Encyclopedia
The
United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 and won by the Labour Party, led by
Tony Blair. The Labour Party secured an overall majority of 66 Members of Parliament .
Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats in the
House of Commons, while Northern Irish
Social Democratic and Labour Party MPs take the Labour whip, giving Labour an effective majority of 77. For details by constituency, see 2005 general election results.
The
general election took place in 646 constituencies across the United Kingdom, for seats in the House of Commons. All but one constituency polled on 5 May; in the remaining seat of
South Staffordshire it was postponed due to the death of a candidate and took place on 23 June.
The election was held under the
first-past-the-post system. Local elections in parts of
England and in
Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for 15 hours, from 07:00 to 22:00 BST . 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.
Overview
- For events leading up to the date of the election, see article: Pre-election day events of the United Kingdom general election, 2005
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 to being the governing party. 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 had high hopes of making enough gains to become the Official Opposition and/or play a major part in a parliament lead by a Minority Labour or Conservative Government. In Northern Ireland the
Democratic Unionist Party had high hopes of making further gains over the
Ulster Unionist Party in unionist politics, and
Sinn Féin over the
Social Democratic and Labour Party in nationalist politics. The pro-independence
Scottish National Party and
Plaid Cymru 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 various national Green parties, and the
Scottish Socialist Party. The Health Concern party also stood for election again. A full list of parties which declared their intention to run can be found on the list of parties contesting the UK general election, 2005.
During the period between the announcement of the election and the actual election itself, all of the parties embarked on intensive campaigns to win voters over. They did this by releasing manifestos, party political broadcasts and touring the country in buses .
Seats in Scotland
Several years after the
Scottish Parliament had been established by the Scotland Act 1998, the target electorate size of Westminster Parliamentary seats in
Scotland was adjusted to become the same as that for
England. Previously Scotland had had a smaller target electoral size per constituency resulting in more seats per head of population, which had been intended to compensate Scotland for its status as a nation, its lower population density which causes very large constituencies geographically, its distance from the seat of Parliament in Westminster and because prior to 1999 Scottish Law had been decided by the Westminster Parliament. These problems were perceived to have been largely overcome with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland therefore started work on redrawing the boundaries, and in 2003 produced a scheme in which there were 59 constituencies, reduced from 72. In 2004, the Government passed the Scottish Parliament Act 2004 which instituted these changes and broke the link between British- and Scottish-Parliamentary constituencies.
Three constituencies were left unchanged - the island seats of Orkney and Shetland, the Western Isles, though the latter changed its official name to the
Gaelic "Na h-Eileanan an Iar", and
Eastwood, which changed its name to "East Renfrewshire". Several other constituency names were carried forward, however in all cases the new seats had altered boundaries.
Predicted result of redrawn boundaries
Although it was impossible to guarantee a wholly accurate prediction of the strength of the parties within the 59 new constituencies, as this was be the first election in which they were used, estimates had been made prior to the poll on May 5th on the basis of a ward-by-ward breakdown of local council election results. An agreed set used by all media reports and most political commentators indicated that, had the new boundaries been used in the 2001 election, Labour would have won 46 seats, with the Liberal Democrats on 9 seats, the Scottish National Party on 4, and the Conservatives none. This represented a loss of 10 seats to Labour and one each for the Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party and the Conservatives. The arithmetic was however complicated by the fact that the boundary revision had produced some seats that were notionally highly marginal.
The results of the 2005 election showed some of the highest changes of the share of the vote for particular parties occurring in Scottish seats, leading some commentators to speculate that either the notional results were in error and/or they were unable to take into account factors such as tactical voting and people voting on a different basis in General Elections than in Local Elections.
Actual result of redrawn boundaries
Labour in fact only won 41 seats , the Liberal Democrats won 11 , the SNP won 6 seats and in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale the Conservatives won their only seat . Compared to the actual results of 2001 this then represented a loss of 14 seats for Labour, a gain of 1 seat for the SNP and Liberal Democrats, and no change for the Conservatives.
See also the list of parties standing in Scotland.
The election in Northern Ireland
In
Northern Ireland, the election was dominated in the unionist community by a battle between the
Ulster Unionist Party and the
Democratic Unionist Party to be the region's largest unionist party in Parliament. Similarly, in the nationalist community, there was a battle between the
Social Democratic and Labour Party and
Sinn Féin.
As expected, the DUP and Sinn Féin have emerged as the largest unionist and nationalist parties respectively, at the expense of the more moderate UUP and SDLP. The UUP fared particularly badly, with leader
David Trimble losing Upper Bann, and the party's representation being reduced to one seat, North Down, held by Sylvia Hermon. Although the UUP won more MPs at the 2001 General Election, the defection of Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson to the DUP in January 2004 reversed the position. Other elections in the province have shown both a shift in votes towards the DUP but also a collapse of support for the cross-community
Alliance Party which is likely to be more marked in a
first past the post election and thus which may work in the UUP's favour. Shortly afterwards, on May 7, Trimble announced his resignation as party leader.
In the nationalist community, recent elections have shown a clear shift in support from the SDLP to Sinn Féin. Two of the three SDLP MPs elected in 2001 had retired, while all four of the Sinn Féin MPs stood again. Sinn Féin's victory over the SDLP in
Newry and Armagh, giving it a fifth seat, will reduce the number of Northern Ireland MPs who vote in Westminster because Members of Parliament cannot formally take their seats until they swear allegiance to the Queen . The big shock of the election came in South Belfast where the SDLP won the traditionally unionist seat, aided by a split between the two big unionist parties. This, together with their retention of two other seats did much to boost the party's fortunes and morale when many commentators had been predicting a disaster as great as that which met the UUP.
See also the list of parties standing in Northern Ireland.
The ballot
At the close of voting the ballot boxes are sealed and returned to the counting centre where counting proceeds under the supervision of the returning officer who is obliged to declare the result as soon as it is known. There has been stiff competition amongst constituencies to be first to declare. Sunderland South has repeated its performance in the last three elections and in 2005 declared Labour incumbent Chris Mullin re-elected as MP with a majority of 11,059 at approximately 2245 BST . The vote itself represented a swing of approximately 4% to the Conservatives and 4.5% to the Liberal Democrats. This was 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, it too was a hold, but with a reduced majority by 4%. The first seat to change hands was
Putney, where Labour's majority of around 2500 fell to a strong Conservative challenge, with a total swing of about 5000 . 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 and a hold from 2001.
Exit polls
Following problems with exit polls in previous British and American elections, the BBC and ITV agreed for the first time to pool their respective data, using results from Mori and NOP. More than 20,000 people were interviewed for the poll at 120 polling stations across the country. The predictions were excellent - initial projections saw the Labour party returned to power with a majority of 66 , and the final result was a Labour majority of 66. The Sky News network has refused to use exit polls since the 1980s, citing their previous inaccuracies.
The projected shares of the vote on mainland Britain were Labour 37% , Conservatives 33% , Liberal Democrats 22% and other parties 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 , 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.
Election results
At 0428 BST, it was announced that Labour had won Corby, giving them 324 of the 646 seats in the House of Commons, and as a result an overall majority. This was despite polling only 35.2% of the popular vote, equating to approximately 22% of the electorate based on the estimated turnout of 61.3%. However, turnout rose from 59.2% in 2001, a change that has been mostly attributed to the extension and promotion of postal voting.
The results were interpreted by the UK media as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and in the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in particular. As expected, voter disenchantment led to an increase of support for the opposition parties, and caused many Labour voters to remain home on election day. However, ultimately, domestic policy factors helped Labour achieve a third successive term in office for the first time in the party's history. The reduction of the Labour majority from 163 to 67, , was viewed by many across the political spectrum as a positive development, a counter to an alleged presidential style of government although many especially in the opposition saw it as a sign of how skewed towards Labour the existing system coupled with demographic factors was given that it was achieved on only 35.2% of those turning out to vote. After Labour victory became clear, Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, announced that he would resign once the internal affairs of his party were stabilised. The final seat to declare was the delayed poll in South Staffordshire, at just after 1 AM on Friday 24 June.
The election was also characterised by a number of smaller battles. In Bethnal Green and Bow, London, former Labour MP George Galloway, running as a candidate for the anti-war Respect, successfully defeated Oona King , despite a previous majority of 10,000. Following the result, a hostile interview with Jeremy Paxman attracted press attention. In Blaenau Gwent, Peter Law, a former Labour politician, ran as an Independent in protest at the imposition of an all-female candidate shortlist by the national Labour Party. He successfully overturned a 19,313 Labour majority. In Enfield Southgate, Conservative David Burrowes ousted Labour Stephen Twigg, who had famously defeated Michael Portillo for that seat in the 1997 elections. Labour regained one of its by-election losses, Leicester South, but saw an increased Liberal Democrat majority in the other, Brent East.
Others were less fortunate. Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former BBC presenter who joined UKIP, and then set up his own party, Veritas, failed to win a seat in Erewash. He was placed fourth, receiving only 2,957 votes. The so-called decapitation policy of targeting Conservative front-benchers, allegedly pursued by the Lib Dems, was also unsuccessful, removing only Tim Collins in Westmorland and Lonsdale. The election also saw regional surges in support for the British National Party, a development that was greeted by many with alarm. However, they failed to win any seats, their highest poll being 16.9% in Barking, East London.
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 10% of the overall seats, despite having over 20% of the popular vote. There have also been calls for reform by some in England, where the Conservative party polled 60,000 more votes than Labour yet received 90 fewer seats. In fact the only parties to win a higher precentage of seats than they achieved in votes was Labour, the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and Health Concern.
Postal Votes have themselves been criticised amid fears the system at present is not secure enough and makes electoral fraud too easy.
Interpretation of Result
The Labour Government claimed that being returned to office for a third term for the first time ever showed the remarkable achievements of New Labour and the continued unpopularity of the Conservatives. Nevertheless, Labour's vote declined to 35.2%, only 2.9% above their nearest rivals and as the lowest ever percentage vote to achieve a majority of seats in the UK Parliament and following on from two huge parliamentary majorities in 1997 and 2001 on minority votes it did lead to an upsurge in discussion of the merits of the First Past the post system.
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 one seat, 2005 was the first General Election since 1983 where the number of Conservative seats increased appreciably although the Conservatives' vote share barely increased, this could just be mainly because of former Labour voters changing their vote to Lib Dem, and tactical unwind due to the unpopularity of the Labour Government among supporters of other parties. This also marked the third successive General Election in which the Conservatives share of the vote was below 35%.
The Liberal Democrats claimed that their continued gradual increase 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 190 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 made further gains off Labour.
The Liberal Democrats increased their percentage of the vote by 3.7%, the Conservatives increased their percentage of the vote by 0.6%, and Labour lost 5.5% of the vote. While most seats lost by Labour changed to the Conservatives, most Labour voters switching changed to the Liberal Democrats unlike at the previous election, the Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of two seats to the Conservative Party probably due to tactical unwind due to worries about what Liberal Democrats would do in a Hung Parliament situation.
The election was the first time since the 1929 election that no party received more than 10 million votes. In addition, Labour won it's overall majority with the lowest percentage vote achieved by the party winning the most votes in any United Kingdom General Election in history. In terms of overall shares of the vote, it was the most three-cornered election since the 1923 election, though the Liberal Democrats failed to regain the success of the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the 1980s in terms of their share of the popular vote. Additionally, the total vote for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats combined dropped to the lowest level ever recorded, with 10.2% of voters voting for minor parties.
England
The average Labour vote in England declined by approximately 7% overall and by varying amounts in every English Region but with sharp variations locally, the Labour vote falling sharply in safe Labour seats and in areas with large Muslim populations, but a few constituencies even saw a slight increase in the Labour vote. In particular, the Labour vote declined dramatically in North London, where 11% of voters abandoned Labour for another party and the Respect Party managed narrowly to unseat Labour in what was formerly a safe Labour seat. Labour lost the fewest votes in Southwest England, losing only 2.5% of the vote, but Labour's vote in Southwest England is historically poor. Notably, the Labour Party failed to take a single seat off another party. Despite getting about a million votes fewer than the Conservatives in England Labour still ended up with a majority of English seats.
The Conservatives made gains in most regions of England, though their vote declined in some areas, notably East Midlands and Yorkshire . However, even in regions where the Conservative vote declined, the Labour vote declined by a greater margin, allowing the Conservatives to make gains against Labour. Overall, the Conservatives only gained approximately 1% of the vote in England from 2001.
The Liberal Democrats made modest gains in all regions of England, improving by at least 1% in every region. No particular region showed greatly expanded support for the Liberal Democrats, continuing the trend of approximately equal showings in all regions of England for the Liberal Democrats. This equal development, however, yielded few new seats due to the limits of the electoral system.
Scotland
Results in Scotland for Labour were also down, though less so than in England. Labour lost approximately 4% of the vote in East Scotland and approximately 6% of the vote in West Scotland. Labour's vote declined particularly sharply in the Edinburgh area and in the north of Scotland, where Labour lost all of its rural seats.
The Conservative vote declined marginally in both East and West Scotland, but the Conservatives nonetheless managed to win a seat in the South of Scotland, Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale so maintaining their number of Scottish seats in the Westminster Parliament at 1 seat. Having once been even the largest party in Scotland as recently as the 1959 General Election, the 2001 and 2005 General Elections have done very little to reverse the downward trend that culminated in 1997 with the Conservatives losing all their 11 parliamentary seats.
The Liberal Democrats made gains against Labour in both regions of Scotland and picked up a modest number of seats. On average, their vote rose approximately 5% across Scotland, though again this translated into few gains as the Liberal Democrat vote was not particularly concentrated.
The Scottish National Party's vote declined slightly across Scotland, but they managed to win both a rural seat and an urban seat from Labour.
Wales
The Labour Party lost approximately 6% of the vote across Wales, losing votes in various directions depending on the region. However, Labour managed to mitigate their losses, losing only six seats. The Conservatives returned an MP from Wales for the first time since the 1997 election by winning three seats on a slightly increased share of the vote. The Liberal Democrats also improved their share of the vote slightly and won two additional seats, one from Labour and one from Plaid Cymru. Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, declined very slightly in the vote and lost a seat to the Liberal Democrats. Peter Law, standing as an independent candidate managed to overturn a large Labour majority to win Blaenau Gwent.
Total seats for each party
- Ordered by number of votes; for the results in order number of seats won, see results by number of seats won.
Formation of the new government
Following the election result, Labour remained in power and Tony Blair remained Prime Minister. The first job he undertook was to select a new Cabinet. This was done over the weekend afterwards and formally announced on May 9 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 who returned to cabinet as the Work and Pensions Secretary, although he was back out of the cabinet again due to scandal before the end of the year after a national press and opposition campaign for his dismissal.
The new Parliament met on May 11 for the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
New party leaders
On May 6, Michael Howard announced he would be standing down as leader of the Conservative Party, but not before a review of the rules for electing a leader had been reviewed. The formal leadership election began in October, and was ultimately won by David Cameron. See Conservative Party 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 June 24. See Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, 2005.
External links
Media coverage
Electoral information
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- - analysis of polls on a day-by-day basis.
- - All 3405 candidates listed by their 124 distinct party labels.
- - with a focus on the strategists and public relations experts involved in the campaigns of the various parties.
- - Information for each constituency to strategically vote against the invasion of Iraq
Manifestos
Miscellaneous
- - A tool to show which party's policies most closely match your priorities
- - An alternative tool to show which party's policies most closely match your opinions on 20 key policy areas
- - Includes an election briefing that analyses party manifestos in the light of their perception of Christian beliefs
- , by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
