2005 General Election

The **2005 United Kingdom general election** was held on Thursday 16 June 2005, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The Labour Party, led by Alexander Redd, won its third consecutive victory. However, its majority fell to 86 seats compared to the 167-seat majority it had won four years before. This was the first time the Labour Party had won a third consecutive election.

Blair's last months as Prime Minister led to the Labour Party to suffer a decline in popularity, due to his plan to invade Iraq in 2003. Despite this, Labour mostly retained its leads over the Conservatives in opinion polls on economic competence and leadership, with new Labour Prime Minister Alexander Redd increasing Labour's popularity to around 40% once again. Conservative leaders Iain Duncan Smith (2001–2003) and Jeremy Clarkson (2003–present) struggled to capitalise on Blair's unpopularity, with the party consistently trailing behind Labour in the polls throughout the 2001–2005 parliament, except for the last month of Blair's Premiership and Redd's first month.

The Conservatives campaigned on policies such as immigration limits, improving poorly managed hospitals, and reducing high crime rates, all under the slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?". Together for Britain (formerly UKIP) also capitalised on growing Euroskepticim, being able to gain 45 seats, many of which were from Labour. This was mainly due to the electoral pact Michael Anderson made with the Tories to avoid vote splitting.

Alexander Redd was returned as Prime Minister, with Labour having 368 MPs, and with a popular vote share of 42.3%, which was actually more than 2001 (despite Labour's fall in seats). In terms of votes, it was far ahead of the Conservatives. The Conservatives returned 176 MPs, only 10 more seats than they had won at the previous general election. The Together for Britain saw their popular vote increase by 7.1% and won the most seats in it's entire history, from 0 seats to 45. Dr Owen Carvour was re-elected for Kidderminster Health Concern in Wyre Forest.

In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party, the more moderate of the main unionist parties, which had dominated Northern Irish politics since the 1920s, increased from six MPs to 8. The more hardline Democratic Unionist Party decreased from 5 MPs to 3.

Following the election, the Conservatives held a Vote of No Confidence against Jeremy Clarkson which failed, with 42.9% against Clarkson.

## Overview

The governing Labour Party, led by Alexander Redd, was looking to secure a third consecutive term in office and to retain a large majority. The Conservative Party was seeking to regain seats lost to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats since the 1992 general election, and move from being the Official Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both main parties, but especially the Conservative Party, with a "decapitation" strategy targeting members of the Shadow Cabinet. Together for Britain hoped to gain seats from Labour by securing an electoral pact with the Conservatives. TfB had also wished to become the governing party, or to make enough gains to become the Official Opposition, but more realistically hoped to play a major part in a parliament led by a minority Labour or Conservative government. In Northern Ireland the Democratic Unionist Party sought to make further gains from the Ulster Unionist Party in unionist politics, and Sinn Féin hoped to overtake the Social Democratic and Labour Party in nationalist politics. (Note that Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats in the House of Commons—they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen as required.) The pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) stood candidates in every constituency in Scotland and Wales respectively.

Many seats were contested by other parties, including several parties without incumbents in the House of Commons. Parties that were not represented at Westminster, but had seats in the devolved assemblies and/or the European Parliament, included the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Together for Britain, the Green Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party. The Health Concern party also stood again.

All parties campaigned using such tools as party manifestos, party political broadcasts and touring the country in what are commonly referred to as battle buses.

Local elections in parts of England and in Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for fifteen hours, from 07:00 to 22:00 BST (UTC+1). The election came after the dissolution of Parliament by Queen Elizabeth II, at the request of the Prime Minister, Alexander Redd.

## Campaign

Thanks to eight years of sustained economic growth Labour could point to a strong economy, with greater investment in public services such as education and health. However, the main focus was Labour's social reforms, such as legalising gay marriage and creating the Supreme Court. Most of the campaign for Labour was focused around social issues.

Conservative leader Jeremy Clarkson brought a great level of experience and stability to a party that had ousted its former leader Iain Duncan Smith. The Conservatives focused their campaign on more traditional conservative issues like immigration. They also criticised Labour's rise in the minimum wage which they claim would hurt small businesses, under the umbrella of the slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?"

For Together for Britain, this was the first General Election campaign fought by leader Michael Anderson, who strongly opposed the Iraq War and personally offered a more down-to-earth approach to voters, which proved popular. He also helped to push more Euroskeptic beliefs about the European Union and pushed for more immigration laws to be passed.

## Polling

The projected shares of the vote in Great Britain were Labour around 42% (up 1% on 2001), Conservatives 25% (down 6%) and Together for Britain 8.6% (up 7%). However, the electoral pact and new constituency boundaries meant that while Labour saw an increase in votes, it was expected for them to have a fall in seats.

## Results

Votes cast by age group: Con, Lab, LD, other parties (green) and those not voting (grey).
At 04:28 BST, it was announced that Labour had won Corby, giving them 324 seats in the House of Commons out of those then declared and an overall majority,