2015 United Kingdom general election

The next general election to select Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (UK) is to take place on 7 May 2015. This is the first election whose date was known well in advance, a result of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011. The current coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will contest the election as competing parties. The latter have announced, as they did for the previous election, that, if no party gets an overall majority, they will give priority in negotiations to the largest party in the Commons.

Timetable ([1]):

• 30 March: dissolution of Parliament
• 9 April: nomination deadline; there are 3971 candidates ([2])
• 7 May: polling day
• 7/8 May: counting and announcement of results
• 18 May: new Parliament meets to (re)elect Speakers and swear in members
• 27 May: Queen's Speech: votes on this over the following days should confirm the Government

There are 650 seats to be filled.

Highlights

Run-up to election day

This was the first time that an election campaign had been fought since the introduction of fixed-term five-year parliaments, along with a mandatory six-week campaign. This was at first dominated by two debates between the party leaders on national television, in which seven parties took part; Northern Irish parties, however, were excluded, despite occupying 18 seats in the Commons. The period also saw much speculation over any post-election deals between the parties, as none were expected to win a majority of seats. In particular, the role of the Scottish National Party was much-debated since the party was expected to make a major breakthrough in Scotland, taking many seats from Labour.