2015 United Kingdom general election

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (as amended by the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013) led to the dissolution of the 55th Parliament on 30 March 2015 and the scheduling of the election on 7 May, the House of Commons not having voted for an earlier date.^[1] There were local elections on the same day in most of England, with the exception of Greater London. No other elections were scheduled to take place in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, apart from any local by-elections.

In general elections, voting takes place in all parliamentary constituencies of the United Kingdom to elect members of parliament (MPs) to seats in the House of Commons, the dominant (historically termed the lower) house of Parliament. Each parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom elects one MP to the House of Commons using the "first past the post" system. If one party obtains a majority of seats, then that party is entitled to form the Government. If the election results in no single party having a majority, then there is a hung parliament. In this case, the options for forming the Government are either a minority government or a coalition government.^[12]

Although the Conservative Party planned the number of parliamentary seats to be reduced from 650 to 600, through the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies under the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the review of constituencies and reduction in seats was delayed by the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 amending the 2011 Act.^{[13][14][15][16]} The next boundary review is now set to take place in 2018; thus the 2015 general election was contested using the same constituencies and boundaries as in 2010. Of the 650 constituencies, 533 are in England, 59 in Scotland, 40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland.

In addition, the 2011 Act mandated a referendum in 2011 on changing from the current "first past the post" system to an alternative vote (instant-runoff) system for elections to the Commons. The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement committed the coalition government to such a referendum.^[17] The referendum was held in May 2011 and resulted in the retention of the existing voting system. Before the previous general election, the Liberal Democrats had pledged to change the voting system, and the Labour Party pledged to have a referendum about any such change.^[18] The Conservatives, however, promised to keep the first past the post system, but to reduce the number of constituencies by 10%. Liberal Democrat plans were to reduce the number of MPs to 500 elected using a proportional system.^[19][20]

Ministers increased the amount of money that parties and candidates were allowed to spend on the election by 23%, a move decided against Electoral Commission advice.^[21] The election saw the first cap on spending by parties in individual constituencies during the 100 days before Parliament's dissolution on 30 March: £30,700, plus a per-voter allowance of 9p in county constituencies and 6p in borough seats. An additional voter allowance of more than £8,700 is available after the dissolution of Parliament. UK political parties spent £31.1m in the 2010 general election, of which Conservatives spent 53%, the Labour Party spent 25% and the Liberal Democrats 15%.^[22]

This was the first UK general election to use individual rather than household voter registration.

An election is called following the dissolution of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The 2015 General Election is the first to be held under the provisions of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Prior to this, the power to dissolve Parliament was a Royal Prerogative, exercised by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. Under the provisions of the Septennial Act 1716, as amended by the Parliament Act 1911, an election had to be announced on or before the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the previous parliament, barring exceptional circumstances. No Sovereign had refused a request for dissolution since the beginning of the 20th century, and practice had evolved such that a Prime Minister would typically call a general election to be held at a tactically convenient time within the final two years of a Parliament's lifespan, in order to maximize the chance of an electoral victory for his or her party.^[23]

Prior to the 2010 general election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats pledged to introduce fixed-term elections.^[18] As part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement, the Cameron ministry agreed to support legislation for fixed-term Parliaments, with the date of the next general election being 7 May 2015.^[24] This resulted in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which removed the Prime Minister's power to advise the monarch to call an early election. The Bill only permits an early dissolution if Parliament votes for one by a two-thirds supermajority, or if a government loses a vote of no confidence by a majority and no new government is subsequently formed within 14 days.^[25] However, the Prime Minister does have the power, by order made by Statutory Instrument under section 1(5) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, to provide that the polling day is to be held up to two months later than 7 May 2015. Such a Statutory Instrument must be approved by each House of Parliament. Under section 14 of the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was amended to extend the period between the dissolution of Parliament and the following general election polling day from 17 to 25 working days. This has had the effect of moving forward the date of the dissolution of the present Parliament to 30 March 2015.^[1]

The key dates were:

While at the previous election there had been a record 148 MPs not standing for re-election,^[27] the 2015 election saw 90 MPs standing down.^[28] These comprised 38 Conservative, 37 Labour, 10 Liberal Democrat, 3 Independent, 1 Sinn Féin and 1 Plaid Cymru MP. The highest profile Members of Parliament leaving were: Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister, Leader of the Labour Party (both 2007–2010) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997–2007); and William Hague, the outgoing First Secretary of State and Leader of the House of Commons and former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2010–2014), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (both 1997–2001).^[29] Alongside Brown and Hague, 17 former cabinet ministers stood down at the election, including Stephen Dorrell, Jack Straw, Alistair Darling, David Blunkett, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Dame Tessa Jowell.^[29] The highest profile Liberal Democrat to stand down was former leader Sir Menzies Campbell, while the longest serving MP (the "Father of the House") Sir Peter Tapsell also retired having served from 1959–1964 and then continuously since the 1966 general election.^[29]

As of 9 April 2015^[update], the deadline for standing for the general election, the Electoral Commission's Register of Political Parties included 428 political parties registered in Great Britain,^[30] and 36 in Northern Ireland.^[31] Candidates who do not belong to a registered party can use an "independent" label, or no label at all.

The Conservative Party and Labour Party have been the two biggest parties since 1922, and have supplied all UK prime ministers since that date. Polls predicted that these parties would together receive between 65–75% of the votes and win 80–85% of seats between them^[32][33] and that as such the leader of one of these parties would be the prime minister after the election. The Liberal Democrats had been the third party in the UK for many years; but as described by various commentators, other parties have risen relative to the Liberal Democrats since the 2010 election.^[34][35] The Economist described a "familiar two-and-a-half-party system" (Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats) that "appears to be breaking down" with the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the Greens and the Scottish National Party (SNP).^[36] Newsnight^[37] and The Economist^[38] have described the country as moving into a six-party system, with the Liberal Democrats, SNP, UKIP and Greens all being significant. Ofcom, in their role regulating election coverage in the UK, have ruled that for the general election and local elections in May 2015, the major parties in Great Britain are the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, with UKIP a major party in England and Wales, the SNP a major party in Scotland, and Plaid Cymru (PC) in Wales, and that the Greens were not a major party.^[39] The BBC's guidelines are similar but exclude UKIP from the category of "larger parties" in Great Britain and instead state that UKIP should be given "appropriate levels of coverage in output to which the largest parties contribute and, on some occasions, similar levels of coverage".^[40][41] Seven parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, UKIP, SNP, PC and Green) participated in the election leadership debates.^[42]

The main Great Britain-based parties—several parties operate in Northern Ireland only, which has a mainly separate political culture—are listed below in order of seats being contested:

• Conservative Party: led by David Cameron, the prime minister. The Conservatives were the larger party in the coalition government, having won the most seats (306) at the 2010 election. They stood in 647 seats (every seat except for two in Northern Ireland and the Speaker's seat).
• Labour Party: led by Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition. Labour had been in power from 1997 to 2010. The party constituted Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (also called the Official Opposition) after the 2010 election, having won 258 seats. They stood in 631 of Great Britain's 632 constituencies,^{[n 2]} missing only the Speaker's seat.
• Liberal Democrats: led by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister. The Liberal Democrats were the junior member of the 2010–15 coalition government, having won 57 seats. The Lib Dems contested the same 631 seats as the Labour Party.
• UK Independence Party (UKIP): led by Nigel Farage MEP, who had not previously been in parliament but was standing in South Thanet in the general election. UKIP won the fourth most votes at the 2010 election, but failed to win any seats. They subsequently won two seats at by-elections in 2014 and won the highest share of votes at the 2014 European elections. They contested 624 seats across the United Kingdom.^{[n 3]}
• Greens: two distinct but cooperating Green parties operate in Great Britain: the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) and the Scottish Green Party, with opinion polling generally making no distinction between the two. The Green Party of England and Wales is led by Natalie Bennett, who had not previously been elected to Westminster, but stood in Holborn and St Pancras at the general election. The GPEW won the fourth largest share of votes in the 2014 European elections, ahead of the Liberal Democrats. The Scottish Green Party is co-led by Patrick Harvie MSP and councillor Maggie Chapman, neither of whom were standing for election to Westminster. Caroline Lucas was elected as the only Green MP in 2010, in which the two parties received a combined 1% of the vote and were seventh overall. The Greens stood in 568 seats in Great Britain.
• Scottish National Party (SNP): led by Nicola Sturgeon, who is First Minister of Scotland and did not stand in the general election. The SNP only contested seats in Scotland and stood in all 59 Scottish constituencies. The party got the second most votes in Scotland and sixth overall in 2010, winning six seats. It won the 2011 election to the Scottish Parliament and had a surge of support since the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014, in which they were the main political party behind the losing Yes campaign.^[43] Most projections suggested that they would be the third largest party overall after the 2015 election, in terms of seats won, overtaking the Liberal Democrats.^[33]
• Plaid Cymru: led by Leanne Wood, who is a member of the Welsh Assembly and did not stand in the general election. Plaid Cymru organise only in Wales, where they contested all 40 Welsh constituencies. The party has three MPs and were fourth in Wales (eighth in Great Britain) by vote share in 2010, later finishing third in the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections.

Dozens of other minor parties stood in Great Britain. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, founded as an electoral alliance of socialist parties in 2010 had 135 candidates and were the only other party to have more than 40 candidates.^[44] Respect entered into the election with one MP (George Galloway), who was elected at the 2012 Bradford West by-election, but stood just four candidates. The British National Party, which finished fifth with 1.9% of the vote for its 338 candidates at the 2010 General Election, stood only eight candidates following a collapse in support.^[45] 753 other candidates stood at the general election, including all independents, Northern Ireland-based party candidates, and candidates from other parties.^[45]

The main parties in Northern Ireland (which has 18 constituencies) described by Ofcom,^[39] the BBC^[46] and others, ordered by vote share in 2010, are:

• Sinn Féin: Sinn Féin won most votes in Northern Ireland in 2010, but came second in seats, winning five constituencies. They were second in the 2011 Assembly elections, but first in the 2014 European elections. Sinn Féin follows an abstentionist policy with respect to the Commons and have never so far taken their seats there. The party also operates in the Republic of Ireland, where it does take seats in parliament. The party was standing in all 18 Northern Irish constituencies.
• Democratic Unionist Party (DUP): the DUP won eight seats in 2010, making them the largest party from Northern Ireland, and the fourth biggest in the UK as a whole. The party also won the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but were second in the 2014 European election. It contested 16 seats, having entered into an electoral pact with the Ulster Unionist Party in the remaining two.
• Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP): the SDLP were third in terms of votes and seats in the 2010 and 2011 elections, and fourth in the 2014 European elections. Prior to dissolution the party had three MPs. The SDLP has a relationship with the Labour Party in Great Britain, with SDLP MPs generally following the Labour whip. The party was expected to have supported Labour in the event of a hung Parliament^[47] and contested all 18 constituencies at the election.
• Ulster Unionist Party (UUP): in 2010 the UUP shared an electoral alliance with the Conservative Party and finished fourth in terms of votes in Northern Ireland, but won no seats. The party does have one MEP, having placed third in the 2014 European elections. They were fourth in the 2011 Assembly elections. The UUP contested 15 seats; the party did not run in two seats because of its electoral pact with the DUP, and also did not nominate a candidate against former UUP member and incumbent independent MP Sylvia Hermon.
• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: the Alliance Party had one MP, Naomi Long, who was elected for the first time in 2010. They were fifth in the 2010 election by vote share, fifth overall in 2011 and sixth in 2014. Alliance has a relationship with the Liberal Democrats in Great Britain: the party's former leader sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat, but Alliance's one MP elected in 2010 sat on the opposition benches in the Commons and not with the Liberal Democrats on the government benches. The party contested all 18 Northern Irish constituencies in 2015.

Smaller parties in Northern Ireland include Traditional Unionist Voice (standing in seven seats) and the Green Party in Northern Ireland (standing in five seats). TUV and the Greens each currently hold one seat in the Legislative Assembly. The North Down seat was retained by independent Sylvia Hermon. The Northern Ireland Conservatives and UKIP fielded candidates, whereas Labour and the Liberal Democrats do not contest elections in Northern Ireland.

With the United Kingdom electoral system, coalitions have been rare as one party has usually won an overall majority in the Commons. However, with the outgoing Government being a coalition and with opinion polls not showing a large or consistent lead for any one party, there was much discussion about possible post-election coalitions or other arrangements such as confidence and supply agreements.^[48]

Some UK political parties that only stand in part of the country have reciprocal relationships with parties standing in other parts of the country. These include:

• Labour (in Great Britain) and SDLP (in Northern Ireland)
• Liberal Democrats (in Great Britain) and Alliance (in Northern Ireland)
• SNP (in Scotland) and Plaid Cymru (in Wales)
  • Plaid Cymru also recommended supporters in England to vote Green,^[49] while the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said she would vote for Plaid Cymru were she in Wales, and Green were she in England.^[50]
• Green Party of England and Wales (in England and Wales), Scottish Greens (in Scotland) and the Green Party in Northern Ireland (in Northern Ireland)

On 17 March 2015, the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party agreed an election pact whereby the DUP would not stand candidates in Fermanagh and South Tyrone (where Michelle Gildernew, the Sinn Féin candidate, won by only 4 votes in 2010), and in Newry and Armagh. In return, the UUP would stand aside in Belfast East and Belfast North. The SDLP rejected a similar pact suggested by Sinn Féin.^[51][52][53] The DUP also called on voters in Scotland to support whichever pro-Union candidate was best placed to beat the SNP.^[54]

The deadline for parties and individuals to file candidate nomination papers to the acting returning officer (and the deadline for candidates to withdraw) was 4 p.m. on 9 April 2015.^{[55][56][57][58]} The total number of candidates was 3,971; the second-highest number in history, slightly down from the record 4,150 candidates at the last election in 2010.^[45][59]

There were a record number of female candidates standing in terms of both absolute numbers and percentage of candidates: 1,020 (26.1%) in 2015, up from 854 (21.1%) in 2010.^[45][59] The proportion of female candidates for major parties ranged from 41% of Alliance Party candidates to 12% of UKIP candidates.^[60] According to UCL's Parliamentary Candidates UK project^[61] the major parties had the following percentages of black and ethnic minority candidates: the Conservatives 11%, the Liberal Democrats 10%, Labour 9%, UKIP 6%, the Greens 4%.^[62] The average age of the candidates for the seven major parties was 45.^[61]

The youngest candidates were all aged 18: Solomon Curtis (Labour, Wealden); Niamh McCarthy (Independent, Liverpool Wavertree); Michael Burrows (UKIP, Inverclyde); Declan Lloyd (Labour, South East Cornwall); and Laura-Jane Rossington (Communist Party of Britain, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport).^[63][64][65] The oldest candidate was Doris Osen, 84, of the Elderly Persons' Independent Party (EPIC), who was standing in Ilford North.^[64] Other candidates aged over 80 included three long-serving Labour MPs standing for re-election: Sir Gerald Kaufman, 84 (Manchester Gorton), Dennis Skinner, 83 (Bolsover) and David Winnick, 81 (Walsall North).

A number of candidates—including two for Labour^[66][67] and two for UKIP^[68][69]—were suspended from their respective parties after nominations were closed. Independent candidate Ronnie Carroll died after nominations were closed.^[70]

The first series of televised leaders' debates in the United Kingdom was held in the previous election. After much debate and various proposals,^[71][72] a seven-way debate with the leaders of Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru was held, with a series of related programmes.

The campaign was notable for the absence of party posters on roadside hoardings. It was suggested that 2015 saw "the death of the campaign poster".^[73]

Various newspapers, organisations and individuals endorsed parties or individual candidates for the election.

Throughout the 55th parliament of the United Kingdom, first and second place in the polls without exception alternated between the Conservatives and Labour. Labour took a lead in the polls in the second half of 2010, driven in part by a collapse in Liberal Democrat support.^[74] This lead rose up to approximately 10 points over the Conservative Party during 2012, whose ratings dipped alongside an increase in UKIP support.^[75] UKIP passed the Liberal Democrats as the third most popular party at the start of 2013. Following this, Labour's lead over the Conservatives began to fall as UKIP gained support from them as well,^[76] and by the end of the year Labour were polling at 39%, compared to 33% for the Conserative Party and 11% for UKIP.^[76]

UKIP received 26.6% of the vote at the European elections in 2014, and though their support in the polls for Westminster never reached this level, it did rise up to over 15% through that year.^[77] 2014 was also marked by the Scottish independence referendum. Despite the 'No' vote winning, support for the Scottish National Party rose quickly after the referendum, and had reached 43% in Scotland by the end of the year, up 23 points from the 2010 General Election, largely at the expense of Labour (−16 points in Scotland) and the Liberal Democrats (−13 points).^[78] In Wales, where polls were less frequent, 2012–2014 saw a smaller decline in Labour's lead over the second place Conservative Party, from 28 points to 17.^[79] These votes went mainly to UKIP (+8 points) and Plaid Cymru (+2 points). The rise of UKIP and SNP, alongside the smaller increases for Plaid Cymru and the Green Party (from around 2% to 6%)^[77] saw the combined support of the Conservative and Labour party fall to a record low of around 65%.^[80] Within this, the decline came predominantly from Labour, whose lead fell to under 2 points by the end of 2014.^[77] Meanwhile the Liberal Democrat vote, which had held at about 10% since late 2010, declined further to about 8%.^[77]

Early 2015 saw the Labour lead continue to fall, disappearing by the start of March.^[81] Polling during the election campaign itself remained relatively static, with the Labour and Conservative parties both polling between 33–34% and neither able to establish a consistent lead.^[82] Support for the Green Party and UKIP showed slight drops of around 1–2 points each, while Liberal Democrat support rose up to around 9%.^[83] In Scotland, support for the SNP continued to grow with polling figures in late March reaching 54%, with the Labour vote continuing to decline accordingly,^[84] while Labour retained their (reduced) lead in Wales, polling at 39% by the end of the campaign, to 26% for the Conservatives, 13% for Plaid Cymru, 12% for UKIP and 6% for the Liberal Democrats.^[79] The final polls showed a mixture of Conservative leads, Labour leads and ties with both between 31–36%, UKIP on 11–16%, the Lib Dems on 8–10%, the Greens on 4–6%, and the SNP on 4–5% of the national vote.^[85]

In addition to the national polls, Lord Ashcroft funded from May 2014 a series of polls in marginal constituencies, and constituencies where minor parties were expected to be significant challengers. Among other results, Lord Ashcroft's polls suggested that the growth in SNP support would translate into more than 50 seats;^[86] that there was little overall pattern in Labour and Conservative Party marginals;^[87] that the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas would retain her seat;^[88] that both Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and UKIP leader Nigel Farage would face very close races to be elected in their own constituencies;^[89] and that Liberal Democrat MPs would enjoy an incumbency effect that would lose fewer MPs than their national polling implied.^[90] As with other smaller parties, their proportion of MPs remained likely to be considerably lower than that of total, national votes cast. Several polling companies included Ashcroft's polls in their election predictions, though several of the political parties disputed his findings.^[91][92]

The first-past-the-post system used in UK general elections means that the number of seats won is not closely related to vote share.^[93] Thus, several approaches were used to convert polling data and other information into seat predictions. The table below lists some of the predictions. ElectionForecast was used by Newsnight and FiveThirtyEight. May2015.com is a project run by the New Statesman magazine.^[94]

Seat predictions draw from nationwide polling, polling in the constituent nations of Britain and may additionally incorporate constituency level polling, particularly the Ashcroft polls. Approaches may or may not use uniform national swing (UNS). Approaches may just use current polling, i.e. a "nowcast" (e.g. Electoral Calculus, May2015.com and The Guardian), or add in a predictive element about how polling shifts based on historical data (e.g. ElectionForecast and Elections Etc.).^[95] An alternative approach is to use the wisdom of the crowd and base a prediction on betting activity: the Sporting Index column below covers bets on the number of seats each party will win with the midpoint between asking and selling price, while FirstPastThePost.net aggregates the betting predictions in each individual constituency. Some predictions cover Northern Ireland, with its distinct political culture, while others do not. Parties are sorted by current number of seats in the House of Commons:

Other predictions were published.^[102] An election forecasting conference on 27 March 2015 yielded 11 forecasts of the result in Great Britain (including some included in the table above).^[103] Averaging the conference predictions gives Labour 283 seats, Conservatives 279, Liberal Democrats 23, UKIP 3, SNP 41, Plaid Cymru 3 and Greens 1.^[104] In that situation, no two parties (excluding a Lab-Con coalition) would have been able to form a majority without the support of a third. On 27 April, Rory Scott of the bookmaker Paddy Power predicted Conservatives 284, Labour 272, SNP 50, UKIP 3, and Greens 1.^[105] LucidTalk for the Belfast Telegraph predicted for Northern Ireland: DUP 9, Sinn Féin 5, SDLP 3, Sylvia Hermon 1, with the only seat change being the DUP gaining Belfast East from Alliance.^[106][107]

Percentage shares of votes, as predicted in the first week of May:

^PC Includes Plaid Cymru

Seats predicted on May 7:

A surprising exit poll, collected by Ipsos MORI and NOP on behalf of the BBC, ITN and Sky News, was published at 10 pm at the end of voting:^[123]

This predicted the Conservatives to be 10 seats short of an absolute majority, although with the 5 predicted Sinn Féin MPs not taking their seats, it was likely to be enough to govern.^[124]

The exit poll was markedly different to the pre-election opinion polls,^[125] which had been fairly consistent; this led many pundits and MPs to speculate that the exit poll was inaccurate, and that the final result would have the two main parties closer to each other. Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown vowed to "eat his hat" and former Labour "spin doctor" Alastair Campbell promised to "eat his kilt' if the exit poll, which predicted huge losses for their respective parties, was right.

As it turned out, the results were even more extreme than the poll predicted, with the Conservatives obtaining 331 seats, an absolute majority.^[126] Ashdown and Campbell were presented with hat- and kilt-shaped cakes (labelled 'eat me') on BBC Question Time on 8 May.

With the eventual outcome in terms of both votes and seats varying substantially from the bulk of opinion polls released in the final months before the election, the polling industry received criticism for their inability to predict what was a surprisingly clear Conservative victory. Several theories have been put forward to explain the inaccuracy of the pollsters. One theory was that there had simply been a very late swing to the Conservatives, with the polling company Survation claiming that 13% of voters made up their minds in the final days and 17% on the day of the election.^[127] The company also claimed that a poll they carried out a day before the election gave the Conservatives 37% and Labour 31%, though they said they did not release the poll (commissioned by the Daily Mirror) on the concern that it was too much of an outlier with other poll results.^[128] However, it was reported that pollsters had in fact picked up a late swing to Labour on polling day, not the Conservatives.^[129] It was reported after the election that private pollsters working for the two largest parties actually gathered more accurate results, with Labour's pollster James Morris claiming that the issue was largely to do with surveying technique.^[130] Morris claimed that telephone polls that immediately asked for voting intentions tended to get a high 'don't know' or a high anti-government reaction, whereas longer telephone conversations conducted by private polls that collected other information such as views on the leaders' performances placed voters in a much better mode to give their true voting intentions.^[131] A final theory was the issue of 'shy Tories' not wanting to openly declare their intention to vote Conservative to pollsters.^[132]

The British Polling Council announced an inquiry into the substantial variance between the opinion polls and the actual election result.

After all 650 constituencies had been declared, the results were:^[133][134]

The following table shows final election results as reported by BBC News^[135] and The Guardian.^[136]

Despite most opinion polls predicting the Conservatives and Labour neck and neck, the Conservatives secured a clear lead over their rivals and took a working majority of 15 (with Sinn Féin's 4 MPs abstaining). Conservative party leader and incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron subsequently formed a majority single-party government, while their former Liberal Democrat coalition partners suffered their worst defeat since the 1970 general election.

Winning just 8 seats, the Liberal Democrats were tied with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in the House of Commons, with Nick Clegg being one of the few MPs from his party to retain their seats. The Liberal Democrats gained no seats at all but lost 48: 26 to the Conservatives, 12 to Labour and 10 to the SNP.

The Conservatives gained 38 seats but lost 10, all to Labour. Employment Minister Esther McVey was the most senior Conservative to lose her seat.

The Labour Party polled below expectations and won 30.4% of the vote and 232 seats, 24 fewer than their previous result in 2010. Their net loss of seats were mainly a result of their resounding defeat in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party took 39 of their seats and unseated key Labour politicians such as shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. Murphy faced calls for his resignation after his party was left with just a single seat in Scotland. Labour lost a further nine seats to the Conservatives, and were left with their lowest share of the seats since the 1987 general election. Ed Miliband subsequently tendered his resignation as Labour leader.

The above table shows that four Independents lost their seats. The former Labour MP Eric Joyce's seat went to the SNP, while the former Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock's seat went to the Conservatives, Hancock obtaining only 716 votes.

Despite threats that voting for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) would result in a Labour government, UKIP were only able to hold one of their two seats and gain no new ones, with media commentators unable to make out whether it had been a good or a bad election result for UKIP. Despite being placed firmly in third place in terms of votes with 12.9%, UKIP were left with only one seat and the party's leader Nigel Farage crucially failed to win the constituency of Thanet South and tendered his resignation as a result. His resignation was rejected by his party's executive council and he stayed on as leader.

The Alliance Party and the Respect Party each lost their only seat, to the Democratic Unionists and to Labour respectively.

The election led to an increase in the number of female MPs, from 147 (23% of the total, including 87 Labour, 47 Conservative, 7 Liberal Democrat, 1 SNP, 5 other) to 191 (29% of the total, including 99 Labour, 68 Conservative, 20 SNP, 4 other). As before the election, the region with the largest proportion of women MPs was North East England.^[138]

111 seats changed hands compared to the result in 2010 plus three by-election gains reverted to the original winner.

Conservatives lost 11 seats (10 to Labour and one to UKIP in Clacton) and gained 35 (27 from Liberal Democrats and 8 from Labour) making a net gain of 24 seats.
The eight seats gained from Labour were Bolton West, Derby North, Gower, Morley and Outwood, Plymouth Moorview, Southampton Itchen, Telford and Vale of Clywd.
Labour lost 48 seats (40 to SNP and 8 to Conservatives) and gained 22 (12 from Liberal Democrats and 10 from Conservatives) making a net loss of 26 seats.
The ten Conservative seats gained by Labour were Brentford and Isleworth, Chester, Dewsbury, Ealing Central and Acton, Enfield North, Hove, Ilford North, Lancaster and Fleetwood, Wirral West, and Wolverhampton South West.
Liberal Democrats lost 49 seats (12 to Labour, 27 to Conservatives and 10 to SNP.)
SNP gained 50 seats (40 from Labour and 10 from Liberal Democrats.)
Alliance lost their only seat (East Belfast) to the DUP.
DUP lost one seat (South Antrim) to the UUP.
Sinn Fein lost one seat (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) to the UUP.
Three seats won at by-elections by Labour, UKIP and Respect, respectively, returned to the party that won in 2010: Conservative (Corby, Rochester and Strood) and Labour (Bradford West).

On 8 May, three party leaders announced their resignations within an hour of each other:^[139] Ed Miliband (Labour) and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) resigned due to their parties' worse-than-expected results in the election, although both had been re-elected to their seats in Parliament.^[140][141] Nigel Farage (UKIP) offered his resignation because he had failed to be elected as MP for Thanet South, but said he might re-stand in the resulting leadership election. However, on 11 May the UKIP executive rejected his resignation on the grounds that the election campaign had been "a great success",^[142] and Farage agreed to continue as party leader.^[143]

Alan Sugar, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, also announced his resignation from the Labour Party for running what he perceived to be an anti-business campaign.^[144]

In response to Labour's poor performance in Scotland, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy initially resisted calls for his resignation by other senior party members. Despite surviving a no-confidence vote by 17-14 from the party's national executive, Murphy announced that he would step down as leader within a month on 16 May.^[145]

Financial markets reacted positively to the result, with the pound sterling rising against the Euro and US dollar when the exit poll was published, and the FTSE 100 stock market index rising 2.3% on 8 May. The BBC reported: "Bank shares saw some of the biggest gains, on hopes that the sector will not see any further rises in levies. Shares in Lloyds Banking Group rose 5.75% while Barclays was 3.7% higher", adding, "Energy firms also saw their share prices rise, as Labour had wanted a price freeze and more powers for the energy regulator. British Gas owner Centrica rose 8.1% and SSE shares were up 5.3%". BBC economics editor Robert Peston noted: "To state the obvious, investors love the Tories' general election victory. There are a few reasons. One (no surprise here) is that Labour's threat of breaking up banks and imposing energy price caps has been lifted. Second is that investors have been discounting days and weeks of wrangling after polling day over who would form the government - and so they are semi-euphoric that we already know who's in charge. Third, many investors tend to be economically conservative and instinctively Conservative."^[146]

The disparity between the numbers of votes and the number of seats obtained by the smaller parties gave rise to increased calls for replacement of the 'first-past-the-post' voting system with a more proportional system. For example, UKIP had 3.9 million votes per seat, whereas SNP had just 26,000 votes per seat, about 150 times greater representation for each vote cast. It is worth noting however that UKIP stood in 10 times more seats than the SNP. Noting that UKIP's 13% share of the overall votes cast had resulted in the election of just one MP, Nigel Farage argued that the UK's voting system needed reforming, saying, "Personally, I think the first-past-the-post system is bankrupt".^[147] Re-elected Green Party MP Caroline Lucas agreed, saying her party had "made history" and had had the "most successful election campaign ever, with almost a million people voting Green". She added: "The political system in this country is broken […] It's ever clearer tonight that the time for electoral reform is long overdue, and it's only proportional representation that will deliver a Parliament that is truly legitimate and better reflects the people it is meant to represent."^[148]

Over the weekend following the election, a series of protests were reported in London and Cardiff, with two police hospitalisations and fifteen arrests.^[149] The protests in London of between 100 and 500 people were centred around Downing Street. In Cardiff, Charlotte Church was involved in the rally.^[150] The purpose of these demonstrations seems to have been to criticise austerity and to call for electoral reform.^[151]

• List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2015
• List of MPs for constituencies in England 2015–20
• List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland 2015–20
• List of MPs for constituencies in Northern Ireland 2015–20
• List of MPs for constituencies in Wales 2015–20
• United Kingdom local elections, 2015
• Category:UK MPs 2015–20

• Progress updates, independent observers Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

• Election 2015 polls and predictions
• UK Polling Report Blog
  • UK Polling Report – 2015 Election Guide
• UK 2015 Parliamentary Election Forecast

• Another hung Parliament: what next?, video from UCL Constitution Unit
• BBC Q&A on what happens if no-one wins the election

• General Election 2015 – BBC News
• General Election 2015 at the Guardian
• General Election 2015 at the Daily Telegraph

• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: Step forward, not back
• Communist Party of Britain: 2015 Communist Party general election manifesto
• Conservative Party: Strong leadership, a clear economic plan, a brighter, more secure future
• Democratic Unionist Party: Standing Up for Northern Ireland
• English Democrats Party: Putting England First
• Green Party in Northern Ireland: For the Common Good
• Green Party of England and Wales: For the common good
• Labour Party: Britain can be better
• Liberal Democrats: Stronger economy. Fairer society. Opportunity for everyone
• Liberal Party: General election mini manifesto 2015
• Mebyon Kernow: Vote for Cornwall... and a new approach to politics
• Plaid Cymru: Working For Wales
• Scottish Green Party: An economy for the people, a society for all
• Scottish National Party: Stronger for Scotland
• Scottish Socialist Party: For an independent socialist Scotland: Standing up for Scotland's working class majority
• Sinn Féin: Equality not austerity
• Social Democratic and Labour Party: Prosperity not austerity
• Socialist Labour Party: Socialist Labour Party manifesto
• Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition: TUSC's general election policies
• UK Independence Party: Believe in Britain
• Ulster Unionist Party: One day, one vote, one chance for change

• Boundary Commission for England
• Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland
• Boundary Commission for Scotland
• Boundary Commission for Wales (in Welsh)