2029 United Kingdom General Election

The **2029 United Kingdom general election** was held on Thursday February 8 2029 to elect members to the 61st Parliament, and was largely fought between the three largest political parties in the United Kingdom: the Conservative, Labour and Unity parties. As the fourth general election in as many years, and being held only 5 months after the 2028 general election, the 2029 election suffered from low turn-outs and accusations of ineptitude being levied against candidates across the political spectrum.

In the aftermath of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in August 2028, a new general election was held at the request of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which resulted in the Conservative party receiving a reduced majority of only 10 seats in the House of Commons, whilst many loyal government backbenchers lost their seats in the election. As a result, PM Rishi Sunak was forced to re-shuffle his cabinet to keep rebels within his party supporting the government, a move which only furthered alienation and discontent within his party. Furthermore, a series of gaffes made by new members of his government led to growing allegations of incompetence within the Sunak ministry, such as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss arriving 6 hours late to a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation meeting in November 2028. As divisions within the government began to lead in MPs rebelling against the government in Parliamentary votes, the government removed the party whip from 8 Conservative MPs on December 10, 2029, with a further 3 resigning the whip in protest the same day. On January 9, 2029, leader of the opposition Matilda Crow tabled a motion of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which passed 326-235 the same evening - as a result, Rishi Sunak was forced to request a dissolution of parliament to King William V in the afternoon of January 10, 2029.

The election campaign was notable for it's low energy campaigning, with the election being the fourth general election in four years, which together culminated in reduced levels of political engagement and the rise of movements claiming that politicians were disconnected from the general public. In the aftermath of the party's disastrous result at the 2028 general election, Labour party leader Andy Burnham tendered his resignation as party leader on January 1, 2039 with the stated intention to install a new party leadership before the next election could be held; however, the internal party leadership election was disrupted by the government's loss of a vote of confidence, and subsequently Andy Burnham was forced to remain in office as the leader of the Labour party, which in turn helped contribute to the party loosing 40 of it's seats in the election; during Burnham's leadership, the party lost 84% of it's seats, from 108 in 2026 to just 18 seats in 2029. Similarly, the Conservative party under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lost 29 seats in Parliament, reducing it to the status of official opposition, whilst the Scottish National Party lost all of it's seats in the House of Commons.

As the only political party to increase their seat count in the election, Matilda Crow's Unity Party gained 95 seats in the election and secured a large enough portion of the Commons to govern with an 8 seat majority. On February 9, 2029, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak travelled to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation as prime minister to King William V, who subsequently invited Crow to form a government the same afternoon.