2015 UK general election

United Kingdom general election, 2015

← 2010 7 May 2015 2017 →
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All 650 seats in the House of Commons 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	66.4% (1.3%)
First party Second party   Leader David Cameron Ed Miliband Party Conservative Labour Leader since 6 December 2005 25 September 2010 Leader's seat Witney Doncaster North Last election 306 seats, 36.1% 258 seats, 29.0% Seats before 302 256 Seats won 330* 232 Seat change 24 26 Popular vote 11,334,576 9,347,304 Percentage 36.9% 30.4% Swing 0.8% 1.5%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Nick Clegg Party SNP Liberal Democrat Leader since 14 November 2014 18 December 2007 Leader's seat Did not stand Sheffield Hallam Last election 6 seats, 1.7% 57 seats, 23.0% Seats before 6 57 Seats won 56 8 Seat change 50 49 Popular vote 1,454,436 2,415,862 Percentage 4.7% 7.9% Swing 3.1% 15.2%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Figure does not include the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who was included in the Conservative seat total by some media outlets.
Prime Minister before election David Cameron Conservative Subsequent Prime Minister David Cameron Conservative

David Cameron
Conservative

David Cameron
Conservative

The United Kingdom general election of 7 May 2015 elected 650 members to the British House of Commons. It was the first general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most of England on the same day.

Polls and commentators had predicted the outcome would be too close to call and would result in a second hung parliament similar to the 2010 election. Opinion polls were eventually proven to have underestimated the Conservative vote as they won a surprise outright majority, which bore resemblance to their victory in the 1992 general election. Having governed in coalition with the Liberal Democrats since 2010, the Conservatives won 330 seats and 36.9% of the vote, this time winning a working majority of 12.

The British Polling Council began an inquiry into the substantial variance between opinion polls and the actual result. Forming the first Conservative majority government since 1992, David Cameron became the first Prime Minister to continue in office immediately after a term of at least four years with a larger popular vote share since 1900, and the only Prime Minister other than Margaret Thatcher to continue in office immediately after a term of at least four years with a greater number of seats. The Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, saw a small increase in its vote share to 30.4%, but incurred a net loss of seats to return 232 MPs. This was its lowest seat tally since the 1987 election. Senior Labour shadow cabinet members, notably Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander, and Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, were defeated.