2005 United Kingdom general election: Difference between revisions

United Kingdom general election, 2005

← 2001 5 May 2005 2010 →
← outgoing members Members elected →
All 646 seats to the House of Commons 324 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	61.4%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tony Blair Michael Howard Charles Kennedy Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 21 July 1994 6 November 2003 9 August 1999 Leader's seat Sedgefield Folkestone & Hythe Ross, Skye, & Lochaber Last election 413 seats, 40.7% 166 seats, 31.7% 52 seats, 18.3% Seats before 403 165 51 Seats won 355^ 198 62 Seat change 47^ 33* 11* Popular vote 9,552,436 8,784,915 5,985,454 Percentage 35.2% 32.4% 22.0% Swing 5.5% 0.7% 3.7%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Indicates boundary change - so this is a nominal figure ^ Figure does not include the speaker
PM before election Tony Blair Labour Subsequent PM Tony Blair Labour

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but its majority now stood at 66 seats compared to the 160-seat majority it had previously held.

The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy, however Blair had suffered a decline in popularity even before the decision to send British troops to invade Iraq in 2003. The Conservative Party, led by Michael Howard since late 2003, campaigned on policies, such as immigration limits, improving poorly managed hospitals and reducing high crime rates, all under the slogan 'Are you thinking what we're thinking?'. The Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy were staunchly opposed to the Iraq War from the start and collected votes from disenchanted Labour voters.

Tony Blair was returned as Prime Minister, with Labour holding 355 MPs but with a popular vote of 35.2%, the lowest of any majority government in British history. In terms of votes they were only narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, but still had a comfortable lead ahead of them in terms of seats. The Conservatives however did manage to return 198 MPs, 32 more than they had previously, and managed to win the popular vote in England while still ending up with 91 fewer MPs in England than Labour. The Liberal Democrats saw their popular vote increase by 3.7% and won the most seats for any third party since 1923, in the form of 62 MPs. Former Labour MP and anti-war activist George Galloway was elected as an MP under the Respect – The Unity Coalition banner, and two Single Area Party candidates were elected; Blaenau Gwent People's Voice and Health Concern in Worcestershire.

In Northern Ireland, the moderately unionist Ulster Unionist Party, which had dominated Northern Ireland's politics since the 1920s, was reduced from 6 MPs to 1 MP, with party leader David Trimble himself losing his seat. The more hardline Democratic Unionist Party became the largest Northern Ireland party, with 9 MPs. Following the election, Conservative leader Michael Howard resigned and was succeeded by David Cameron and in 2007, Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour leader to be replaced by Gordon Brown. The election was broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by Peter Snow, David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr.^[1]

The governing Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, was looking to secure a third consecutive term in office and to retain a large majority. The Conservative Party was seeking to regain seats lost to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats since the 1992 general election, and move from being the Official Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both main parties, but especially the Conservative Party, with a "decapitation" strategy targeting members of the Shadow Cabinet. The Lib Dems had also wished to become the governing party, but more realistically hoped of making enough gains to become the Official Opposition and/or play a major part in a parliament led by a minority Labour or Conservative government. In Northern Ireland the Democratic Unionist Party sought to make further gains over the Ulster Unionist Party in unionist politics, and Sinn Féin hoped to overtake the Social Democratic and Labour Party in nationalist politics. (Note that Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats in the House of Commons—they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen as required). The pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) stood candidates in every constituency in Scotland and Wales respectively.

Many seats were contested by other parties, including several parties without incumbents in the House of Commons. Parties that were not represented at Westminster, but had seats in the devolved assemblies and European Parliament included the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party. The Health Concern party stood again as well. A full list of parties which declared their intention to run can be found on the list of parties contesting the 2005 general election.

All parties campaigned through such tools as party manifestos, party political broadcasts and touring the country in what are commonly referred to as battle buses.

Local elections in parts of England and in Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for fifteen hours, from 07:00 to 22:00 BST (UTC+1). The election came just over three weeks after the dissolution of Parliament on 11 April by Queen Elizabeth II, at the request of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Following the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April, it was announced that the calling of the election would be delayed until 5 April.^[2]

Thanks to 8 years of sustained economic growth Labour could point to a strong economy, with greater investment in public services such as education and health. This was overshadowed however by the issue of the Iraq war, which met widespread public criticism at the time, and would dog Blair throughout the campaign. Then Chancellor Gordon Brown played a prominent role in the election campaign, regularly appearing with Tony Blair and ensuring that the economy would remain the central focus of Labour's message.

For the Conservatives their recently elected leader Michael Howard brought a great level of experience and stability to a party that had only ousted its former leader Iain Duncan Smith^[3] just 18 months before. The Conservatives focused their campaign on more traditional conservative issues like immigration, which created some controversy with the slogan "It's not racist to impose limits on immigration".^[4] They also criticised Labour's "dirty" hospitals and high crime levels, under the umbrella of the slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?".^[5]

However Labour counterattacked, by emphasising Howard's role in the unpopular Major Government of 1992-1997, airing an attack ad on Howard, showing a montage of scenes from Howards tenure as Home Secretary, including Prison Riots and home repossessions. It also launched a billboard campaign showing Howard, and the Conservative Party's four previous leaders: Iain Duncan Smith, William Hague, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, with the caption, "Britain's working, don't let the Tories wreck it again".

For the Liberal Democrats this would be the second and last election campaign fought by leader Charles Kennedy, who was strongly opposed to the Iraq war, and offered a more down to earth approach to voters which proved popular. There were some questions however over Kennedy's drinking problem when at the Liberal Democrat manifesto launch he was asked about local income tax, but appeared confused on the figures.^[6] Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives were keen to tackle Labour's introduction of tuition fees, which was opposed by both parties and they promised to abolish.^[7]

At the close of voting (2200 BST) the ballot boxes were sealed and returned to the counting centre where counting proceeded under the supervision of the returning officer who was obliged to declare the result as soon as it was known. As previously, there was serious competition amongst constituencies to be first to declare. Sunderland South repeated its performance in the last three elections and declared Labour incumbent Chris Mullin re-elected as MP with a majority of 11,059 at approximately 2245 BST (failing by two minutes to beat its previous best, but making it eligible for entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as longest consecutive delivery of first results). The vote itself represented a swing (in a safe Labour seat, in a safe Labour region) of approximately 4% to the Conservatives and 4.5% to the Liberal Democrats, somewhat below the prediction of BBC/ITV exit polls published shortly after 2200 BST.

Sunderland North was the next to declare, followed by Houghton & Washington East, both Labour holds but with reductions in the incumbent majorities of up to 9%. The first Scottish seat to declare was Rutherglen and Hamilton West — another safe Labour seat, also a Labour hold, but with the majority reduced by 4%. The first seat to change hands was Putney, where Labour's majority of around 2,500 fell to a strong Conservative challenge, with a total swing of about 5,000 (6.2%). This was also the first seat to be declared for the Conservatives. The first Liberal Democrat seat to be declared was North East Fife, the constituency of LibDem party deputy leader Sir Menzies Campbell which he has held since 1987.

The Constituency of Crawley in West Sussex had the slimmest majority of any seat with Labour holding off the Conservatives by 37 votes after three recounts.

Following problems with exit polls in previous British elections, the BBC and ITV agreed for the first time to pool their respective data, using results from Mori and NOP. More than twenty thousand people were interviewed for the poll at one hundred and twenty polling stations across the country. The predictions were very accurate—initial projections saw the Labour party returned to power with a majority of 66 (down from 160),^[8] and the final result (including Staffordshire South, where the election was postponed due to the death of a candidate) would indeed be a Labour majority of 66.

The projected shares of the vote in Great Britain were Labour 35% (down 6% on 2001), Conservatives 33% (up 1%), Liberal Democrats 22% (up 4%) and other parties 8% (up 1%).^[8] The Conservatives were expected to make the biggest gains, however — forty-four seats according to the exit numbers — with the Liberal Democrats expected to take as few as two. Whilst the exit-poll-predicted vote share for the Lib Dems was accurate (22.6% vs an actual 22.0%), they had actually done better in some Lib Dem-Labour marginals than predicted on the basis of the national share of the vote, producing a net gain of 11 seats.

Due to boundary changes in Scotland, the number of seats were reduced to 59 (down from 72). As a result of this a number of seats were lost by each party, and this notional election result below is based on the 2001 election results if they had been fought on these new 2005 boundaries.

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• Results of 2005 United Kingdom General Election

At 04:28 BST, it was announced that Labour had won Corby, giving them 324 seats in the House of Commons out of those then declared and an overall majority, Labour's total reaching 356 seats out of the 646 House of Commons seats. Labour received 35.3% of the popular vote, equating to approximately 22% of the electorate on a 61.3% turnout, up from 59.4% turnout in 2001. Increased turnout was mostly attributed to the extension and promotion of the postal voting system, which has however been criticised by many as being too insecure increasing the risk of electoral fraud.

As expected, voter disenchantment led to an increase of support for many opposition parties, and caused many eligible to vote, not to turn out. Labour achieved a third successive term in office for the first time in their history, though with reduction of the Labour majority from 167 to 67 (as it was before the declaration of South Staffordshire). As it became clear that Labour had won an overall majority, Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, announced his intention to retire from front-line politics. The final seat to declare was the delayed poll in South Staffordshire, at just after 1 a.m. on Friday 24 June.

The election was followed by further criticism of the UK electoral system. Calls for reform came particularly from Lib Dem supporters, citing that they received only just over 10% of the overall seats with 22.1% of the popular vote. The only parties to win a higher percentage of seats than they achieved in votes were Labour, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, and Health Concern, which ran only one candidate. The results of the election give a Gallagher index of dis-proportionality of 16.76.

The Labour Government claimed that being returned to office for a third term for the first time ever showed the public approval of New Labour's governance and the continued unpopularity of the Conservatives. Nevertheless, Labour's vote declined to 35.3%, the lowest share of the popular vote to have formed a majority government in the history of the UK House of Commons. In many areas the collapse in the Labour vote resulted in a host of seats changing hands. Labour also failed to gain any new seats, almost unique in any election since 1945. As well as losing seats to the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, Labour also lost their safest seat in Wales^[9] to Independent Peter Law, and Bethnal Green and Bow to Respect candidate George Galloway.

The Conservatives claimed that their increased number of seats showed disenchantment with the Labour government and was a precursor of a Conservative breakthrough at the next election. Following three consecutive elections of declining representation and then in 2001 a net gain of just one seat, 2005 was the first general election since 1983 where the number of Conservative seats increased appreciably, although the Conservatives' vote share increased only slightly and this election did mark the third successive general election in which the Conservatives polled below 35%. In some areas the Conservative vote actually fell. The Conservatives claimed to have won the General Election in England, since they received more votes than Labour although Labour still won a majority of seats.^[10]

The Liberal Democrats claimed that their continued gradual increase in seats and percentage vote showed they were in a position to make further gains from both parties. They pointed in particular to the fact that they were now in second place in roughly one hundred and ninety constituencies and that having had net losses to Labour in the 1992 general election and having not taken a single seat off Labour in 1997, they had held their gains off Labour from the 2001 general election and had actually made further gains from them. The Liberals also managed to take 3 seats from the Conservatives, notably Tim Collins, through the use of a decapitation strategy, which targeted senior Tories.^[11]

The Liberal Democrats increased their percentage of the vote by 3.7%, the Conservatives by 0.6%, and Labour's dropped by 5.4%.

The results were interpreted by the UK media as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and in Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular.

Meanwhile the SNP had a good night in Scotland, regaining the Western Isles from Labour, having lost it 1987.^[12] In Wales Plaid Cymru failed to gain any seats, and lost Ceredigion to the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland the Ulster Unionists were all but wiped out, only holding onto North Down, with leader David Trimble losing his seat in Upper Bann. For the first time the DUP became the biggest party in Northern Ireland.

It was the first general election since 1929 in which no party received more than ten million votes. It was the most "three-cornered" election since 1923, though the Liberal Democrats failed to match the higher national votes of the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the 1980s either in absolute or percentage terms. The total combined vote for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats proved to be the lowest main three party vote since 1922.

^[13]

^{[citation needed]}

The figure of 355 seats for Labour does not include the speaker Michael Martin. 356 seats would give the majority of 66. See also the list of parties standing in Northern Ireland.

^{[citation needed]}

^[14]

Following the election result, Labour remained in power and Tony Blair remained Prime Minister, reshuffling Cabinet and junior ministers over the following weekend, with formal announcements made on 9 May 2005. The most senior positions of Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary remained the same, but a few new faces were added; most notably David Blunkett returned to cabinet as the Work and Pensions Secretary, although he was forced to resign again due to another scandal before the end of the year that spawned a national press and opposition campaign for his dismissal. Patricia Hewitt became the new Health Secretary, Tessa Jowell remained as Culture Secretary, whilst Alan Johnson was promoted to Trade and Industry Secretary. Meanwhile Ruth Kelly retained the Education job and Margaret Beckett stayed put at Environment.

The new Parliament met on 11 May for the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

On 6 May Michael Howard announced he would be standing down as leader of the Conservative Party, but not before a review of the leadership rules. The formal leadership election began in October, and was ultimately won by David Cameron. See Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005. The following day David Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. His successor, Sir Reg Empey, was elected at the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on 24 June. See Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, 2005.

The prime minister Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace on 6 April 2010 and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 12 April. The next election was held on 6 May 2010.^[15]

• John Bartle and Anthony King, eds. Britain at the Polls 2005 (2005) excerpt and text search
• Andrew Geddes and Jonathan Tonge, eds. Britain decides: the UK general election 2005 (2005) 311 pages
• Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler, eds. The British General Election of 2005 (2006) essays by political scientists

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2005
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Scotland
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Wales
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Northern Ireland

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (March 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• 2001-2005 Polls from Polling Report UK
• Candidates by Party all 3405 candidates listed by their 124 distinct party labels
• 2005 UK general election from SourceWatch with a focus on the strategists and public relations experts involved in the campaigns of the various parties
• Strategic Voter 2005 information for each constituency to strategically vote against the invasion of Iraq
• Catalogue of 2005 general election ephemera at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
• OSCE Final Report on the United Kingdom general election on 2005-05-05, by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
• Maps of the 2005 results by constituencies (in French)
• NSD: European Election Database - UK

• Conservatives: It's Time For Action/The British Dream
• Labour: Britain: forward not back
• Liberal Democrats: The REAL Alternative
• Alliance Party of Northern Ireland: Alliance works. Tribal politics costs (PDF File)
• British National Party: Rebuilding British Democracy (Abbreviated) (PDF)
• Democratic Unionist Party: Leadership That's Working (PDF File)
• Green Party of England and Wales: People, Planet, Peace
• Scottish Green Party: People, Planet, Peace
• Scottish National Party: Make Scotland Matter (PDF file)
• Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales: We can build a better Wales (PDF file)
• English Democrats: See Web Site- Putting England First
• National Front: Manifesto
• Respect – The Unity Coalition: Policy
• Scottish Socialist Party: Make Capitalism History
• Social Democratic and Labour Party: A Better Way to a Better Ireland (PDF File)
• Sinn Féin: Manifesto [dead link]
• Ulster Unionist Party: Simply British
• United Kingdom Independence Party: We want our country back

• BBC coverage of election night, uploaded to youtube in 47 parts.
• Election 2005 from BBC News
• Election 2005 from Channel 4 [dead link]
• UK General Election 2005 from The Guardian
• Election 2005 Blog from The Guardian