AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

United Kingdom general election, 2005

Election NameUnited Kingdom general election, 2005
CountryUnited Kingdom
Typeparliamentary
Ongoingno
Previous ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 2001
Previous Year2001
Previous MpsMPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2001
Next ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 2010
Next Year2010
Next MpsMPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2010
Seats For ElectionAll 646 seats to the House of Commons|majority_seats=324
Elected MpsMembers elected
Election Date5 May 2005
Turnout61.4%
Leader1Tony Blair
Leader Since121 July 1994
Party1Labour Party (UK)
Leaders Seat1Sedgefield
Last Election1413 seats, 40.7%
Seats Before1403
Seats1355^
Seat Change1(-)47*
Popular Vote19,552,436
Percentage135.2%
Swing1(-)5.5%
Leader2Michael Howard
Leader Since26 November 2003
Party2Conservative Party (UK)
Leaders Seat2Folkestone & Hythe
Last Election2166 seats, 31.7%
Seats Before2165
Seats2198
Seat Change2(+)33*
Popular Vote28,784,915
Percentage232.4%
Swing2(+)0.7%
Leader3Charles Kennedy
Leader Since39 August 1999
Party3Liberal Democrats (UK)
Leaders Seat3Ross, Skye, & Lochaber
Last Election352 seats, 18.3%
Seats Before351
Seats362
Seat Change3(+)11*
Popular Vote35,985,454
Percentage322.0%
Swing3(+)3.7%
Map Image2005UKElectionMap.svg
Map Size250px
Map CaptionColours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.
* Indicates boundary change - so this is a nominal figure ^ Figure does not include the speaker
TitlePM
PosttitleSubsequent PM
Before ElectionTony Blair
Before PartyLabour Party (UK)
After ElectionTony Blair
After PartyLabour Party (UK)

     Home | Election | United Kingdom general election, 2005







The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160.

The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy, however Blair had suffered a decline in popularity before the decision to send British troops to invade Iraq in 2003. The Conservative Party, led by Michael Howard campaigned on more traditional Conservative policies, such as immigration limits, improving poor hospital conditions and reducing high crime rates, all under the slogan 'Are you thinking what we're thinking?'. The Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy were staunchly opposed to the Iraq War and sought to collect votes from disenchanted Labour voters.

Tony Blair was returned as Prime Minister, with Labour holding 355 MPs but with a popular vote of 35.2%, the lowest of any majority government in British history. The Conservatives managed to return 198 MPs, 33 more than they had previously and managed to win the popular vote in England. The Liberal Democrats saw their popular vote increase by 3.7% and won the most seats for any third party since 1923, in the form of 62 MPs. Former Labour MP and anti-war activist George Galloway was elected as an MP for the newly formed Respect Party, and two independent candidates were elected (Blaenau Gwent People's Voice and Health Concern).

In Northern Ireland, the moderately unionist Ulster Unionist Party, which had dominated Northern Ireland's politics since the 1920s, was reduced from 6 MPs to 1 MP, with party leader David Trimble himself losing his seat. The more hardline Democratic Unionist Party became the largest Northern Ireland party, with 9 MPs. Following the election, Conservative leader Michael Howard resigned and was succeeded by David Cameron and in 2007, Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour leader to be replaced by Gordon Brown. The election was broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by Peter Snow, David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr.


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/United/Kingdom/general/election/2005?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/United/Kingdom/general/election/2005?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260