2010 United Kingdom general election

The **2010 United Kingdom general election** was an election held on 6 May 2010 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The three party leaders are shown below.

## Outcome

The election resulted in a hung parliament, where no political party has an overall majority of seats. This is the first time this has happened since 1974.

The Conservative Party won 307 out of the 650 seats available making them the largest party in the House of Commons. A coalition was then formed between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats who together had enough seats for a majority. This is the first coalition government in the United Kingdom since World War II.

The Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron became Prime Minister of the United Kigdom on 11 May 2010 and the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg became the Deputy Prime Minister. Before the election, the Leader of the Labour Party Gordon Brown was the Prime Minister.

This was the first British general election where the leaders of the three main parties took part together in a series of debates for television. The first debate was shown on ITV and was moderated by Alastair Stewart. It was on the subject of domestic affairs and polls taken after the debate showed that most people thought Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had done the best and the Liberal Democrats then saw a large rise in support in opinion polls, even beating Labour for second place behind the Conservatives.

The second debate, on the subject of Foreign Affairs was shown on Sky News and was moderated by Adam Boulton. Polls after this debate showed that Nick Clegg and David Cameron had done best with Gordon Brown slightly behind. The third and final debate was shown on BBC One and was moderated by David Dimbleby. It was on the subject of the economy and taxes and most opinion polls indicated that David Cameron had performed the best out of the three leaders.

The Conservative Party gained support from the following newspapers: the _Daily Express_, the _Daily Mail_, the _Sun_, the _Daily Telegraph_, the _Times_, the _Daily Star_, the _Evening Standard_, the _Financial Times_, _Sunday Express_, the _Mail on Sunday_, the _News of the World_, the _Sunday Telegraph_ and the _Sunday Times_. The Liberal Democrats were supported by: the _Guardian_, the _Observer_ and the _Independent_. Only the _Daily Mirror_ and the _Sunday Mirror_ supported the Labour Party and the _People_ newspaper favoured a coalition.

This election saw the Conservative Party return to government for the first time since 1997 and also saw the Liberal Democrats get their first ever representation in government. Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party unexpectedly lost his seat to the Alliance Party. The Green Party of England and Wales gained its first ever seat in the House of Commons and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland gained its first seat in the House of Commons since 1974. Former Labour Party Home Secretaries Jacqui Smith and Charles Clarke both lost their seats. The Ulster Unionist Party and the Respect Party won seats in the 2005 General Election but lost their seats in the 2010 Election.

## Results by party

The final results of the election were:

- **Conservative Party** (306 MPs, 36.1% of vote)
- **Labour Party** (258 MPs, 29.0 % of vote)
- **Liberal Democrats** (57 MPs, 23.0% of vote)
- UK Independence Party (0 MPs, 3.1% of vote)
- British National Party (0 MPs, 1.9% of vote)
- **Scottish National Party** (6 MPs, 1.7% of vote) – Scotland only
- **Green Party** (1 MP, 1.0% of vote) – England and Wales only
- **Sinn Fein** (5 MPs, 0.6% of vote) – Northern Ireland only
- **Democratic Unionist Party** (8 MPs, 0.6% of vote) – Northern Ireland only
- **Plaid Cymru** (3 MPs, 0.6% of vote) – Wales only
- **Social Democratic and Labour Party** (3 MPs, 0.4% of vote) – Northern Ireland only
- Ulster Unionist Party (0 MPs, 0.3% of vote) – Northern Ireland only, In an alliance with UK Conservative Party
- English Democrats (0 MPs, 0.2% of vote) – England only
- **Alliance Party of Northern Ireland** (1 MP, 0.1% of vote) – Northern Ireland only
- Respect Party (0 MPs, 0.1% of vote)
- Traditional Unionist Voice (0 MPs, 0.1% of vote) – Northern Ireland only
- Christian Party (0 MPs, 0.1% of vote)
- Scottish Green Party (0 MPs, 0.1% of vote) – Scotland only

The seat of North Down was won by an Independent candidate and the seat of Buckingham was won by the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who is not considered to be of any political party.

## Infobox (election)

- **election name**: 2010 United Kingdom general election
- **country**: United Kingdom
- **type**: parliamentary
- **ongoing**: no
- **previous election**: 2005 United Kingdom general election
- **previous year**: 2005
- **outgoing members**: List of MPs elected in the 2005 United Kingdom general election
- **next election**: 2015 United Kingdom general election
- **next year**: 2015
- **seats for election**: All List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, 650 seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons
- **majority seats**: 326
- **elected members**: List of MPs elected in the 2010 United Kingdom general election
- **turnout**: 65.1% (3.7%)
- **opinion polls**: Opinion polling for the 2010 United Kingdom general election
- **image1**:
- **leader1**: David Cameron
- **leader since1**: 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, 6 December 2005
- **party1**: Conservative Party (UK)
- **leaders seat1**: Witney (UK Parliament constituency), Witney
- **popular vote1**: **10,703,754**
- **percentage1**: **36.1%**
- **swing1**: 3.7 Percentage point, pp
- **last election1**: 198 seats, 32.4%
- **seats before1**: 210
- **seats needed1**: +116
- **seats1**: **306**
- **seat change1**: 96
- **image2**:
- **leader2**: Gordon Brown
- **leader since2**: 2007 Labour Party leadership election (UK), 24 June 2007
- **party2**: Labour Party (UK)
- **leaders seat2**: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (UK Parliament constituency), Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
- **last election2**: 355 seats, 35.2%
- **seats before2**: 349
- **seats needed2**: –23
- **seats2**: 258
- **seat change2**: 97
- **popular vote2**: 8,609,527
- **percentage2**: 29.0%
- **swing2**: 6.2 Percentage point, pp
- **image3**:
- **leader3**: Nick Clegg
- **leader since3**: 2007 Liberal Democrats leadership election, 18 December 2007
- **party3**: Liberal Democrats (UK)
- **leaders seat3**: Sheffield Hallam (UK Parliament constituency), Sheffield Hallam
- **last election3**: 62 seats, 22.0%
- **seats before3**: 62
- **seats needed3**: +263
- **seats3**: 57
- **seat change3**: 5
- **popular vote3**: 6,836,824
- **percentage3**: 23.0%
- **swing3**: 1.0 Percentage point, pp
- **map image**: 2010UKElectionMap.svg
- **map size**: 370px
- **map caption**: Colours show the winning party, as shown in the #Results, main table of results
- **map2 image**: File:House of Commons (Start of 55th Parliament).svg
- **map2 size**: 360px
- **map2 caption**: Composition of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons after the election
- **title**: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister
- **posttitle**: Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister after election
- **before election**: Gordon Brown
- **before party**: Labour Party (UK)
- **after election**: David Cameron
 (Conservative Party (UK), Conservative)
 Nick Clegg
 (Liberal Democrats, Liberal Democrat)