wlezien Christopher 2012 The UK general election of 2010 explaining the outcome London New York Routledge ISBN 9780415583015 Worcester Robert Mortimore Roger Baines Paul Gill Mark 2012 The UK general election of 2010 explaining the outcome London New York Routledge ISBN 9780415583015 References Edit General elections Electoral Commission 18 May 2012 Retrieved 24 August 2013 a b Naughton Philippe Watson Roland 7 May 2010 Britain wakes up to a hung Parliament The Times London Retrieved 7 May 2010 a b Gordon Brown resigns as UK prime minister BBC News 11 May 2010 a b Sparrow Andrew 12 May 2010 New government live blog The Guardian London a b Lib Dems approve coalition deal BBC News 11 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 In 1973 Stratton Mills elected as a Unionist defected to the Alliance Party but retired from Westminster at the following general election Gordon Brown calls 6 May general election BBC News 6 April 2010 Brown would renew Labour Party BBC News 5 January 2007 Election 2010 Lib Dem policies targeted by rivals BBC News 19 April 2010 Wells Anthony 6 May 2010 Final poll of the campaign UK Polling Report Retrieved 7 May 2010 Riddell Peter Sherman Jill Watson Roland 6 May 2010 Tories scent victory as poll lead widens The Times London Retrieved 6 May 2010 Pickard Jim 5 May 2010 UK Brown woos undecided voters Financial Times Archived from the original on 11 December 2022 Retrieved 7 May 2010 Jefferson Rodney Hutton Robert 27 April 2010 Brown Placing Third May Win Most Seats as Undecided Hold Key Bloomberg Retrieved 7 May 2010 Salmond wants Westminster to dance to a Scottish jig as he targets 20 seats The Scotsman Edinburgh 21 April 2008 Research Paper 07 31 Election Timetables PDF House of Commons Library Archived from the original PDF on 24 February 2009 Election delayed after the death of candidate Malton amp Pickering Mercury 28 April 2010 Archived from the original on 6 May 2010 Retrieved 29 April 2010 A post war record for MPs standing down BBC News 2 December 2009 Winnett Robert Prince Rosa 28 December 2009 Quarter of MPs to stand down over expenses The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Retrieved 26 May 2010 Colin Rallings Michael Thrasher The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre 2007 ISBN 0 948858 45 1 The Parliamentary Constituencies England Order 2007 S I 2007 No 1681 Office of Public Sector Information 13 June 2007 The Parliamentary Constituencies Northern Ireland Order 2008 S I 2008 No 1486 The National Archives 11 June 2006 The Parliamentary Constituencies and Assembly Electoral Regions Wales Order 2006 S I 2006 No 1041 The National Archives 11 June 2006 Morris Nigel 4 January 2010 PM paves way for deal with Lib Dems in hung parliament The Independent London Archived from the original on 1 May 2022 Retrieved 26 May 2010 Watt Nicholas 1 January 2009 Whitehall prepares for hung parliament with Lib Dem talks The Guardian London Retrieved 17 May 2010 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2010 Female representation in government increases slightly Women in technology 11 May 2010 How Britain Voted in 2010 Ipsos MORI Archived from the original on 4 January 2018 Retrieved 3 January 2018 Dennis Kavanagh and Philip Cowley The British General Election of 2010 Palgrave Macmillan 2010 p 341 Election 2010 Belfast East BBC News Retrieved 7 May 2010 SF s Gildernew retains her seat BBC News 7 May 2010 Retrieved 7 May 2010 Beckford Martin 29 May 2009 MPs expenses Margaret Moran to stand down but insists she did nothing wrong The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Elliot Morley to stand down as MP BBC News 29 May 2009 Labour MP Chaytor to stand down BBC News 2 June 2009 Hope Christopher Swaine Jon 15 May 2009 Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton to stand down from parliament MPs expenses The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Winnett Robert 30 January 2008 Derek Conway to stand down at election The Daily Telegraph London 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General election 2010 Shahid Malik loses in Dewsbury inthenews co uk 7 May 2010 Archived from the original on 29 September 2012 Retrieved 13 May 2010 Vote 2010 you win some you lose some Channel 4 News 7 May 2010 Retrieved 8 May 2010 Moore Matthew 13 May 2009 Phil Hope agrees to return 41 000 as MPs retreat on expenses The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Porter Andrew 22 May 2009 Gordon Brown pursuing a political vendetta against Hazel Blears MPs expenses The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 General Election 2010 Hazel Blears retains Salford and Eccles The Daily Telegraph London 7 May 2010 Archived from the original on 4 November 2015 MPs expenses The saints Part iii The Daily Telegraph London 19 May 2009 Labour MP of 14 years loses seat to Tories in Tamworth Birmingham Post 7 May 2009 Archived from the original on 24 December 2010 Retrieved 11 June 2011 Town MP reflects on memorable if rather nervous first year Tamworth Herald 3 June 2011 Archived from the original on 10 August 2011 Retrieved 11 June 2011 Boris Johnson resigns PM quits as Tory leader saying will of party is clear BBC News 7 July 2022 Retrieved 7 July 2022 Evans Martin 22 April 2010 General Election 2010 MPs expenses scandal fires independent challenge The Daily Telegraph London Archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Seddon Mark 21 April 2010 Bercow s last stand New Statesman 2010 UK Parliamentary general election Interim report review of problems at polling stations at close of poll on 6 May 2010 PDF UK The Electoral Commission 20 May 2010 Section 1 6 Retrieved 27 July 2010 a b c Electoral Commission to investigate thwarted voters Channel 4 News 6 May 2010 Retrieved 7 May 2010 Election 2010 Inquiry as voters miss out as polls shut BBC News 7 May 2010 Retrieved 1 August 2010 Voters turned away from polls should go to court says Liberty The Guardian 7 May 2010 Liverpool polling station runs out of ballots BBC News 7 May 2010 Retrieved 7 May 2010 Lancashire teenager voted to make a difference BBC News 8 May 2010 Retrieved 10 July 2010 Election 2010 Voters turned away as polls close BBC News 7 May 2010 Retrieved 7 May 2010 Kiwi votes too late for UK election The New Zealand Herald 9 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 UK elections how to vote from abroad Special Broadcasting Service 6 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 Election 2010 Live coverage General Election 2010 BBC News 11 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 PM s full resignation statement BBC News 11 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 a b David Cameron is UK s new prime minister BBC News 11 May 2010 Retrieved 11 May 2010 Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement Archived 15 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine Conservative Party Published 12 May 2010 Retrieved 13 May 2010 Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement Archived 11 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine Liberal Democrats Published 12 May 2010 Retrieved 13 May 2010 Full text of the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition deal The Guardian London 12 May 2010 Retrieved 12 May 2010 Moss Richard 9 September 2011 Sir Stuart Bell the laziest MP BBC News https mmj tees ac uk project22 index5d95 html p 863 permanent dead link 2015 election campaign officially begins on Friday BBC News 18 December 2014 Retrieved 18 December 2014 Anthony Reuben 13 October 2014 Small Data How much do by elections cost BBC News Retrieved 20 December 2014 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2010 United Kingdom general election RESEARCH PAPER 10 36 House of Commons Library General Election 2010 OSCE ODIHR Election Assessment Mission Report report by independent observers the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Report on the administration of the 2010 UK general election by the Electoral Commission British General Election 2010 resources from Political Science Resources Your Candidate Finder Telegraph 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 Election 2010 The TV debate at BAFTA BAFTA asks an expert panel was TV the real winner of the General Election Catalogue of 2010 general election ephemera at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics General Election 2010 Commons Library Research Paper RP10 36 from Parliament uk Gives the results at UK GB country and region level See also the introduction Manifestos Edit Main partiesConservatives Invitation to join the government of Britain Labour A future fair for all Liberal Democrats Change that works for you Building a fairer BritainSmaller parties already holding seatsDemocratic Unionist Party Let s Keep Northern Ireland Moving Forward Plaid Cymru Think Different Think Plaid Respect Party Homes Jobs and Peace Manifesto for a Hung Parliament Scottish National Party Elect a local champion Sinn Fein 2010 Westminster Election Manifesto Social Democratic and Labour Party For Your Future Ulster Conservatives and Unionists New Force Invitation to join the government of the United KingdomOther partiesAlliance Party of Northern Ireland Alliance Works Working for you at Westminster Alliance for Green Socialism General Election Manifesto 2010 British National Party Democracy Freedom Culture and Identity British National Front National Front 2010 Election Manifesto Christian Peoples Alliance Not by Bread Alone Communist Party of Britain Britain For The People Not The Bankers Co operative Party A Cooperative Agenda For A Fourth Term English Democrats Party English Democrats 2010 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 Scottish Green Party A Living Wage For All Protect Public Services Support New Green Jobs Scottish Socialist Party For An Independent Socialist Scotland 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 UK Independence Party Empowering the people United Kingdom Libertarian Party For Life Liberty and ProsperityBoundary Commissions Edit Boundary Commission for England Boundary Commission for Scotland Boundary Commission for Wales Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland Boundary changes favour Tories Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine ePolitix 26 June 2006Portals Politics United Kingdom Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 2010 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