2022 United Kingdom General Election

The 2022 United Kingdom General Election was a snap election called in the aftermath of the civil unrest caused by the Summer of Discontent. After facing severe critism over the polices handling of the unrest, and with more strikes looming, Prime Minister Boris Johnson would call a snap election for the 5th of October 2022, with him calling it an "opportunity to show the renegade unions who really rules Britain".

The election would be marked by further large protests against the incumbent Conservative government, and a surge in support for the newly formed Social Movement - a left-wing alliance of former Labour MPs who left the party over its response to the events of the Summer, the Green Party of England and Wales, and backed by formly Labour-Affiliated unions Unite, RMT, NASWUT, UCU, and the NEU - and the Liberal Democrats. The Opposition Labour party struggled to define itself during the election, with its traditional left-wing base fleeing to the Social Movement, yet only a slow return of Centrist, 'Middle England' voters to compensate. The SNP used the unrest across England as a rallying cry for indepdence, with Scotland suffering from less industrial and civil action. Although apathy with the ongoing strikes was growing during the course of the campaign, a victory with striking bus drivers in London led to greater momentum on the side of the Unions, with the TUC seeing union membership rise by 14% annually by the end of the election campaign.

The Election would provide a crushing defeat for the ruling Conservatives, with the party losing over 110 MPs - including its own leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, marking the first time in modern British politics than a sitting PM has lost their seat. For the Labour party, it was a mixed picture; the party gained over 50 MPs, yet a major breakthrough did not occur, and it was a long way from an overall majority. The election was widely viewed to be a major success for third parties, with the newly formed Social Movement electing 27 MPs and achieving 14.3% of the vote - retaining almost all of the Socialist Campaign Group & Green Party MPs who defected to form it, and achiving a record for a party formed just 4 months prior -, and the SNP and Liberal Democrats both making large gains.

In the aftermath of the election, both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer would resign, with Ed Milliband being selected to lead a Labour minority government, and the party, as a candidate acceptable to both the SNP and Social Movement. The Milliband government would go onto repeal restrictive Trade Union laws passed in response to the 2022 Strikes, and offer a 8% pay rise to public sector workers, which would eventually lead to an end of the Summer of Discontent, with the final strike action by the UCU ending on the 29th of October after the new government announced pension cuts would be cancelled amid wider reforms to the university system

Foreign policy
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Economic policy
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The Summer of Discontent
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Debates
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Endorsements
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Results
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