Conservatives Win U.K. Elections
May 11, 2015
Parliamentary elections were held in the United Kingdom last Thursday, May 7. Friday’s results surprised political experts and British voters. with the Conservative Party winning a majority.
In order to be the majority party in the United Kingdom, a party’s parliamentary candidates must win more than half of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. If no one party garners at least 326 seats, people call this a hung parliament, and parties must try to form alliances with other parties to gain control of 326 seats. When parties join to rule, it is called a coalition government.
Many experts believed the Conservative Party, which was in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats before the May 2015 election, would have difficulty obtaining enough votes to win the majority and might even have trouble finding a partner with which to form a coalition. Instead, the Conservatives won an outright majority, gaining 24 seats, for a total of 331. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats lost 26 and 47 seats, respectively. Labour’s leader, Ed Miliband, and the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, both resigned their leadership after the election results were announced. The true surprise was the strength of the Scottish National Party, led by Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP gained 50 seats and won 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland—a landslide victory that could have repercussions for the future of a united United Kingdom. The Scottish National Party favors independence from the United Kingdom.
David Cameron, who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in May 2010, reorganized his cabinet in May 2015 after his party’s win in parliamentary elections. © Getty Images/Thinkstock
British Prime Minister David Cameron reorganized his cabinet today, choosing conservatives now that he is freed from serving a coalition.
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