2010 United Kingdom general election

A general election to select Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (UK) took place on 6th May 2010. The governing Labour Party under Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended its win in the 2005 general election against the Opposition party, the Conservatives, led by David Cameron, the Leader of the Opposition. The three main national parties - Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats - contested 649 seats (see below) using the first past the post voting system alongside smaller parties, including those fielding candidates only in particular regions, such as the Scottish National Party in Scotland. Northern Ireland, being part of the UK, also elects MPs, but these parties do not contest seats in Great Britain and are unchallenged by or stand under electoral pacts with parties in the rest of the UK.

While a general election usually involves all constituencies, the vote in the Thirsk and Malton seat was delayed until 27th May due to the death of a candidate. This　meant that the general election would involve 649 seats rather than 650.

Highlights

Lead-up to election day

The campaign was notable for the introduction of American-style leaders' debates, in which the three main party leaders - Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - faced audiences and attempted to put across their positions. The first debate saw a significant shift towards the Liberal Democrats in the opinion polls conducted around that time, though not so much later; no participant was declared the outright victor in the media.

Another issue which occurred as the final week of the campaign opened involved Prime Minister Gordon Brown privately referring to a member of the public as a "bigot" and discussing a member of his staff regarding this encounter; the Labour leader was caught on tape making the comments after a microphone was left on.

Election day

The vote was marred by several incidents in which hundreds of voters were turned away from polling stations as long queues formed or administrative problems delayed proceedings.

Election night

Following the close of voting, the Conservatives quickly emerged ahead both in the popular vote and in the number of seats, but polls and early results indicated that the likely outcome was a hung parliament. As the night wore on, it became clear that the surge in support for the Liberal Democrats had failed to translate into parliamentary gains. Nor did senior ministers lose their seats: the biggest government-related casualties included a handful of junior and former ministers, including Jacqui Smith, the former Labour Home Secretary, who had resigned following an expenses scandal, and Charles Clarke, also a former Home Secretary. On the other hand, Hazel Blears, a former minister who had also been embroiled in an expenses controversy, held her seat.

The Green Party of England and Wales won their first ever seat in parliament after many years of trying.

In Northern Ireland, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive, Peter Robinson, lost his seat to the Alliance Party, which had had no seats in the previous parliament.

Conservative hopes of presenting a more ethnically-representative parliamentary party were dashed as candidates from non-white backgrounds largely failed in their bids to win seats.

Results

The results of the 2010 UK general election after 530 of 649 seats were declared are as follows:

Party	Seats	Change	Number of votes	% of votes	% change
Conservative	263	-	0	-	-
Labour	200	-	0	-	-
Liberal Democrat	40	-	0	-	-
DUP	8	-	0	-	-
SNP	6	-	0	-	-
Sinn Féin	4	-	0	-	-
Plaid Cymru	3	-	0	-	-
SDLP	3	-	0	-	-
UUP	0	-	0	-	-
Alliance	1	+1	0	-	-
Green	1	+1	0	-	-
UKIP	0	-	0	-	-
Independent	1	-	0	-	-
Respect	0	-	0	-	-
Health Concern	0	-1	0	-	-
Election postponed	1	-	-	-	-