2015 United Kingdom general election
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 May 2015 to elect 650 Members of Parliament (or MPs) to the House of Commons. It was the only general election held under the rules of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and was the last general election to be held before the United Kingdom would vote to end its membership of the European Union (EU). Local elections took place in most areas of England on the same day.
All 650 seats in the House of Commons[1]
326 seats needed for a majority
46,354,197
66.4%[2] (
1.3%)
Opinion polls and political commentators had predicted that the results of the election would cause a second consecutive hung parliament whose composition would be similar to the previous Parliament, which was in effect from the previous national election in 2010. Opinion polls turned out to have underestimated the Conservatives, however, as they won 330 of the 650 seats and 36.9% of the votes, giving them a majority of ten seats (not including the Speaker, who cannot vote or debate and must remain impartial). This won them the right to govern the country alone and the right for their leader, David Cameron, to continue as Prime Minister.
The Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, saw a small increase in its share of the vote to 30.4% but won 26 fewer seats than in 2010. This gave them 232 MPs. This was the fewest seats the party won since the 1987 general election, when it had 229 MPs returned. Many senior Labour MPs, such as Ed Balls, Douglas Alexander and Jim Murphy, lost their seats.
The Scottish National Party won a landslide victory in Scotland, mainly at the expense of Labour, who had held a majority of Scottish seats in the House of Commons at every general election since 1964. The SNP won 56 of the 59 Scottish seats and became the third-largest party in the House of Commons.
The Liberal Democrats, led by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, had their worst result since their formation in 1988, losing 49 of their 57 seats, with Cabinet ministers Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Danny Alexander all losing their seats. The UK Independence Party came third in terms of votes with 12.6% but won only a single seat, with party leader Nigel Farage failing to win his seat of South Thanet. The Green Party won its highest ever vote share of 3.8% and retained their only seat.[3] In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two seats after their five-year long absence, and the Alliance Party lost its only seat despite an increase in their vote share. Following the election, Ed Miliband resigned as leader of the Labour Party and Nick Clegg resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats.
The election is considered to have begun a political realignment in the UK, possibly marking a return to the traditional two-party politics dominated by the Conservatives and Labour, seen throughout the second half of the 20th century. The Scottish National Party began its domination of Scottish politics. It also saw the last public appearance of Charles Kennedy, the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, before his death on 1 June 2015.
Notable MPs who retired at this election included former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, former Leader of the Conservative Party William Hague and former Leader of the Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell. Notable newcomers to the House of Commons include: future Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons Ian Blackford, future Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner, future Leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer and future UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Another future UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who had previously left Parliament in 2008 so he could serve as the Mayor of London, returned to Parliament as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Media coverage[edit]
Despite speculation that the 2015 general election would be the 'social media election', traditional media, particularly broadcast media, remained more influential than new digital platforms.[123][124][125] A majority of the public (62%) reported that TV coverage had been most influential for informing them during the election period, especially televised debates between politicians.[126] Newspapers were next most influential, with the Daily Mail influencing people's opinions most (30%), followed by The Guardian (21%) and The Times (20%).[126] Online, major media outlets—like BBC News, newspaper websites, and Sky News—were most influential.[126] Social media was regarded less influential than radio and conversations with friends and family.[126]
During the campaign, TV news coverage was dominated by horse race journalism, focusing on the how close Labour and the Conservatives (supposedly) were according to the polls, and speculation on possible coalition outcomes.[127] This 'meta-coverage' was seen to squeeze out other content, namely policy.[127][128][129] Policy received less than half of election news airtime across all five main TV broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky) during the first five weeks of the campaign.[127] When policy was addressed, the news agenda in both broadcast and print media followed the lead of the Conservative campaign,[128][130][131][132] focusing on the economy, tax, and constitutional matters (e.g., the possibility of a Labour-SNP coalition government),[132][130] with the economy dominating the news every week of the campaign.[131] On TV, these topics made up 43% of all election news coverage;[132] within the papers, nearly a third (31%) of all election-related articles were on the economy alone.[133] Within reporting and comment about the economy, newspapers prioritised Conservative party angles (i.e., spending cuts (1,351 articles), economic growth (921 articles), reducing the deficit (675 articles)) over Labour's (i.e., Zero-hour contracts (445 articles), mansion tax (339 articles), non-domicile status (322 articles)).[133] Less attention was given to policy areas that might have been problematic for the Conservatives, like the NHS or housing (policy topics favoured by Labour)[132] or immigration (favoured by UKIP).[130]
Reflecting on analysis carried out during the election campaign period, David Deacon of Loughborough University's Communication Research Centre said there was "aggressive partisanship [in] many section of the national press" which could be seen especially in the "Tory press".[128] Similarly, Steve Barnett, Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, said that, while partisanship has always been part of British newspaper campaigning, in this election it was "more relentless and more one-sided" in favour of the Conservatives and against Labour and the other parties.[125] According to Bart Cammaerts of the Media and Communications Department at the London School of Economics, during the campaign "almost all newspapers were extremely pro-Conservative and rabidly anti-Labour".[134] 57.5% of the daily newspapers backed the Conservatives, 11.7% Labour, 4.9% UKIP, and 1.4% backed a continuation of the incumbent Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government;[135] 66% of Sunday national newspapers backed the Conservatives.[136] Of newspaper front-page lead stories, the Conservatives received 80 positive splashes and 26 negative; Labour received 30 positive against 69 negative.[131] Print media was hostile towards Labour at levels "not seen since the 1992 General Election",[130][134][137][138] when Neil Kinnock was "attacked hard and hit below the belt repeatedly".[134] Roy Greenslade described the newspaper coverage of Labour as "relentless ridicule".[139] Of the leader columns in The Sun 95% were anti-Labour.[138] The SNP also received substantial negative press in English newspapers: of the 59 leader columns about the SNP during the election, one was positive.[131] The Daily Mail ran a headline suggesting SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was "the most dangerous woman in Britain"[130][140] and, at other times, called her a "glamorous power-dressing imperatrix" and said that she "would make Hillary Clinton look human".[133] While the Scottish edition of The Sun encouraged people north of the border to vote for the SNP, the English edition encouraged people to vote for the Conservatives in order to "stop the SNP running the country".[141] The negative coverage of the SNP increased towards the end of the election campaign.[124] While TV news airtime given to quotations from politicians was more balanced between the two larger parties (Con.: 30.14%; Lab.: 27.98%), more column space in newspapers was dedicated to quotes from Conservative politicians (44.45% versus 29.01% for Labour)[124]—according to analysts, the Conservatives "benefitted from a Tory supporting press in away the other leaders did not".[124] At times, the Conservatives worked closely with newspapers to co-ordinate their news coverage.[133] For example, The Daily Telegraph printed a letter purportedly sent directly to the paper from 5,000 small business owners; the letter had been organised by the Conservatives and prepared at Conservative Campaign Headquarters.[133]
According to researchers at Cardiff University and Loughborough University, TV news agendas focused on Conservative campaign issues partly because of editorial choices to report on news originally broken in the rightwing press but not that broken in the leftwing press.[132][128][127] Researchers also found that most airtime was given to politicians from the Conservative party—especially in Channel 4's and Channel 5's news coverage, where they received more than a third of speaking time.[127][142] Only ITV gave more airtime to Labour spokespeople (26.9% compared with 25.1% for the Conservatives).[142] Airtime given to the two main political leaders, Cameron (22.4%) and Miliband (20.9%), was more balanced than that given to their parties.[142]
Smaller parties—especially the SNP[142]—received unprecedented levels of media coverage because of speculation about a minority or coalition government.[130][132] The five most prominent politicians were David Cameron (Con) (15% of TV and press appearances), Ed Miliband (Lab) (14.7%), Nick Clegg (Lib Dem) (6.5%), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) (5.7%), and Nigel Farage (UKIP) (5.5%).[130][132] However, according to analysts from Loughborough University Communication Research Centre, "the big winners of the media coverage were the Conservatives. They gained the most quotation time, the most strident press support, and coverage focused on their favoured issues (the economy and taxation, rather than say the NHS)".[124]
Other than politicians, 'business sources' were the most frequently quoted in the media. On the other hand, trade unions representatives, for example, received very little coverage, with business representatives receiving seven times more coverage than unions.[128] Tony Blair was also in the top ten most prominent politicians (=9), warning people about the threat of the UK leaving the EU.[130]
Aftermath[edit]
Resignations[edit]
On 8 May, three party leaders announced their resignations within an hour of each other:[232] 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.[233][234][235][236] 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",[237] and Farage agreed to continue as party leader.[238]
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.[239]
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 he would step down as leader on or before 16 May.[240]
Financial markets[edit]
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."[241]