Claim: Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom general election , 2001 , was held on Thursday , 7 June 2001 , to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons . It was dubbed `` the quiet landslide '' by the media , as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of five seats , though with significantly lower turnout than before -- 59.4 % , compared to 71.3 % in the previous election . Tony Blair went on to become the first Labour Prime Minister to serve a second consecutive full term in office .   There was little change outside Northern Ireland , with 620 out of the 641 seats electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997 . Factors contributing to the Labour victory were a strong economy and falling unemployment , as well as that Labour was seen as having delivered on many key election pledges that it had made in 1997 .   The Conservative Party , under William Hague 's leadership , was still deeply divided on the issue of Europe and the party 's policy platform was considered to have shifted to a right wing focus . Hague was also hindered by a series of embarrassing publicity stunts , and resigned as party leader three months later , becoming the first Conservative leader since Austen Chamberlain to leave office without becoming Prime Minister .   The election was essentially a repeat of the 1997 election , with Labour losing only 6 seats overall and the Conservatives making a net gain of one seat -LRB- gaining nine seats , but losing eight -RRB- . The Conservatives did manage to gain a seat in Scotland , which ended the party 's status as an ` England-only ' party in the prior parliament . Although they did not gain many seats , one of the new MPs elected was future Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron . The Liberal Democrats gained six seats .   Change was seen in Northern Ireland , with the moderately unionist Ulster Unionist Party losing four seats to the more hardline Democratic Unionist Party . This transition was mirrored in the republican community with the moderate SDLP losing votes to the more staunchly republican and abstentionist Sinn Féin .   The election was also marked with exceptionally low voter turnout , falling below 60 % for the first time since 1918 . The election was broadcast live on the BBC , and presented by Jeremy Paxman , Andrew Marr , Peter Snow and David Dimbleby .   As of 2015 , this was the last time that a single party received above 40 % of the popular vote in a British general election .