page_title: Elections in the United Kingdom
section_title: General elections
hierarchical_section_title: Elections in the United Kingdom / General elections
caption_attribution_description: Graph showing UK general election results from 1950 to 2017 and the resultant governments following those elections.
context_page_description: There are five types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, local elections, mayoral elections and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may also be by-elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for general elections, all five types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to parliament and the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. The five electoral systems used are: the single member plurality system, the multi-member plurality system, the single transferable vote, the additional member system and the supplementary vote.
  Elections are administered locally: in each lower-tier local authority, the polling procedure is operated by the acting returning officer or returning officer, and the compiling and maintenance of the electoral roll by the electoral registration officer.
context_section_description: United Kingdom general elections are held following a dissolution of Parliament. All the Members of Parliament (MPs) forming the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are elected. Following the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, parliamentary sessions last five years and the only way that an early election can be called is in a vote by a two-thirds majority of the House. This was seen in 2017 when PM Theresa May called an election. Under the Act, dissolution occurs automatically 25 working days before the election (previously, a minimum period of 17 working days applied). At this point, all parliamentary business ends and the role of MP ceases to exist until after polling day.
  Candidates for each constituency are chosen by political parties or stand as independents. Almost all successful candidates are members of a political party, with only one independent elected in the 2010 election. Each constituency elects one MP by the first past the post system of election. At the 2005 general election, there were 646 constituencies, thus 646 MPs were elected to Parliament. At the 2017 election the number of MPs was 650.
  A party with an overall parliamentary majority (more seats than all the other parties combined) following an election forms the government. If no party has an outright majority, parties can seek to form coalitions. At the 2010 election, even though the Conservatives won the greatest number of seats, it would have been possible for the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition with Labour (and maybe also other, smaller parties) instead of with the Conservatives. Situations such as these can give smaller parties considerable power: the eventual outcome of the 2010 election was effectively decided by the Liberal Democrats, while in 2017 the Conservatives lost their overall majority and had to rely on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who held 10 seats to ‘prop up’ the minority conservative government in order to achieve the 326 seats needed for a majority government.
  The largest party not in government forms Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. This is currently the Labour Party.
caption: UK parliamentary election results, 1950–2017
exif: {}