2015 United Kingdom general election, MPs not standing for re-election
The highest-profile members of parliament leaving were: Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister, Leader of the Labour Party (both 2007–2010) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997–2007); and William Hague, the outgoing First Secretary of State and Leader of the House of Commons and former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2010–2014), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (both 1997–2001). Alongside Brown and Hague, 17 former cabinet ministers stood down at the election, including Stephen Dorrell, Jack Straw, Alistair Darling, David Blunkett, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Dame Tessa Jowell. The highest profile Liberal Democrat to stand down was former leader Sir Menzies Campbell, while the longest-serving MP (the "Father of the House") Sir Peter Tapsell also retired, having served from 1959 to 1964 and then continuously since the 1966 general election.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Overview
As of 9 April 2015, the deadline for standing for the general election, the Electoral Commission's Register of Political Parties included 428 political parties registered in Great Britain, and 36 in Northern Ireland. Candidates who did not belong to a registered party could use an "independent" label, or no label at all.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Overview
The Conservative Party and the Labour Party had been the two biggest parties since 1922, and had supplied all UK prime ministers since 1935. Polls predicted that these parties would together receive between 65% and 75% of votes, and would together win between 80% and 85% of seats; and that, as such, the leader of one of those parties would be the prime minister after the election. The Liberal Democrats had been the third party in the UK for many years; but as described by various commentators, other parties had risen relative to the Liberal Democrats since the 2010 election.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Overview
The Economist described a "familiar two-and-a-half-party system" (Conservatives, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats) that "appears to be breaking down" with the rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the Greens and the Scottish National Party (SNP). Newsnight and The Economist described the country as moving into a six-party system, with the Liberal Democrats, SNP, UKIP and Greens all being significant.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Overview
Ofcom, in their role regulating election coverage in the UK, ruled that, for the general election and local elections in May 2015, the major parties in Great Britain were the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, with UKIP a major party in England and Wales, the SNP a major party in Scotland, and Plaid Cymru (PC) in Wales, and that the Greens were not a major party.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Overview
The BBC's guidelines were similar but excluded UKIP from the category of "larger parties" in Great Britain, and instead stated that UKIP should be given "appropriate levels of coverage in output to which the largest parties contribute and, on some occasions, similar levels of coverage". Seven parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, UKIP, SNP, PC and Green) participated in the election leadership debates. Political parties based in Northern Ireland were ignored, despite the DUP being the fourth largest party in the UK in the previous election, in terms of seats won, and gaining the same number of seats as the Liberal Democrats in this election.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, National
Several parties operate in specific regions only. The main national parties, standing for seats across all (or most of) the country, are listed below in order of seats being contested:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, National, Minor parties
Dozens of other minor parties stood in 2015. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, founded as an electoral alliance of socialist parties in 2010, had 135 candidates and was the only other party to have more than forty candidates. Respect came into the election with one MP (George Galloway), who was elected at the 2012 Bradford West by-election, but stood just four candidates. The British National Party, which finished fifth with 1.9% of the vote for its 338 candidates at the 2010 general election, stood only eight candidates following a collapse in support. 753 other candidates stood at the general election, including all independents, Scottish-based, Northern Ireland-based and Wales-based party candidates, and candidates from other parties.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Northern Ireland
The main parties in Northern Ireland (which had 18 constituencies) described by Ofcom, the BBC and others, in order of seats won, were:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Northern Ireland
Smaller parties in Northern Ireland included Traditional Unionist Voice (standing in seven seats) and the Green Party in Northern Ireland (standing in five seats). In 2015 TUV and the Greens each held one seat in the Legislative Assembly. The North Down seat was retained by independent Sylvia Hermon. The Northern Ireland Conservatives and UKIP fielded candidates, whereas Labour and the Liberal Democrats do not contest elections in Northern Ireland.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Scotland
Smaller parties in Scotland include the Scottish Libertarian Party, but none of the smaller parties make much of an impact in general elections in Scotland.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Wales
Wales has a number of smaller parties which, again, do not tend to make much impact in the general elections. In 2015, the Labour Party continued to dominate Welsh politics at the general elections.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Pacts and possible coalitions
Coalitions have been rare in the United Kingdom, because the first-past-the-post system has usually led to one party winning an overall majority in the Commons. However, with the outgoing Government being a coalition and with opinion polls not showing a large or consistent lead for any one party, there was much discussion about possible post-election coalitions or other arrangements, such as confidence and supply agreements.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Pacts and possible coalitions
Some UK political parties that only stand in part of the country have reciprocal relationships with parties standing in other parts of the country. These include:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Pacts and possible coalitions
On 17 March 2015 the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party agreed an election pact, whereby the DUP would not stand candidates in Fermanagh and South Tyrone (where Michelle Gildernew, the Sinn Féin candidate, won by only four votes in 2010) and in Newry and Armagh. In return the UUP would stand aside in Belfast East and Belfast North. The SDLP rejected a similar pact suggested by Sinn Féin to try to ensure that an agreed nationalist would win that constituency. The DUP also called on voters in Scotland to support whichever pro-Union candidate was best placed to beat the SNP.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Candidates
The deadline for parties and individuals to file candidate nomination papers to the acting returning officer (and the deadline for candidates to withdraw) was 4 p.m. on 9 April 2015. The total number of candidates was 3,971; the second-highest number in history, slightly down from the record 4,150 candidates at the last election in 2010.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Candidates
There were a record number of female candidates standing in terms of both absolute numbers and percentage of candidates: 1,020 (26.1%) in 2015, up from 854 (21.1%) in 2010. The proportion of female candidates for major parties ranged from 41% of Alliance Party candidates to 12% of UKIP candidates. According to UCL's Parliamentary Candidates UK project the major parties had the following percentages of black and ethnic minority candidates: the Conservatives 11%, the Liberal Democrats 10%, Labour 9%, UKIP 6%, the Greens 4%. The average age of the candidates for the seven major parties was 45.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Candidates
The youngest candidates were all aged 18: Solomon Curtis (Labour, Wealden); Niamh McCarthy (Independent, Liverpool Wavertree); Michael Burrows (UKIP, Inverclyde); Declan Lloyd (Labour, South East Cornwall); and Laura-Jane Rossington (Communist Party, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport). The oldest candidate was Doris Osen, 84, of the Elderly Persons' Independent Party (EPIC), who was standing in Ilford North. Other candidates aged over 80 included three long-serving Labour MPs standing for re-election: Sir Gerald Kaufman (aged 84; Manchester Gorton), Dennis Skinner (aged 83; Bolsover) and David Winnick (aged 81; Walsall North).


2015 United Kingdom general election, Contesting political parties and candidates, Candidates
A number of candidates—including two for Labour and two for UKIP – were suspended from their respective parties after nominations were closed. Independent candidate Ronnie Carroll died after nominations were closed.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Constitutional affairs
The Conservative manifesto committed to "a straight in-out referendum on our membership of the European Union by the end of 2017". Labour did not support this, but did commit to a EU membership referendum if any further powers were transferred to the European Union. The Lib Dems also supported the Labour position, but explicitly supported the UK's continuing membership of the EU.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Constitutional affairs
The election was the first following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. None of the three major party manifestos supported a second referendum and the Conservative manifesto stated that "the question of Scotland's place in the United Kingdom is now settled". In the run-up to the election, David Cameron coined the phrase "Carlisle principle" for the idea that checks and balances are required to ensure that devolution to Scotland has no adverse effects on other parts of the United Kingdom. The phrase references a fear that Carlisle, being the English town closest to the Scottish border, could be affected economically by preferential tax rates in Scotland.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Government finance
The deficit, who was responsible for it and plans to deal with it were a major theme of the campaign. While some smaller parties opposed austerity, the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP all supported some further cuts, albeit to different extents.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Government finance
Conservative campaigning sought to blame the deficit on the previous Labour government. Labour, in return, sought to establish their fiscal responsibility. With the Conservatives also making several spending commitments (e.g. on the NHS), commentators talked of the two main parties' "political crossdressing", each trying to campaign on the other's traditional territory.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
Hung Parliaments have been unusual in post-War British political history, but with the outgoing Government a coalition and opinion polls not showing a large or consistent lead for any one party, it was widely expected and predicted throughout the election campaign that no party would gain an overall majority, which could have led to a new coalition or other arrangements such as confidence and supply agreements. This was also associated with a rise in multi-party politics, with increased support for UKIP, the SNP and the Greens.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
The question of what the different parties would do in the event of a hung result dominated much of the campaign. Smaller parties focused on the power this would bring them in negotiations; Labour and the Conservatives both insisted that they were working towards winning a majority government, while they were also reported to be preparing for the possibility of a second election in the year. In practice, Labour were prepared to make a "broad" offer to the Liberal Democrats in the event of a hung Parliament. Most predictions saw Labour as having more potential support in Parliament than the Conservatives, with several parties, notably the SNP, having committed to keeping out a Conservative government.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
Conservative campaigning sought to highlight what they described as the dangers of a minority Labour administration supported by the SNP. This proved effective at dominating the agenda of the campaign and at motivating voters to support them. The Conservative victory was "widely put down to the success of the anti-Labour/SNP warnings", according to a BBC article and others. Labour, in reaction, produced ever stronger denials that they would co-operate with the SNP after the election. The Conservatives and Lib Dems both also rejected the idea of a coalition with the SNP.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
This was particularly notable for Labour, to whom the SNP had previously offered support: their manifesto stated that "the SNP will never put the Tories into power. Instead, if there is an anti-Tory majority after the election, we will offer to work with other parties to keep the Tories out". SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon later confirmed in the Scottish leaders' debate on STV that she was prepared to "help make Ed Miliband prime minister". However, on 26 April, Miliband ruled out a confidence and supply arrangement with the SNP too. Miliband's comments suggested to many that he was working towards forming a minority government.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
The Liberal Democrats said that they would talk first to whichever party won the most seats. They later campaigned on being a stabilising influence should either the Conservatives or Labour fall short of a majority, with the slogan "We will bring a heart to a Conservative Government and a brain to a Labour one".


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats ruled out coalitions with UKIP. Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, asked about a deal with UKIP in the Scottish leaders' debate, replied: "No deals with UKIP." She continued that her preference and the Prime Minister's preference in a hung Parliament was for a minority Conservative government. UKIP said they could have supported a minority Conservative government through a confidence and supply arrangement in return for a referendum on EU membership before Christmas 2015. They also spoke of the DUP joining UKIP in this arrangement.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
UKIP and DUP said they would work together in Parliament. The DUP welcomed the possibility of a hung Parliament and the influence that this would bring them. The party's deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said the party could work with the Conservatives or Labour, but that the party is "not interested in a full-blown coalition government". Their leader, Peter Robinson, said that the DUP would talk first to whichever party wins the most seats. The DUP said they wanted, for their support, a commitment to 2% defence spending, a referendum on EU membership, and a reversal of the under-occupation penalty. They opposed the SNP being involved in government. The UUP also indicated that they would not work with the SNP if it wanted another independence referendum in Scotland.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
The Green Party of England & Wales, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party all ruled out working with the Conservatives, and agreed to work together "wherever possible" to counter austerity. Each would also make it a condition of any agreement with Labour that Trident nuclear weapons was not replaced; the Green Party of England and Wales stated that "austerity is a red line". Both Plaid Cymru and the Green Party stated a preference for a confidence and supply arrangement with Labour, rather than a coalition.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Campaign, Possibility of a hung Parliament
The leader of the SDLP, Alasdair McDonnell, said: "We will be the left-of-centre backbone of a Labour administration" and that "the SDLP will categorically refuse to support David Cameron and the Conservative Party". Sinn Féin reiterated their abstentionist stance. In the event the Conservatives did secure an overall majority, rendering much of the speculation and positioning moot.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Television debates
The first series of televised leaders' debates in the United Kingdom was held in the previous election. Following  much debate and various proposals, a seven-way debate with the leaders of Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru was held. with a series of other debates involving some of the parties.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Television debates
The campaign was notable for a reduction in the number of party posters on roadside hoardings. It was suggested that 2015 saw "the death of the campaign poster".


2015 United Kingdom general election, Endorsements
Various newspapers, organisations and individuals endorsed parties or individual candidates for the election. For example, the main national newspapers gave the following endorsements:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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. 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. Newspapers were next most influential, with the Daily Mail influencing people's opinions most (30%), followed by The Guardian (21%) and The Times (20%). Online, major media outlets—like BBC News, newspaper websites, and Sky News—were most influential. Social media was regarded less influential than radio and conversations with friends and family.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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. This 'meta-coverage' was seen to squeeze out other content, namely policy. 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.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
When policy was addressed, the news agenda in both broadcast and print media followed the lead of the Conservative campaign, focusing on the economy, tax, and constitutional matters (e.g., the possibility of a Labour-SNP coalition government), with the economy dominating the news every week of the campaign. On TV, these topics made up 43% of all election news coverage; within the papers, nearly a third (31%) of all election-related articles were on the economy alone.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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)). 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) or immigration (favoured by UKIP).


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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". 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.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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". 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; 66% of Sunday national newspapers backed the Conservatives. Of newspaper front-page lead stories, the Conservatives received 80 positive splashes and 26 negative; Labour received 30 positive against 69 negative.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
Print media was hostile towards Labour at levels "not seen since the 1992 General Election", when Neil Kinnock was "attacked hard and hit below the belt repeatedly". Roy Greenslade described the newspaper coverage of Labour as "relentless ridicule". Of the leader columns in The Sun 95% were anti-Labour. The SNP also received substantial negative press in English newspapers: of the 59 leader columns about the SNP during the election, one was positive.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
The Daily Mail ran a headline suggesting SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was "the most dangerous woman in Britain" and, at other times, called her a "glamorous power-dressing imperatrix" and said that she "would make Hillary Clinton look human". 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". The negative coverage of the SNP increased towards the end of the election campaign.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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)—according to analysts, the Conservatives "benefitted from a Tory supporting press in away the other leaders did not". At times, the Conservatives worked closely with newspapers to co-ordinate their news coverage. 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.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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. 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. Only ITV gave more airtime to Labour spokespeople (26.9% compared with 25.1% for the Conservatives). Airtime given to the two main political leaders, Cameron (22.4%) and Miliband (20.9%), was more balanced than that given to their parties.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
Smaller parties—especially the SNP—received unprecedented levels of media coverage because of speculation about a minority or coalition government. 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%). 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)".


2015 United Kingdom general election, Media coverage
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. Tony Blair was also in the top ten most prominent politicians (=9), warning people about the threat of the UK leaving the EU.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
Throughout the 55th parliament of the United Kingdom, first and second place in the polls without exception alternated between the Conservatives and Labour. Labour took a lead in the polls in the second half of 2010, driven in part by a collapse in Liberal Democrat support. This lead rose to approximately 10 points over the Conservative Party during 2012, whose ratings dipped alongside an increase in UKIP support. UKIP passed the Liberal Democrats as the third-most popular party at the start of 2013. Following this, Labour's lead over the Conservatives began to fall as UKIP gained support from it as well, and by the end of the year Labour were polling at 39%, compared to 33% for the Conservative Party and 11% for UKIP.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
UKIP received 26.6% of the vote at the European elections in 2014, and though their support in the polls for Westminster never reached this level, it did rise up to over 15% through that year. 2014 was also marked by the Scottish independence referendum. Despite the 'No' vote winning, support for the Scottish National Party rose quickly after the referendum, and had reached 43% in Scotland by the end of the year, up 23 points from the 2010 general election, largely at the expense of Labour (−16 points in Scotland) and the Liberal Democrats (−13 points).


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
In Wales, where polls were less frequent, the 2012–2014 period saw a smaller decline in Labour's lead over the second-placed Conservative Party, from 28 points to 17. These votes went mainly to UKIP (+8 points) and Plaid Cymru (+2 points). The rise of UKIP and SNP, alongside the smaller increases for Plaid Cymru and the Green Party (from around 2% to 6%) saw the combined support of the Conservative and Labour party fall to a record low of around 65%. Within this the decline came predominantly from Labour, whose lead fell to under 2 points by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat vote, which had held at about 10% since late 2010, declined further to about 8%.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
Early 2015 saw the Labour lead continue to fall, disappearing by the start of March. Polling during the election campaign itself remained relatively static, with the Labour and Conservative parties both polling between 33 and 34% and neither able to establish a consistent lead. Support for the Green Party and UKIP showed slight drops of around 1–2 points each, while Liberal Democrat support rose up to around 9%.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
In Scotland, support for the SNP continued to grow with polling figures in late March reaching 54%, with the Labour vote continuing to decline accordingly, while Labour retained their (reduced) lead in Wales, polling at 39% by the end of the campaign, to 26% for the Conservatives, 13% for Plaid Cymru, 12% for UKIP and 6% for the Liberal Democrats. The final polls showed a mixture of Conservative leads, Labour leads and ties with both between 31 and 36%, UKIP on 11–16%, the Lib Dems on 8–10%, the Greens on 4–6%, and the SNP on 4–5% of the national vote.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
In addition to the national polls, Lord Ashcroft funded from May 2014 a series of polls in marginal constituencies, and constituencies where minor parties were expected to be significant challengers.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling
Among other results, Lord Ashcroft's polls suggested that the growth in SNP support would translate into more than 50 seats; that there was little overall pattern in Labour and Conservative Party marginals; that the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas would retain her seat; that both Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and UKIP leader Nigel Farage would face very close races to be elected in their own constituencies; and that Liberal Democrat MPs would enjoy an incumbency effect that would lose fewer MPs than their national polling implied. As with other smaller parties, their proportion of MPs remained likely to be considerably lower than that of total, national votes cast. Several polling companies included Ashcroft's polls in their election predictions, though several of the political parties disputed his findings.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Predictions one month before the vote
The first-past-the-post system used in UK general elections means that the number of seats won is not closely related to vote share. Thus, several approaches were used to convert polling data and other information into seat predictions. The table below lists some of the predictions. ElectionForecast was used by Newsnight and FiveThirtyEight. May2015.com is a project run by the New Statesman magazine.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Predictions one month before the vote
Seat predictions draw from nationwide polling, polling in the constituent nations of Britain and may additionally incorporate constituency level polling, particularly the Ashcroft polls. Approaches may or may not use uniform national swing (UNS). Approaches may just use current polling, i.e. a "nowcast" (e.g. Electoral Calculus, May2015.com and The Guardian), or add in a predictive element about how polling shifts based on historical data (e.g. ElectionForecast and Elections Etc.).


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Predictions one month before the vote
An alternative approach is to use the wisdom of the crowd and base a prediction on betting activity: the Spreadex and Sporting Index columns below cover bets on the number of seats each party will win with the midpoint between asking and selling price, while FirstPastThePost.net aggregates the betting predictions in each individual constituency. Some predictions cover Northern Ireland, with its distinct political culture, while others do not. Parties are sorted by current number of seats in the House of Commons:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Predictions one month before the vote
Other predictions were published. An election forecasting conference on 27 March 2015 yielded 11 forecasts of the result in Great Britain (including some included in the table above). Averaging the conference predictions gives Labour 283 seats, Conservatives 279, Liberal Democrats 23, UKIP 3, SNP 41, Plaid Cymru 3 and Greens 1. In that situation, no two parties (excluding a Lab-Con coalition) would have been able to form a majority without the support of a third. On 27 April, Rory Scott of the bookmaker Paddy Power predicted Conservatives 284, Labour 272, SNP 50, UKIP 3, and Greens 1. LucidTalk for the Belfast Telegraph predicted for Northern Ireland: DUP 9, Sinn Féin 5, SDLP 3, Sylvia Hermon 1, with the only seat change being the DUP gaining Belfast East from Alliance.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Final predictions before the vote
Percentage shares of votes, as predicted in the first week of May:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Exit poll
An exit poll, collected by Ipsos MORI and GfK on behalf of the BBC, ITN and Sky News, was published at 10 pm at the end of voting. It interviewed around 22,000 people across a sample of 133 constituencies:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Exit poll
This predicted the Conservatives to be 10 seats short of an absolute majority, although with the 5 predicted Sinn Féin MPs not taking their seats, it was likely to be enough to govern. (In the event, Michelle Gildernew lost her seat, reducing the number of Sinn Féin MPs to 4.)


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Exit poll
The exit poll was markedly different from the pre-election opinion polls, which had been fairly consistent; this led many pundits and MPs to speculate that the exit poll was inaccurate, and that the final result would have the two main parties closer to each other. Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown vowed to "eat his hat" and former Labour "spin doctor" Alastair Campbell promised to "eat his kilt" if the exit poll, which predicted huge losses for their respective parties, was right.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Exit poll
As it turned out, the results were even more favourable to the Conservatives than the poll predicted, with the Conservatives obtaining 330 seats, an absolute majority. Ashdown and Campbell were presented with hat- and kilt-shaped cakes (labelled "eat me") on BBC Question Time on 8 May.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
With the eventual outcome in terms of both votes and seats varying substantially from the bulk of opinion polls released in the final months before the election, the polling industry received criticism for their inability to predict what was a surprisingly clear Conservative victory. Several theories have been put forward to explain the inaccuracy of the pollsters. One theory was that there had simply been a very late swing to the Conservatives, with the polling company Survation claiming that 13% of voters made up their minds in the final days and 17% on the day of the election.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
The company also claimed that a poll they carried out a day before the election gave the Conservatives 37% and Labour 31%, though they said they did not release the poll (commissioned by the Daily Mirror) on the concern that it was too much of an outlier with other poll results.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
However, it was reported that pollsters had in fact picked up a late swing to Labour immediately prior to polling day, not the Conservatives. It was reported after the election that private pollsters working for the two largest parties actually gathered more accurate results, with Labour's pollster James Morris claiming that the issue was largely to do with surveying technique.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
Morris claimed that telephone polls that immediately asked for voting intentions tended to get a high "Don't know" or anti-government reaction, whereas longer telephone conversations conducted by private polls that collected other information such as views on the leaders' performances placed voters in a much better mode to give their true voting intentions. Another theory was the issue of 'shy Tories' not wanting to openly declare their intention to vote Conservative to pollsters. A final theory, put forward after the election, was the 'Lazy Labour' factor, which claimed that Labour voters tend to not vote on polling day whereas Conservative voters have a much higher turnout.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
The British Polling Council announced an inquiry into the substantial variance between the opinion polls and the actual election result. The inquiry published preliminary findings in January 2016, concluding that "the ways in which polling samples are constructed was the primary cause of the polling miss". Their final report was published in March 2016.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Opinion polling, Opinion polling inaccuracies and scrutiny
The British Election Study team have suggested that weighting error appears to be the cause.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results
After all 650 constituencies had been declared, the results were:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results
The following table shows final election results as reported by BBC News and The Guardian.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Geographic voting distribution
One result of the 2015 general election was that a different political party won the popular vote in each of the countries of the United Kingdom. This was reflected in terms of MPs elected:The Conservatives won in England with 319 MPs out of 533 constituencies, the SNP won in Scotland with 56 out of 59, Labour won in Wales with 25 out of 40, and the Democratic Unionist Party won in Northern Ireland with 8 out of 18.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
Despite most opinion polls predicting that the Conservatives and Labour were neck and neck, the Conservatives secured a surprise victory after having won a clear lead over their rivals and incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron was able to form a majority single-party government with a working majority of 12 (in practice increased to 15 due to Sinn Féin's four MPs' abstention). Thus the result bore resemblance to 1992. The Conservatives gained 38 seats while losing 10, all to Labour; Employment Minister Esther McVey, in Wirral West, was the most senior Conservative to lose her seat.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
Cameron became the first Prime Minister since Lord Salisbury in 1900 to increase his popular vote share after a full term, and is sometimes credited as being the only Prime Minister other than Margaret Thatcher (in 1983) to be re-elected with a greater number of seats for his party after a 'full term'.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
The Labour Party polled below expectations, winning 30.4% of the vote and 232 seats, 24 fewer than its previous result in 2010—even though in 222 constituencies there was a Conservative-to-Labour swing, as against 151 constituencies where there was a Labour-to-Conservative swing. Its net loss of seats were mainly a result of its resounding defeat in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party took 40 of Labour's 41 seats, unseating key politicians such as shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. Labour gained some seats in London and other major cities, but lost a further nine seats to the Conservatives, recording its lowest share of the seats since the 1987 general election. Ed Miliband subsequently tendered his resignation as Labour leader.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
The Scottish National Party had a stunning election, rising from just 6 seats to 56 – winning all but 3 of the constituencies in Scotland and securing 50% of the popular vote in Scotland. They recorded a number of record breaking swings of over 30% including the new record of 39.3% in Glasgow North East. They also won the seat of former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, overturning a majority of 23,009 to win by a majority of 9,974 votes and saw Mhairi Black, then a 20-year-old student, defeat Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander with a swing of 26.9%.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
The Liberal Democrats, who had been in government as coalition partners, suffered the worst defeat they or the previous Liberal Party had suffered since the 1970 general election. Winning just eight seats, the Liberal Democrats lost their position as the UK's third party and found themselves tied in fourth place with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland in the House of Commons, with Nick Clegg being one of the few MPs from his party to retain his seat. The Liberal Democrats gained no seats, while losing 49 in the process—of them, 27 to the Conservatives, 12 to Labour, and 10 to the SNP. The party also lost their deposit in 341 seats, the same number as in every general election from 1979 to 2010 combined.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) was only able to hold one of its two seats, Clacton, gaining no new ones despite increasing its vote share to 12.9% (the third-highest share overall). Party leader Nigel Farage, having failed to win the constituency of South Thanet, tendered his resignation, although this was rejected by his party's executive council and he stayed on as leader.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Outcome
In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two MPs after a five-year absence, gaining one seat from the Democratic Unionist Party and one from Sinn Féin, while the Alliance Party lost its only Commons seat to the DUP, despite an increase in total vote share.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Voter demographics, Ipsos MORI
Ipsos MORI polling after the election suggested the following demographic breakdown:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Voter demographics, YouGov
YouGov polling after the election suggested the following demographic breakdown:


2015 United Kingdom general election, Results, Gender
The election led to an increase in the number of female MPs, to 191 (29% of the total, including 99 Labour; 68 Conservative; 20 SNP; 4 other) from 147 (23% of the total, including 87 Labour; 47 Conservative; 7 Liberal Democrat; 1 SNP; 5 other). As before the election, the region with the largest proportion of women MPs was North East England.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Open seats changing hands, Seats which changed allegiance
111 seats changed hands compared to the result in 2010 plus three by-election gains reverted to the party that won the seat at the last general election in 2010 (Bradford West, Corby and Rochester and Strood).


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Resignations
On 8 May, three party leaders announced their resignations within an hour of each other: 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. 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", and Farage agreed to continue as party leader.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Resignations
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.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Resignations
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 by 16 May.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Financial markets
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.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Financial markets
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."


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Electoral reform
The disparity between the numbers of votes and the number of seats obtained by the smaller parties gave rise to increased calls for replacement of the 'first-past-the-post' voting system with a more proportional system. For example, UKIP had 3.9 million votes per seat, whereas SNP had just 26,000 votes per seat, about 150 times greater representation for each vote cast. It is worth noting, however, that UKIP stood in 10 times as many seats as the SNP. Noting that UKIP's 13% share of the overall votes cast had resulted in the election of just one MP, Nigel Farage argued that the UK's voting system needed reforming, saying: "Personally, I think the first-past-the-post system is bankrupt."


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Electoral reform
Re -elected Green Party MP Caroline Lucas agreed, saying: "The political system in this country is broken [...] It's ever clearer tonight that the time for electoral reform is long overdue, and it's only proportional representation that will deliver a Parliament that is truly legitimate and better reflects the people it is meant to represent."


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Daily Telegraph investigation of abuse of Wikipedia
Following the election, The Daily Telegraph detailed changes to Wikipedia pages made from computers with IP addresses inside Parliament raising suspicion that "MPs or their political parties deliberately hid information from the public online to make candidates appear more electable to voters" and a deliberate attempt to hide embarrassing information from the electorate.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Telegraph Media Group fined
On 21 December 2015, the UK Information Commissioner's Office fined the Telegraph Media Group £30,000 for sending 'hundreds of thousands of emails on the day of the general election urging readers to vote Conservative ... in a letter from Daily Telegraph editor Chris Evans, attached to the paper's usual morning e-bulletin'. The ICO concluded that subscribers had not expressed their consent to receive this kind of direct marketing.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Election petition
Four electors from Orkney and Shetland lodged an election petition on 29 May 2015 attempting to unseat Alistair Carmichael and force a by-election over what became known as 'Frenchgate'. The issue centred around the leaking of a memo from the Scotland Office about comments allegedly made by the French ambassador Sylvie Bermann about Nicola Sturgeon, claiming that Sturgeon had privately stated she would "rather see David Cameron remain as PM", in contrast to her publicly stated opposition to a Conservative government. The veracity of the memo was quickly denied by the French ambassador, French consul general and Sturgeon.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Election petition
At the time of the leak, Carmichael denied all knowledge of the leaking of the memo in a television interview with Channel 4 News. but after the election Carmichael accepted the contents of the memo were incorrect, admitted that he had lied, and that he had authorised the leaking of the inaccurate memo to the media after a Cabinet Office enquiry identified Carmichael's role in the leak. On 9 December, an Election Court decided that although he had told a "blatant lie" in a TV interview, it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that he had committed an "illegal practice" under the Representation of the People Act and he was allowed to retain his seat.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Party election spending investigations
At national party level, the Electoral Commission fined the three largest parties for breaches of spending regulations, levying the highest fines since its foundation: £20,000 for Labour in October 2016, £20,000 for the Liberal Democrats in December 2016, and £70,000 for the Conservative Party in March 2017.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Party election spending investigations
The higher fine for the Conservatives reflected both the extent of the wrongdoing (which extended to the 2014 parliamentary by-elections in Clacton, Newark and Rochester and Strood) and 'the unreasonable uncooperative conduct by the Party'. The commission also found that the Party Treasurer, Simon Day, may not have fulfilled his obligations under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and referred him for investigation to the Metropolitan Police Service.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Party election spending investigations
At constituency level, related alleged breaches of spending regulations led to 'unprecedented' police investigations for possible criminal conduct of between 20 and 30 Conservative Party MPs. On 9 May 2017, the Crown Prosecution service decided not to prosecute the vast majority of suspects, saying that "in order to bring a charge, it must be proved that a suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration. Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest."


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Party election spending investigations
On 2 June 2017, charges were brought under the Representation of the People Act 1983 against Craig Mackinlay, who was elected Conservative MP for South Thanet in 2015, his agent Nathan Gray, and a party activist, Marion Little. Appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 July 2017, the three pleased not guilty and were released on unconditional bail pending an appearance at Southwark Crown Court on 1 August 2017. The investigation of Party Treasurer Simon Day remained ongoing.


2015 United Kingdom general election, Aftermath, Party election spending investigations
In 2016–18, the European Parliament found that UKIP had unlawfully spent over €173,000 of EU funding on the party's 2015 UK election campaign, via the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe and the affiliated Institute for Direct Democracy. The Parliament required the repayment of the mis-spent funds and denied the organisations some other funding. It also found that UKIP MEPs had unlawfully spent EU money on other assistance for national campaigning purposes during 2014-16 and docked their salaries to recoup the mis-spent funds.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates
The 2015 United Kingdom general election debates were a series of four live television programmes featuring the leaders of seven main British parties that took place during the run-up to the general election. They each featured different formats and participants.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates
The first was a one-on-one programme between David Cameron, Prime Minister (Conservative Party), and Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition (Labour Party). The second featured Cameron, Miliband, Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister (Liberal Democrats), Nigel Farage (UKIP), Natalie Bennett (Green Party of England and Wales), Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland (SNP), and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru). The third debate featured the leaders of the five opposition parties: Miliband, Farage, Bennett, Sturgeon, and Wood. The final programme's participants were Cameron, Miliband, and Clegg. Only the Labour Party's Miliband participated in all four events.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates
The formats and participants were arrived at after a lengthy process. Following the result of the election, a survey of 3,019 people, carried out by Panelbase, found that 38% of voters considered the debates to have influenced their voting intention.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background
The first series of televised leaders' debates in the United Kingdom were held in the previous election. Broadcasters proposed another series of televised debates in the run up to the 2015 election, although in a different format. The suggestion was that the debates should take place during the early stages of the campaign, before April. Cameron suggested that the televised debates should take place before the campaign itself, as he felt that the 2010 debates overshadowed the rest of the campaign; he was, however, still positive towards them taking place.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background
There was media speculation from individuals such as Michael Crick of Channel 4 News as to who may be included in the debates. He suggested that if UKIP did not receive sufficient coverage, they could make a legal case against broadcasters that under-represent the party, if the leaders of the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats are included. Prime Minister David Cameron had dismissed the call for UKIP's participation. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband said in January 2013 that the composition of each debate was a matter for the media organisations.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background
In the run-up to the European Parliament election, 2014, there were two debates between the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg and the UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. According to polling, Mr Farage is reported to have comfortably won both debates and this prompted further speculation that Farage could or should be invited to take part in the debates ahead of the general election. UKIP won the European elections, topping the poll. This further strengthened Farage's case and increased calls for UKIP to be represented in such TV debates.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background
In October 2014, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News announced joint plans for three debates, one with just the leaders of the Conservative and Labour parties, a second also including the Liberal Democrats, and a third including UKIP. Several other parties represented in the Commons complained at their exclusion from this plan. On 30 October the Green Party were informed by the BBC that their requests to be included in TV debates was rejected. However, the Green Party did not give up, and were boosted by the existence of a petition in support of their inclusion with over 275,000 signatures.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background
David Cameron then said that he would not take part unless the Greens did. As a result of this combined pressure, ITV and the BBC published revised plans in January 2015, including the Greens, as well as the SNP and Plaid Cymru (who only stand in Scotland and Wales respectively). Many of the Northern Irish political parties then made statements requesting their inclusion in the debates. Sinn Féin sought legal advice, while the Democratic Unionist Party wrote to the BBC and ITV demanding their inclusion. George Galloway, the sole MP for the Respect Party, also argued for his inclusion, on the basis that Respect then had the same number of MPs as the Greens. The DUP's formal complaint was rejected by the BBC.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, Early proposals and arrangements
On 9 May 2014—almost exactly a year before the election date—David Cameron proposed a five-way debate, with the leaders of "all the main parties". This would be followed up by a separate "head to head" debate between himself and Labour's Ed Miliband. This itself was an adjustment from an earlier proposal of Cameron for three debates.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, Early proposals and arrangements
During October that year, all four main broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky announced joint plans for multi-platform party leader debates in the run up to the 2015 general election. Three debates would have taken place within the six-week campaign period, at a time when the parties were to be setting out their policies, to help further engage the audience with the election. The proposal entailed debates at fortnightly intervals on 2 April, 16 April and 30 April at locations around the UK.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, Early proposals and arrangements
In January 2015, ITV and the BBC published revised plans for the television election debates to include seven main UK political parties' leaders. The revised proposals would see the debates being held on Thursdays: 2, 16, and 30 April 2015, during the general election campaign.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, Early proposals and arrangements
Warnings were given from all the broadcasters that if the leaders failed to turn up an 'empty chair' would be used instead.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, Early proposals and arrangements
On 23 February 2015, the broadcasters agreed on three debates:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
On 4 March 2015 David Cameron stated, in what was described as a "final offer", that he would only participate in a single debate, involving the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the SNP, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and possibly the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He also said that the debate must occur before the start of the short campaign, i.e. before 30 March 2015.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
His announcement effectively ruled out the proposed one on one debate between Ed Miliband and the Prime Minister, and raised the prospect of Cameron being "empty chaired" in debates involving other party leaders but not him. On 6 March, the broadcasters confirmed that they intended to go ahead with all three debates. In response to the possibility of Cameron being "empty chaired", Ofcom warned that broadcasters had to be careful about impartiality rules.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
The Telegraph and The Guardian, in association with Google and YouTube, then announced that they intended to hold an internet-broadcast live debate, which was planned to feature David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage,and Natalie Bennett, and had issued an invitation to the five party leaders. The debate was to be held on 26 or 27 March (before the short campaign, as favoured by the Conservatives). The Liberal Democrats nominally expressed their intention to participate; however there was concern that the absence of the SNP might prove to be an obstacle. UKIP categorically agreed to participate. Conservative chairman Grant Shapps expressed that he was in favour. However, without any formal agreement forthcoming, the organisers wrote to David Cameron on 17 March asking for his commitment. The debate did not take place.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
That day, the Conservatives accepted the offer of a single, 7-way debate to be broadcast on ITV on 2 April, with the other two planned debates cancelled. According to the Conservatives, they were approached with a new 4-programme plan, which was reported to be:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
The Liberal Democrats accepted these proposals, but Nick Clegg has said he still hoped for a four-way leaders debate involving the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP (as the four main parties as defined by Ofcom). However, Labour and UKIP responded that they are only aware of the prior proposal from the broadcasters for three debates, which they still supported. The SNP, likewise, called on Cameron to take part in the three debates previously proposed. Commentators argued that the new proposed format would be better for the Conservatives than having three debates including a head-to-head with Miliband.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Planning and negotiations, March 2015
Negotiations continued, with the broadcasters offering to include Labour in the 16 April debate. A final settlement was reached on 21 March. The agreed schedule was only a slight modification of the 17 March proposal, with the "challenger party" debates now featuring Ed Miliband instead of a representative from the DUP, with resistance from the DUP. The final plan was thus:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Background, Impact
The controversies around the initial planned exclusion of the Greens from the debates coincided with rapid increases in membership of the Green parties, and increase in their opinion poll ratings. The party referred to this increase as "The Green Surge", their membership surpassing that of UKIP or the Liberal Democrats by mid-January.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March)
Channel 4, Sky and the BBC News Channel broadcast the first programme on 26 March. Miliband, having won the toss, chose to go second, so this programme consisted of Jeremy Paxman interviewing Cameron, Cameron facing questions from a studio audience (moderated by Kay Burley), Miliband facing the audience, and finally Paxman interviewing Miliband.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March)
The programme was recorded in Studios 4 & 5 at Sky Studios in Isleworth.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March), Response
Average viewing figures for the show were 2.6 million on Channel 4 (11.7% of the TV audience) and 322,000 on Sky News. Several hundred complaints were received by Channel 4 and Ofcom claiming the programme was biased against Miliband.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March), Response
According to the Evening Standard the next day, Cameron was "widely deemed to have edged ahead". A Guardian/ICM instant poll found 54% thought Cameron had won to 46% for Miliband, while a YouGov "Instant Reaction" survey found 51% for Cameron and 49% for Miliband. A subsequent regular YouGov poll found that among undecided voters, 49% thought Milband had done best to 35% for Cameron. The Centre for the Analysis of Social Media concluded the social media reaction was more favourable towards Miliband. Newsnight's political editor called Miliband the winner.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March), Response
Labour's election polling improved after the programme in one poll and was better among those who watched it with YouGov, but Miliband's and Labour's polling worsened with ComRes and other polling failed to show any impact of the debate.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April)
A two-hour debate between seven party leaders was hosted by ITV News anchor Julie Etchingham on 2 April at dock10 studios in Salford. They were positioned on the stage as follows (left to right):


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April)
The order in which each leader delivered their opening statement was decided by lots, with the order being Bennett, Farage, Clegg, Sturgeon, Cameron, Wood, and Miliband.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
The audience for the debate averaged about 7 million, peaking at 7.4 million.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
Several polling organisations surveyed those who had viewed the debate immediately afterwards to select who they believed "won" the debate.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
On a forced choice between Cameron and Miliband, Survation found Cameron the winner.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
There were 1.4 million tweets about the debate, with the most tweeted moment being Farage's comments about HIV+ immigrants. Sturgeon's Twitter account received most mentions, followed by Farage, Bennett, Miliband, Wood, Cameron and Clegg. An IPSOS Mori analysis of tweets found them most favourable towards Sturgeon, then Wood, Bennett, Miliband and Clegg tied, Farage and least favourable to Cameron.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
The Democratic Unionist Party, which is a Northern Irish unionist party, was not included on the television debates. Nigel Dodds, the Deputy Leader for the Party, said that:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, The ITV Leaders' Debate (2 April), Response
It is wrong that Northern Ireland should be excluded [from the TV debates], after all the Democratic Unionist Party has 8 MPs currently in the outgoing parliament and we're going to play a very crucial role in the next parliament. We're bigger than four of the other parties that were included in the debate, so I think that it's only fair and proper that all regions of the United Kingdom are represented.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, BBC Election Debate 2015 (16 April)
A debate between five opposition party leaders hosted by David Dimbleby was shown on BBC1 on 16 April. It was also available on the BBC News and Sky News channels. The debate was held at the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London. The leaders involved were:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, BBC Election Debate 2015 (16 April)
The other parties criticised Cameron's absence from the debate. Clegg, despite wishing to attend, was also omitted from the debate, with reports saying Cameron blocked his presence, but Conservative Party sources said the decision was the broadcasters'.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, BBC Election Debate 2015 (16 April), Response
Across all three channels, 8.8 million watched at least a portion of the programme.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, BBC Election Debate 2015 (16 April), Response
Miliband was judged to have won the debate in a snap poll from Survation, with 35% to Sturgeon on 31%, Farage on 27%, Bennett on 5% and then Wood on 2%. The most mentioned on Twitter was Miliband, followed by Sturgeon.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, BBC Election Debate 2015 (16 April), Allegations of Audience Bias
During the 16 April debate, Nigel Farage accused the BBC of a left-wing bias in selecting the studio audience. The BBC explained that the audience had not been selected by them, but by an independent polling organisation in such a way as to give a balanced audience.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Question Time special (30 April)
David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg were the featured in a BBC Question Time special programme at Leeds Town Hall on 30 April presented by David Dimbleby from 20:00 BST to 21:30 BST. Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood were each featured in separate question and answer events hosted by the BBC after the Question Time special programme. These events were broadcast that night by the BBC and Sky News channels. In each event the host asked members of the audience to ask the party leaders various pre-prepared questions about varying topics. The audience in each event was sorted by their political affiliation and the topic of their questions.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Question Time special (30 April), Question Time with David Dimbleby
David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg were each were given about half an hour to answer questions from the audience while David Dimbleby moderated. At this event, David Cameron refused to rule out cutting child benefits. Ed Miliband declared that he would either be Prime Minister with a majority of seats in Parliament or not be in power at all rather than form a coalition with the Scottish National Party.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Question Time special (30 April), Question Time with David Dimbleby, Response
An instant Guardian/ICM poll declared that Cameron had 'won the debate' with 44% - Ed Miliband came second with 38% and Nick Clegg finished last with 19%.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Question Time special (30 April), Ask...
Nicola Sturgeon was given about half an hour to answer questions from an audience at the BBC's Scotland Headquarters in Glasgow. Ask Nicola Sturgeon was broadcast at 21:30 BST on BBC1 in Scotland.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Question Time special (30 April), Ask...
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and UKIP leader Nigel Farage recorded half-hour programmes earlier in the day. Their programmes were called Ask Leanne Wood and Ask Nigel Farage, and were recorded in Cardiff and Birmingham respectively. Ask Leanne Wood was broadcast on BBC1 in Wales at 22:45 BST. Ask Nigel Farage was broadcast on BBC1 in England at 22:45 BST, and on BBC1 in Wales at 23:10 BST.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Scotland, Scotland Debates (7 April)
STV broadcast the first Scottish Leaders Debate in the run up to the general election, which was moderated by STV's political correspondent Bernard Ponsonby. The debate took place at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh between:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Scotland, Scotland Debates (7 April)
The Scottish Green Party protested that it was unfair that they were excluded from this debate.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Scotland, The Leaders' Debate - Scotland  (8 April)
This BBC Scotland debate took place in the Elphinstone Hall in Aberdeen University. It was moderated by James Cook. It included six Scottish Party Leaders:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Scotland, Sunday Politics Scotland Debate (12 April)
The 40-minute debate, with Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson, Willie Rennie and Nicola Sturgeon, was broadcast on Sunday Politics Scotland. The debate was criticised, with many of the public claiming it was a "shambles".


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Scotland, The Leaders' Debate (3 May)
This debate was shown on BBC One Scotland, BBC News and BBC Parliament. It featured representatives from the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the SNP, and was hosted by Glenn Campbell at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, Newsnight in Northern Ireland (16 April 2015)
Newsnight hosted a political debate between the representatives of Northern Ireland's five largest parties. It was held in Broadcasting House in Belfast and hosted by Evan Davis. The participants were as follows:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, Newsnight in Northern Ireland (16 April 2015)
This was broadcast on 16 April 2015, the same night the BBC Election Debate at Westminster. This was seen as an attempt by the BBC to include the Northern Ireland parties in the UK general election as they were not included in the nationwide BBC or ITV debates although the local debates organised by BBC NI and UTV were to be broadcast across the rest of the UK. The debate was televised live from Belfast on BBC One Northern Ireland and on BBC Two across the rest of the United Kingdom.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, UTV Debate
UTV held a one-hour election debate on 28 April 2015 from 8pm-9pm presented from UTV studios in Belfast by Mark Mallett featuring the 5 main Northern Ireland Parties. The participants were;


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, UTV Debate
UTV held a second half-hour election debate on 28 April 2015 from 10.45pm-11.15pm presented from UTV studios in Belfast by Mark Mallett featuring the smaller Parties standing in Northern Ireland. The participants were:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, UTV Debate
The first debate featuring the main 5 Northern Ireland parties was broadcast later that evening on the national ITV network after the News at Ten, but not by STV.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, BBC NI Debate
BBC Northern Ireland held a primetime TV debate between the main Northern Ireland parties: DUP, Sinn Féin, SDLP, UUP and Alliance. and this happened just 2 days before the Election on Tuesday 5 May 2015. The debate was chaired by Noel Thompson. The participants were;


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland, BBC NI Debate
The debate was broadcast Live on BBC One Northern Ireland between 8pm-9.15pm and simulcast on the BBC News Channel, following the debate BBC Northern Ireland broadcast reaction between 9.15pm-10pm with Tara Mills. The debate was also broadcast at 11.20pm on BBC Two across the rest of the United Kingdom following Newsnight.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Wales, Wales Election Debate
A televised debate took place 22 April 2015, It was held at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. The debate was between:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Wales, Wales Election Debate
It was broadcast live on ITV Wales between 8pm and 10pm.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Wales, The Wales Report: The Leaders Election Debate
BBC Wales televised debate took place 1 May 2015, It was held at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, chaired by Huw Edwards. The participants were:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Debates for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, Wales, The Wales Report: The Leaders Election Debate
It was broadcast live on BBC One Wales between 8.30pm-10pm on 1 May 2015.


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Daily Politics debates
During the run up to the general election, the Daily Politics held a series of special editions of the programme featuring debates moderated by Andrew Neil and another BBC correspondent and involving representatives from several political parties. They were:


2015 United Kingdom general election debates, Regional debates
Regional debates were also been held by the BBC, featuring local correspondents and local politicians from the main political parties. They were broadcast simultaneously in each of England's regions on 29 April at 10:50pm. They were:


2015 United Kingdom general election in England
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in England was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 for 533 English seats to the House of Commons. The Conservatives won a majority of seats in England for the second time since 1992.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England
Both major parties made gains at the expense of the Liberal Democrats, whose support collapsed to its lowest level since 1970. Their vote share declined by 16 percentage points, and the party lost 37 of its 43 seats. The party won 6 seats and 8% of the vote overall. This was the worst result for the Lib Dems or the Liberals in 45 years, while the 16-point drop in vote share was the biggest decline in Lib Dem or Liberal support since 1931.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England
Although Labour increased their share of the vote by 4% and gained 15 seats, the Conservatives made 21 gains for a total of 318, including winning 6 seats directly from Labour. Together with seats from Scotland and Wales, this allowed the Conservatives to form a majority government with 330 seats, leading to the first majority Conservative government since 1992.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Political context
The general election was fought with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats having been in coalition since 2010, with Labour being the main opposition, though with the Conservatives holding the majority of English seats. It was also fought following the victory of the UK Independence Party at the European Parliament Elections and in two by-elections the year before, along with George Galloway of the Respect Party having won the 2012 Bradford West by-election from Labour.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Results summary, Analysis
The Conservatives emerged as the largest party, increasing both their seats and votes. They took seats both from the Liberal Democrats and from the Labour Party, as well as holding on to many of their key marginal seats.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Results summary, Analysis
Labour increased its numbers both in number of votes and seats after making gains against the Liberal Democrats, along with limited gains against the Conservatives, but failed to become the largest party. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls lost his seat in Morley and Outwood to the Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns, whilst Ed Miliband resigned as Labour leader.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Results summary, Analysis
The Liberal Democrats lost the vast majority of their seats, going from 43 seats down to just 6. Leader Nick Clegg, who saw his nearly 30-point majority in Sheffield Hallam massively reduced to 4.2%, resigned on the morning of the election results.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Results summary, Analysis
UKIP made large gains in the percentage of votes, but failed to retain Rochester and Strood or take any other seats, leading to the resignation of party leader Nigel Farage. His resignation was rejected, however, and he subsequently stayed on.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Results summary, Analysis
The Green Party increased their share of the vote and held Brighton Pavilion, but failed to gain any new seats.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Regional results
Regional vote shares and changes are sourced from the House of Commons Library.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Target seats
The recorded swing in each case is calculated as two-way swing from the party that won in 2010 to the party targeting the seat. Negative swing implies that the targeting party lost votes to the incumbent party.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Target seats, Green Party
Swing for the Greens is measured as one-party swing, i.e. the change in the party's share of the vote.


2015 United Kingdom general election in England, Donations
Electoral commission data shows that in 2015 Q2, total donations for each major political party, over £7,500, are as follows:


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 18 seats were contested. 1,236,765 people were eligible to vote, up 67,581 from the 2010 general election. 58.45% of eligible voters turned out, an increase of half a percentage point from the last general election. This election saw the return of Ulster Unionists to the House of Commons, after they targeted 4 seats but secured 2.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Debate
A political debate was held between the leaders of the five main parties in Northern Ireland: the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour Party and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland as part of BBC Newsnight on 16 April 2015.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Constituencies and MPs
Northern Ireland returned eighteen members of parliament to House of Commons, one for each of its 18 parliamentary constituencies.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results
In total, three seats changed hands in Northern Ireland – Belfast East, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and South Antrim.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Unionists
Prior to the election, the two main unionist parties – the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) – had agreed not to stand against each other in certain seats. The DUP stood aside in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, and in Newry and Armagh, while the UUP did not contest Belfast East and Belfast North.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Unionists
The DUP retained their position as the largest unionist party, and also overtook Sinn Féin to once again poll the largest number of votes in Northern Ireland (they had last achieved this in 2005, with Sinn Féin taking the top position in 2010). The DUP succeeded in re-taking one of the unionist pact seats – Belfast East – which party leader Peter Robinson had lost to the Alliance Party's Naomi Long in 2010. Gavin Robinson (no relation to Peter) won the seat with a majority of over 2,500 votes. Elsewhere, the DUP retained Belfast North where the UUP had also stood aside, as well as East Antrim, East Londonderry, Lagan Valley, North Antrim, Strangford and Upper Bann.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Unionists
In a surprise result, the UUP gained South Antrim from the DUP, where Danny Kinahan defeated veteran MP William McCrea by 949 votes. They also gained Fermanagh and South Tyrone from Sinn Féin, as former leader Tom Elliott took the seat from Michelle Gildernew by 530 votes. The seat had been the site of a unionist pact in 2010, when the DUP and UUP both supported an independent candidate, who went on to be defeated by Gildernew by just four votes. The two seats for the UUP marked their best election since 2001, and they also managed to increase their vote share slightly to overtake the SDLP into third place in Northern Ireland.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Unionists
No other unionist parties won seats, with Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) seeing their vote fall by almost 10,000 (though with three fewer candidates). TUV did however retain second place in North Antrim, though they remained over 11,000 votes behind the DUP. They also saved their deposit in three other seats. The United Kingdom Independence Party contested their first general election in Northern Ireland. They polled 18,000 votes in ten constituencies, saving their deposit in four. Their best performance came in East Antrim where they won nearly 11% of the vote.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Unionists
The Northern Ireland Conservatives were contesting a general election as a separate party for the first time since 2005 (they had previously entered into an electoral alliance with the UUP). The party stood in 16 constituencies (not in Belfast North and Fermanagh and South Tyrone), polling just over 9,000 votes in total. They kept their deposit in one seat – Strangford.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Nationalists
Sinn Féin were the second largest Northern Ireland party, and the largest nationalist party in terms of both votes and seats, despite their loss of Fermanagh and South Tyrone and a small drop in vote share. They easily retained Belfast West, Mid Ulster and West Tyrone – the first of these being the safest seat in Northern Ireland with a 35% majority. In Newry and Armagh, new candidate Mickey Brady saw off the UUP's Danny Kennedy despite the unionist unity pact in the constituency. Brady secured a majority of over 4,000 votes, though this was about half the Sinn Féin majority in 2010.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Nationalists
The SDLP came fourth in terms of vote, but third in terms of seats. They saw the largest change in vote share for any of the four largest parties – a decrease of 2.6 percentage points. They retained both Foyle and South Down in the face of strong Sinn Féin challenges. In South Down, Margaret Ritchie was re-elected with a majority reduced from over 8,000 to just under 6,000, although her colleague Mark Durkan in Foyle saw a small swing to the SDLP. Party leader Alasdair McDonnell narrowly retained Belfast South with just 9,560 votes (a share of only 24.5% – the lowest of any winning candidate in the UK in 2015). The DUP came second with 22%, followed by the Alliance Party on 17% and Sinn Féin on 14%.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Independents and other parties
Independent MP Sylvia Hermon polled 17,689 votes to retain her North Down seat, though with a reduced majority of 9,202 (down from over 14,000 in 2010). Four other independent candidates stood, taking 1,508 votes between them.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Independents and other parties
The Alliance Party saw a growth in support, going from 6.4% to 8.6% of the vote. They retained their deposit in 10 of the 18 constituencies, and even managed to secure an increase in their vote of 5.6% in Belfast East, which they lost to the DUP. Apart from Belfast East, their best performances were in Belfast South where they took 17%, followed by East Antrim at 15%.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Independents and other parties
The Green Party stood five candidates – one more than in 2010. They polled 6,822 votes, a 1% share of the NI total. Belfast South provided their best result at 5.7%, while party leader Steven Agnew took 5.4% in North Down. The People Before Profit Alliance stood a single candidate, Gerry Carroll, in Belfast West. He had previously contested the by-election in 2011 where he came third with 8% of the vote. In 2015 he substantially improved on this result, coming second behind Sinn Féin with 6,798 votes, or 19%.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Independents and other parties
Two parties contested the 2015 election who had not stood in 2010 – the Workers' Party stood five candidates and polled 2,724 votes, and Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol had four candidates who polled a total of 1,853 votes. Neither of these parties retained any deposits.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland, Results, Full results
Note that in 2010, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Northern Ireland Conservatives formed an electoral alliance in which their candidates stood as "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force". The UUP vote in the table above is compared to the UCU-NF vote in 2010. The NI Conservatives who contested the 2015 election as a separate entity are treated in the table as a new party.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 59 seats were contested under the first-past-the-post electoral system. Unlike the 2010 general election, where no seats changed party, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won all but three seats in Scotland in an unprecedented landslide victory, gaining a total of 56 seats and taking the largest share of the Scottish vote in sixty years, at exactly 50 per cent.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
The Labour Party suffered its worst ever election defeat in Scotland, losing 40 of the 41 seats they were defending, including the seats of Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and the then Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander. The Liberal Democrats lost ten of the eleven seats they were defending, with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander and former leader Charles Kennedy losing their seats.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
The election also saw the worst performance by the Conservative Party, which received its lowest share of the vote since its creation in 1965, although it retained the one seat that it previously held. In all, 50 of the 59 seats changed party, 49 of them being won by first-time MPs.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
The general election in Scotland was fought in the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, in which 1,617,989 voters (44.7%) backed independence while 2,001,926 (55.3%) did not. The referendum saw a record turnout of 84.59%, the "highest turnout in any nationwide ballot in Scotland since the advent of the mass franchise after the First World War". There was speculation as to whether this would significantly affect the turnout in the general election. An immediate consequence of the referendum was a massive rise in the membership of the pro-independence parties, with the SNP in particular adding 60,000 to its membership to reach over 85,000 within two months of the referendum.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
Since 2005, the Scottish National Party had come first in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election as well as the 2009 European Election. In Westminster, however, it was a different story; although the party won the Glasgow East by-election in 2008, which was one of the safest Labour seats in the UK, by the time of the 2010 UK election and even with an increase of 2.3% in the vote, it only managed to retain the seats it won in the 2005 election.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
A year later in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the SNP became the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system used to elect MSPs makes the acquisition of a one-party majority challenging. The SNP gained 32 constituencies, 22 of which came from Scottish Labour, nine from the Scottish Liberal Democrats and one from the Scottish Conservatives. Such was the scale of their gains that, of the 73 constituencies in Scotland, only 20 were represented by MSPs of other political parties in 2011.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
The SNP's majority in the Scottish Parliament allowed it to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence. This was held in 2014, and the proposal for independence was defeated by 10.6 percentage points. In spite of this, the campaign in favour of independence made a set of significant in roads across the central belt of Scotland, a region which has traditionally had a strong affiliation with the Labour Party. The Yes campaign took 44.7% of the vote in Scotland on a high turnout of 84.6%: well beyond the SNP's 19.9% vote share at the 2010 UK general election. This took form at the 2015 UK general election with a saturation of the SNP vote in areas which had a higher "Yes" vote at the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
Scottish Labour had held the majority of seats in Scotland in every general election since the 1960s. This is usually attributed to the North-South divide in British politics, where Scotland and Northern England tend to return mostly Labour MPs whereas the South of England tends to vote mostly for the Conservatives. Many prominent government officials represented Scottish constituencies, such as the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Chancellor Alistair Darling.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
In the 2010 election, the Labour Party in Scotland increased its share of the vote by 2.5% and re-gained the Glasgow East and Dunfermline and West Fife constituencies giving them 41 out of 59 seats in Scotland. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Labour lost out to the SNP across much of the central belt of Scotland, holding on to 15 out of 73 constituency seats in Scotland.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
In 2015 Labour lost 40 of its 41 Scottish constituencies at the UK Parliament, with Edinburgh South becoming the only constituency in Scotland to have a Labour MP after the election. The party lost out heavily to the SNP in working class areas around central Scotland, with Scottish Labour's safest constituency (Glasgow North East) returning the largest swing in the election at 39.3% from Labour to SNP. The party performed best in its more affluent constituencies, with Scottish Labour's leader Jim Murphy missing out in his former constituency of East Renfrewshire by just 6.6% of the vote. Labour's next closest constituency result came in Edinburgh North and Leith, where the missed out to they SNP by 9.6% of the vote, and in East Lothian, where the SNP polled ahead of Labour by 11.5% of the vote.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
In the context of a broader collapse in the party's support across Great Britain at the end five years as part of a coalition UK Government with the conservatives, the Scottish Liberal Democrats lost 10 of its 11 Westminster constituencies from 2010, with its safest constituency in Great Britain - Orkney and Shetland - becoming the only Liberal Democrat constituency in Scotland. They marginally lost out to the SNP in East Dunbartonshire, where former Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson lost out to the SNP by 4% of the vote. Among those to lose their constituency at the election were former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. The Liberal Democrats came third in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, constituencies which they had held in the previous election.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
The Scottish Conservatives have not held a majority of Scottish seats in a general election since 1955 and it lost all eleven of its seats in the election of 1997. From 2001 until 2017, the party only held one Westminster seat in Scotland. In 2005, following the re-organisation of Scottish constituencies, that seat was Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, a mostly rural constituency near the Scottish borders. In 2010 its share of the vote in Scotland increased by roughly 0.9% and it retained the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, as its only Scottish constituency. It had been reported the party could gain Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, a seat which they lost out on to the SNP by 0.6% of the vote.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
Minor parties such as the UKIP and the Scottish Greens announced that they would contest more Scottish seats than they did in the 2010 election. UKIP targeted the sole Conservative seat in Scotland, as well as standing candidates in several others. The British National Party also announced its intention to contest more seats than in 2010, though in the event did not stand a single candidate in a Scottish constituency. The Scottish Socialist Party stood in four constituencies.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Political context
The prospect of an electoral alliance between pro-independence parties—specifically the SNP, the Greens, and the Scottish Socialist Party—was raised after the referendum and supported by elected SNP politicians, but played down by Green co-convenor Patrick Harvie, who said party members did not want their "distinctive Green perspective" to be lost. The SSP supported negotiations for a formal alliance until late in 2014.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Campaign events, Television debates
As in 2010, there were televised debates ahead of the election, featuring the leaders of the four main Scottish parties. The first debate was broadcast on STV on 7 April. The second debate was held on BBC One Scotland on 8 April with additional representatives from the Scottish Greens and UKIP. A follow up date a few days later took place on Sunday Politics Scotland, The debate was criticised, with many of the public claiming it was a "shambles". The Last debate took place on 3 May.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Scotland, Individual MPs, Re-elected MPs
Of the 59 sitting MPs from Scotland at the dissolution of Parliament, 52 stood for re-election, but only 9 were successful:


2015 United Kingdom general election in Wales
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Wales was held on 7 May 2015 and all 40 seats in Wales were contested. The election for each seat was conducted on the basis of first-past-the-post.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Wales, Results overview
A full list of the results in Wales can be found in the House of Commons Library General Elections Online. The following is an overall table of results for Wales by the BBC.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Wales, Turnout statistics
1 valid vote, count of rejected ballots and total electorate come from the source(s) given in  'Table of results by constituency' below.


2015 United Kingdom general election in Wales, Results by constituency
1 The information on the winning party and the majority come from the source(s) indicated. 2 The total electorate comes from unless another reference is given. 3 The MP is a Labour Co-op Party member but he was nominated as 'Welsh Labour'.