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United Kingdom General Election, 2010

United Kingdom general election, 2010
United Kingdom
2005 ←
6 May 2010 (2010-05-06) → 2015
outgoing members ← → elected members

All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout 65.1% (Increase3.7%)
  First party Second party Third party
  David Cameron Gordon Brown Nick Clegg
Leader David Cameron Gordon Brown Nick Clegg
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat
Leader since 6 December 2005 24 June 2007 18 December 2007
Leader's seat Witney Kirkcaldy and
Cowdenbeath
Sheffield Hallam
Last election 198, 32.4% 355, 35.2% 62, 22.0%
Seats before 210 349 62
Seats won 306 258 57
Seat change Increase 97 Decrease 91 Decrease 5
Popular vote 10,703,654 8,606,517 6,836,248
Percentage 36.1% 29.0% 23.0%
Swing Increase 3.7% Decrease 6.2% Increase 1.0%

2010UKElectionMap.svg

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results
  • excluding the Speaker
  • due to electoral boundaries changing, this figure is nominal

Prime Minister before election

Gordon Brown
Labour

Subsequent Prime Minister

David Cameron
Conservative


2010UKElectionMap.svg

Gordon Brown
Labour

David Cameron
Conservative

The United Kingdom general election of 2010 was held on Thursday, 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system. None of the parties achieved the 326 seats needed for an overall majority. The Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, won the largest number of votes and seats but still fell 20 seats short. This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons. This was only the second general election since World War II to return a hung parliament, the first being the February 1974 election. Unlike in 1974, the potential for a hung parliament had this time been widely considered and predicted and both the country and politicians were better prepared for the constitutional process that would follow such a result. The coalition government that was subsequently formed was the first coalition in British history to eventuate directly from an election outcome. The hung parliament came in spite of the Conservatives managing a higher share of the vote than the previous Labour government had done in 2005 that had a comfortable majority.


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