page_title: 2015 United Kingdom general election
section_title: National
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 United Kingdom general election / Contesting political parties and candidates / National
caption_attribution_description: English: Nigel Farage.
context_page_description: The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.
  Polls and commentators had predicted the outcome would be too close to call and would result in a second consecutive hung parliament that would be either similar or more complicated than the 2010 election. Opinion polls were eventually proven to have underestimated the Conservative vote as the party unexpectedly won an outright majority, which bore resemblance to its victory at the 1992 general election. Having governed in coalition with the Liberal Democrats since 2010, the Conservatives won 330 seats and 36.9% of the vote share, giving them a small overall majority of 12 seats and their first outright win for 23 years.
  The Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, saw a small increase in its share of the vote to 30.4%, but incurred a net loss of seats to return 232 MPs. This was its lowest seat tally since the 1987 general election.
context_section_description: Several parties operate in specific regions only. The main national parties, standing for seats across all (or most of) the country, are listed below in order of seats being contested:
  Conservative Party: led by David Cameron, the prime minister. The Conservative Party was the larger party in the coalition government, having won the most seats (306) at the 2010 election. The party stood in 647 seats (every seat except for two in Northern Ireland and the Speaker's seat).
  Labour Party: led by Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition. Labour had been in power from 1997 to 2010. The party constituted Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (also called the Official Opposition) after the 2010 election, having won 258 seats. It stood in 631 constituencies, missing only the Speaker's seat. The Labour Party does not stand candidates for election in Northern Ireland.
  Liberal Democrats: led by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister. The Liberal Democrats were the junior member of the 2010–15 coalition government, having won 57 seats. They contested the same 631 seats as the Labour Party. The party did not stand candidates in Northern Ireland.
  UK Independence Party (UKIP): led by Nigel Farage, a Member of the European Parliament, who had not previously been in parliament but was standing in South Thanet in the general election. UKIP won the fourth-most votes at the 2010 election, but failed to win any seats. It subsequently won two seats at by-elections in 2014—both having been sitting Conservative MPs who resigned from the party, stood down voluntarily from their seat to fight a by-election, and won it for their new party - and won the highest share of votes at the 2014 European elections. It contested 624 seats across the United Kingdom.
  Green parties: three distinct but co-operating Green parties operate in the UK: the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW), the Green Party of Northern Ireland and the Scottish Green Party. The Green Party of England and Wales was led by Natalie Bennett, who had not previously been elected to Westminster, but stood in Holborn and St Pancras at the general election. The GPEW won the fourth-largest share of votes in the 2014 European elections, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. The Green Party of Northern Ireland was led by Stephen Agnew. To date, the Green Party has made little impact in general elections in Northern Ireland, though they are generally slightly more successful in South Belfast and North Down and in local elections. The party worked closely with the other Green parties and with the Green Party of Ireland. The Scottish Green Party is co-led by Patrick Harvie MSP and councillor Maggie Chapman, neither of whom were standing for election to Westminster. Caroline Lucas was elected as the only Green MP in 2010, in which the three parties received a combined 1% of the vote and were seventh overall. The Greens stood in 573 seats.
caption: UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage stood in the South Thanet constituency.
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