United Kingdom General Election, 2001

United Kingdom general election, 2001

1997 ← 7 June 2001 → 2005

outgoing members ← → elected members

All 659 seats to the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority Opinion polls Turnout 59.4% (11.9%)   First party Second party Third party   Leader Tony Blair William Hague Charles Kennedy Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrat Leader since 21 July 1994 19 June 1997 9 August 1999 Leader's seat Sedgefield Richmond (Yorks) Ross, Skye and Inverness West Last election 418 seats, 43.2% 165 seats, 30.7% 46 seats, 16.8% Seats won 413 166 52 Seat change 5 1 6 Popular vote 10,724,953 8,357,615 4,814,321 Percentage 40.7% 31.7% 18.3% Swing 2.5% 1.0% 1.5%

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

Prime Minister before election Tony Blair Labour Subsequent Prime Minister Tony Blair Labour

1992 election • MPs

1997 election • MPs

2001 election • MPs

2005 election • MPs

2010 election • MPs

Tony Blair
Labour

Tony Blair
Labour

The United Kingdom general election, 2001, was held on Thursday, 7 June 2001, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of five seats, though with significantly lower turnout than before – 59.4%, compared to 71.3% in the previous election. Tony Blair went on to become the first Labour Prime Minister to serve a second consecutive full term in office.

There was little change outside Northern Ireland, with 620 out of the 641 seats electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997. Factors contributing to the Labour victory were a strong economy and falling unemployment, as well as that Labour was seen as having delivered on many key election pledges that it had made in 1997. The Conservative Party, under William Hague's leadership, was still deeply divided on the issue of Europe and the party's policy platform was considered to have shifted to a right-wing focus. Hague was also hindered by a series of embarrassing publicity stunts, and resigned as party leader three months later, becoming the first Conservative leader since Austen Chamberlain to leave office without becoming Prime Minister.

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