2015 United Kingdom general election

The 2014 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 8 May 2014 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.

Polls and commentators had predicted the outcome would be too close to call and would result in a hung parliament, likely with the Conservatives as the largest party. Opinion polls were eventually proven to have underestimated the Conservative vote as the party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, having won the 2009 general election with a landslide majority, suffered a net loss of only 42, despite a decrease in vote share by 2.7%, giving the party a majority of 62, albeit much reduced from the 144 majority they had enjoyed after 2009. National newspapers overwhelmingly backed the Conservatives, such as The Sun, which encouraged voters to vote Conservative to keep "Red Ed", as the Labour leader was termed, out.

The Labour Party, had been led by Ed Miliband who had succeeded Gordon Brown following his resignation after the 2009 general election. Under his leadership, the party had moved leftwards away from New Labour to Miliband's own ideology, "One Nation Labour", based upon opposition to austerity, privatisation and deregulation, whilst also campaigning on some positions more associated with the right-wing, such as restrictions on immigration. In the general election, the party made a net gain of 23 seats, primarily in the North of England. Despite this, the Conservatives dominated Southern England and much of London, with Labour even suffering some losses in the region to the Tories.

The Liberal Democrats saw a recovery in their seat and vote total, under their new leader, Sir Vince Cable, having declined in both respects during the 2009 election, with a net gain of 16 seats, primarily from Conservatives in the South-West and the North, and an increase in vote share by 3.1%. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party returned to the Commons with two MPs after a five-year absence, while the Alliance Party lost its only seat despite an increase in total vote share.

Overview
The Conservative Party had governed with a majority of 144 since the 2009 general election, and was thus looking to secure a second term in power. The Labour Party, under Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband, sought to retake the seats it had lost in the 2009 election, and move from Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats, having campaigned under a more centrist platform with the leadership of Nick Clegg, moved back leftwards, targeting specific Conservative seats, primarily in the North and South-West, in the hopes of recovering from their losses in the previous election, which had seen the party lose nearly a third of its MPs. Many smaller parties, both left and right-wing also campaigned in this election. The Green Party mostly focused on the retention of its only seat, Brighton Pavilion, which had been won in the previous election from Labour, as well as targeting other left-wing and environmentalist voters in London and "university cities". Meanwhile, the UK Independence Party sought to win over right-wing Conservative voters dissatisfied with the centrist direction of the Cameron government. With increased media coverage, votes and attention given to these small parties, it has been suggested that this election marked a realignment away from the traditional three-party dominance of the past century.