1992 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party.John Major had won the leadership election in November 1990 succeeding the outgoing PM Margaret Thatcher....
• MPsThis is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom in the United Kingdom in the 1992 general election, held on 9 April 1992....
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1997 electionThe UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held...
• MPsThis is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the 52nd House of Commons at the 1997 general election, held on 1 May 1997.The list is arranged by constituency...
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2001 election • MPsThis is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at the 2001 general election, held on 7 June.The list is arranged by constituency. New MPs elected since the general election and changes in party allegiance are noted at the bottom of the page...
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2005 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
• MPsThis is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 2005 general election, held on 5 May 2005.The list is arranged by constituency...
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The
UK general election, 2001 was held on 7 June 2001 and was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media. There was little change at all - outside
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
- with 620 out of 641 seats remaining unchanged. Labour enjoyed its second so-called 'landslide victory' in a row, maintaining its position from the
previous electionThe UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held...
.
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
became the first Labour prime minister to win enough seats to have a full second consecutive term in office. Labour won a majority of 167 overall (previously 179) and 247 over the Conservatives (previously 254).
The
ConservativesThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
netted a gain of only one seat after their crushing defeat of 1997 (gaining a few seats from Labour, but losing several to the
Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Liberals, are a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had been in alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of...
). Conservative leader
William HagueWilliam Jefferson Hague is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Richmond , Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet...
resigned immediately, becoming the first Conservative leader since
Austen ChamberlainSir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG was a British statesman and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.- Early life and career :...
to leave office without becoming
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
. The Liberal Democrats, under
Charles KennedyCharles Peter Kennedy MP is a British politician.From 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006, he was the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest political party in the United Kingdom....
, made a gain of six more seats from their already historic high of the 1997 election.
The elections were also marked by voter apathy, with turnout falling to 59%, the lowest since the
Coupon ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did not begin...
of 1918. Throughout the election the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
had maintained a significant lead in the opinion polls and the result was deemed to be so certain that some
bookmakerA bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
s paid out for a Labour majority before the election day.
In total, a mere 29 parliamentary seats changed hands at the 2001 election.
The election had been expected in May, to coincide with local elections, but both were postponed because of rural movement restrictions imposed in response to a
foot and mouth outbreakThe outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in the spring and summer of 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms in most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an eventually...
. One of the more noted events of a quiet campaign was when a countryside protester Craig Evans threw an egg at
Deputy Prime MinisterThe Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is a senior member of the British Cabinet. There is not always a Deputy Prime Minister; the office itself is not part of the UK's uncodified constitution, nor does the Government possess a formal permanent office of Deputy Prime Minister...
John PrescottJohn Leslie Prescott is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hull East since 1970; from 1997 to 2007, he was the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, also serving as First Secretary of State from 2001...
in
RhylRhyl is a seaside resort town situated on the north east coast of Wales, in the county of Denbighshire , at the mouth of the River Clwyd . To the west is the suburb of Kinmel Bay, with the resort of Towyn further west, Prestatyn to the east and Rhuddlan to the south...
; Prescott then punched him and a struggle ensued, in front of
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
cameras. The 2001 Election also saw the rare election of an independent.
Dr. Richard TaylorRichard Thomas Taylor, MP, FRCP is an English doctor turned politician, Independent Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest.-Background and education:...
of
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health ConcernIndependent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern is a political party based in Kidderminster, United Kingdom...
(usually now known simply as "Health Concern") unseated a government minister. There was also a high vote for
British National PartyThe British National Party is a far-right, whites-only political party in the United Kingdom, formed as a splinter group of the British National Front by John Tyndall in 1982. The party's current chairman is Nick Griffin, himself a former national organiser of the National Front.The BNP is not...
leader
Nick GriffinNicholas John Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England. He is married with four children, and lives in Wales....
in
OldhamOldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, in the wake of recent race riots in the town.
In
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, the election was far more dramatic and marked a move by unionists away from support for the Good Friday Agreement, with the moderate unionist
Ulster Unionist PartyThe Ulster Unionist Party is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
(UUP) losing to the more hardline
Democratic Unionist PartyThe Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
(DUP). This polarisation was also seen in the nationalist community, with the
Social Democratic and Labour PartyThe Social Democratic and Labour Party is one of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. During the Troubles, the SDLP was consistently the most popular nationalist party in Northern Ireland, but since the Provisional IRA cease-fire in 1994, it has lost ground to its rival Sinn...
(SDLP) vote losing out to the hardline republican
Sinn FéinSinn Féin is a political party in Ireland. The current party, led by Gerry Adams, was formed following a split in January 1970 and traces its origins back to the original Sinn Féin party formed in 1905. It is a major party of Irish republicanism and its political ideology is left wing...
. It also saw a tightening of the parties as the small
UK Unionist PartyThe UK Unionist Party was a small unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest a by-election the North Down by-election, 1995 and then further constituted to contest the 1996...
lost its only seat.
During the election, Sharron Storer, a resident of
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, criticised
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in front of television cameras about conditions in the
National Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the name commonly used to refer to the publicly-funded health care services in Great Britain. In England the name National Health Service is used without further qualification whereas the services in Scotland and Wales are known as NHS Scotland and NHS Wales...
. The widely-televised incident happened on 16 May during a campaign visit by Blair to the
Queen Elizabeth HospitalQueen Elizabeth Hospital can refer to one of several institutions named after Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II or Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother:Australia*Queen Elizabeth Hospital, AdelaideBarbados*Queen Elizabeth Hospital, BridgetownCanada...
in Birmingham. Sharron Storer's partner, Keith Sedgewick, a
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and therefore highly susceptible to infection, was being treated at the time in the
bone marrowBone marrow is the flexible tissue found in the hollow interior of bones. In adults, marrow in large bones produces new blood cells. It constitutes 4% of total body weight, i.e...
unit, but no bed could be found for him and he was transferred to the casualty unit for his first 24 hours.
Results
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Total votes cast: 26,368,204. All parties with more than 500 votes shown.
The seat gains reflect changes on the 1997 general election resultThe UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held...
. Two seats had changed hands in by-elections in the intervening period. These were as follows:
- Romsey
Romsey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
from ConservativeThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
to Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Liberals, are a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had been in alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of...
. This seat stayed Liberal Democrat in 2001.
- South Antrim
South Antrim is a Parliamentary Constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons.-Boundaries:From 1885, this constituency was one of four county divisions of the former Antrim constituency...
from Ulster UnionistsThe Ulster Unionist Party is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
to Democratic UnionistsThe Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
. This seat reverted to the Ulster Unionists in 2001.
The results of the election give a
Gallagher index of dis-proportionalityThe Gallagher Index is used to measure the disproportionality of an electoral outcome, that is the difference between the percentage of votes received and the percentage of seats a party gets in the resulting legislature. This is especially useful for comparing proportionality across electoral...
of 17.74.
Votes summary
Seats summary
See also
- MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2001
This is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at the 2001 general election, held on 7 June.The list is arranged by constituency. New MPs elected since the general election and changes in party allegiance are noted at the bottom of the page...
- 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in the spring and summer of 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms in most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed in an eventually...
Manifestos
External links