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2015 United Kingdom general election, 2020 (Joe'sWorld) 2025> ›
United Kingdom general election, 2020
All 600 seats in the House of Commons
7 May 2020
First party Second party Third party
Borisjohnson 220px-Jeremy Corbyn NicolaSturgeon
Leader Boris Johnson Jeremy Corbyn Nicola Sturgeon
Party Conservative Party Labour Party SNP
Leader's seat Uxbridge and South Ruislip
standing in Uxbridge
Islington North Did not stand
Seats before 330 232 56
Seats won 322 205 50
Seat change +21 (+5) -19 (-40) +1 (-6)
Percentage 39.7% 30.3% 4.8%
Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
TimFarron Nigel Farage Amelia womack
Leader Tim Farron Nigel Farage Amelia Womack
Party Liberal Democrats UKIP Green Party
Leader's seat Westmorland and Lonsdale (lost re-election) East Thanet (defeated) Dulwich and Peckham (defeated)
Seats before 8 1 1
Seats won 4 0 0
Seat change -3 (-4) 0 (-1) 0 (-1)
Percentage 7.6% 11.2% 4.6%
Prime Minister before election
Boris Johnson
Conservative Party
Subsequent Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Conservative Party

The United Kingdom general election of 2020 was held on 7 May 2020 to elect the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom. Voting took place in all 600 parliamentary constituencies of the United Kingdom, each electing one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons, the dominant house of Parliament. Local elections took place in most of England on the same day. It was the second general election to be held at the end of a fixed term parliament following the enactment of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and the first general election after the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which resulted in 50 seats being abolished and brought down the number of Parliamentary constituencies to 600.

Background[]

Incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson had come to power on the back of a leadership election in the Conservative Party after former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned in 2018 after a close 'EU In/Out' referendum delivered an 'In' result. Though this was Cameron's preferred result, many in the Conservative Party campaigned for an 'Out' result and thus demanded his resignation. Polling had consistently shown the Conservative public's perception of David Cameron as unpopular, ineffectual, and weak, and thus their motives had been to try to transform the party's image in order to avoid a major defeat in the upcoming election. After 8 months of Conservative infighting, Cameron finally resigned and turned the helm of 10 Downing Street over to former Mayor of London and incumbent Business Secretary Boris Johnson. It worked; the public's approval of this change was large and Johnson ended up becoming even more popular than the former prime minister had once been.

On 6 June 2015, Jeremy Corbyn, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Amnesty International, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the National Chair of the Stop the War Coalition, announced his campaign to become Leader of the Labour Party. Although he was initially perceived as a fringe candidate in the leadership election, Corbyn became the overwhelming leader in opinion polls and gained the support of the majority of trades unions affiliated to the Labour Party, as well as three non-affiliated trade unions. On 12 September 2015, he was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a landslide victory, winning 59.5% of the vote on the first ballot.  

Results[]

This election led to the biggest Conservative victory (seat percentage-wise) since 1987.

  • Con (Boris Johnson) - 335
  • Lab (Jeremy Corbyn) - 191
  • SNP (Nicola Sturgeon) - 50
  • LD (Tim Farron) - 4
  • UKIP (Nigel Farage) - 0
  • Green (Amelia Womack) - 0
  • Plaid Cymru (Leanne Wood) - 3
  • Speaker (Margaret Beckett) - 1
  • Northern Ireland - 16
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