UK General Election 2015

General Election 2015 – Summary & Analysis of Key Results

Here’s your quick summary of the key results for people and parties plus our view of what happened on the night.

Election Analysis by Dr Ed Gouge

Take a look at a quick analysis of what happened on election night and the deciding factors that resulted in a Conservative majority. Click here

Election Statistics

Click here to find out about turnout, the number of votes for each political party, their share of the vote in 2015 and a comparison with 2010. Read here

Headlines

• The Conservatives, led by David Cameron, reached the number of seats (326) to form a majority government. Cameron visited Buckingham Palace for an audience with The Queen before giving speech as returning PM outside No.10

• The Conservatives have a majority of 12 seats. Final 2015 seats count (total 650)
• Conservatives – 331
• Labour – 232
• Scottish National Party – 56
• Liberal Democrats – 8
• UKIP – 1

• Other – 23 including 3 Plaid Cymru, N.Ire seats, Speaker of the House of Commons and Deputies.
• In thoughtful, heartfelt speeches, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage all resigned as party leaders. Farage, hinted at a return in the next leadership contest though after a good rest. There was no indication of Natalie Bennett or Jim Murphy resigning as Scottish Labour Leader as he gave a speech looking to the future.
• UKIP received nearly 13% of the vote but ended with one MP in Clacton, the SNP received nearly 5% of the vote and have 56 MPs. There are growing calls for Proportional Representation to be examined for fairer elections in multi-party Britain.
• David Cameron made four key cabinet appointments on 8th May with a spirit of continuity:
• George Osborne remained Chancellor of the Exchequer but is also appointed First Secretary of State
  Theresa May stayed on as Home Secretary
  Phillip Hammond reappointed to role of Foreign Secretary
  Michael Fallon remained Defence Secretary

Leader’s Resignation Speeches – Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage

Not a good night…

Pollsters – Shortly after 10:00pm, the country was stunned by an exit poll predicting the Conservatives would be the largest party with 316 seats, short of a majority which as the night went on was revised to a small majority. Right up to polling day seven respected polling companies had the result “too close to call” and all talk was about deals and knife-edge seats.

Labour – After a recount, although a heavily targeted seat by the Conservatives, Ed Balls lost his seat in Morley and Outwood. The former Shadow Chancellor was joined by Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Jim Murphy, who lost in Scotland to SNP challengers.

UKIP – Mark Reckless, after winning a by-election for UKIP did not keep his seat this time. A blow for the party’s plans.

Respect – George Galloway lost his seat in Bradford West for Respect party and is likely to now run for the Mayor of London

Wales – Plaid Cymru did not get the break-through they were hoping for or a seat at the table with any negotiations

Conservatives – The biggest shocks for the Conservatives were Esther McVey in Wirral West by around 400 votes and Nick de Bois in Enfield North.

Liberal Democrats – suffered huge loses from their front bench

• Danny Alexander – Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• Charles Kennedy – former party leader
• Vince Cable – Business Secretary
• David Laws – Education Minister
• Jo Swinson – Consumer Affairs Minister
• Simon Hughes – Home Office Minister
• Steve Webb – Pensions Minister
• Norman Baker – former Home Office Minister
• Ed Davey – Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change
• Lynne Featherstone – Minister

Winners or a better night than expected…

The SNP had a landslide winning 56 seats, with Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats each getting one seat each.

Nick Clegg had around 12,000 votes knocked off his majority but hung on. However this may cause more problems for his political future. Surprisingly Greg Mulholland held on to Leeds North West, a heavy student area of the city and Tim Farron retained his seat in Westmorland.

Boris Johnson returned to Westminster parliament taking the seat of Uxbridge and Ruislip. He’ll be expecting a cabinet position. He was joined by a return from Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland representing the constituency of Gordon.