2019 United Kingdom general election

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, receiving a landslide majority of 110 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 29 seats, and increased their vote share by 1.9% to 41.1%, the largest percentage for a single party since the 2009 general election. The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn since the resignation of former leader Ed Miliband, lost 3.3% in vote share, and 51 seats, taking their total to 162, their worst result since 1935, and the worst result for a united Labour party since 1924. The Scottish National Party, under First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, experienced a surge in support after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and won 56 of Scotland's 59 Westminster seats, mostly at the cost of Labour, which had previously dominated Scottish representation in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats, led by former Labour MP Liz Kendall, despite having a slight increase in the popular vote to 22.6%, lost nearly half of their seats, including Kendall's own seat of Leicester West.

The Conservatives ran a campaign primarily focused on economic issues and Britain's status within the EU, which they proposed a referendum on, as well as attacking Labour on a number of fronts. The Labour campaign had been severely hampered by accusations of radicalism, antisemitism, the defection of eight Labour MPs to the Liberal Democrats in October 2018. Its policies were considered more left-wing than usual, campaigning strongly for an end to austerity, strong economic regulation and renationalisation of previously privatised industries. The Liberal Democrats focused much of their campaign on attacking both major parties, claiming that they were the only party that rejected both the Euroscepticism of the Conservatives and the hard-left socialism of Labour. A number of smaller parties, such as the Green Party also contested this election, similar to 2014, but received less attention and votes than in the previous election, leading some to suggest that the election marked a return to the traditional three-party politics of the previous century.

In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist Party lost both of the seats it had won in 2014, with Fermanagh and South Tyrone and South Antrim going to Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party respectively. The SDLP lost one of its seats, Belfast South, to the DUP, bringing the latter's seat total to 10, its best Westminster performance since its founding in 1971.

Background
The Conservative Party and Labour Party have been the two biggest political parties, and have supplied every Prime Minister since 1922. The Conservative Party have governed since the 2009 election. At the 2014 general election it was suggested by Eurosceptics within the Conservatives that the Party should commit to offering a referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, with particular pressure coming from the European Research Group of Conservative MPs. However, the Prime Minister and Conservative Leader David Cameron, who was in favour of Britain's continued membership of the EU, refused. The Conservatives would go onto win the election, albeit with a reduced majority. Cameron had stated before the election that he would not serve for a third term as Prime Minister, and in May 2018, accordingly resigned as leader of the Conservatives, in part triggered by falling popularity and poor results in that year's local elections

During the lifespan of the 2014 parliament, ten MPs resigned from their parties, most due to disputes with their party leaderships. Two Conservative MPs, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless left the party in December 2017 to join the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party in protest at Cameron's pro-EU views. In October 2018, eight Labour MPs left the party to join the Liberal Democrats. One of the MPs, Liz Kendall would go onto win the Liberal Democrat leadership election in January 2019. The Lib Dems ultimately raised their number from 54 at the election to 65 at dissolution, the highest number of MPs for the party since before the 1924 general election.

One reason for the defections from the Labour Party was the ongoing row over antisemitism in the Labour Party. Labour entered the election campaign while under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The Jewish Labour Movement declared it would not generally campaign for Labour. The Conservative Party was also criticised for not doing enough to tackle the alleged Islamophobia in the party.

Economy
The Conservatives supported the elimination of the top rate of income tax, and a raising of the personal allowance to £15,000, although notably corporate tax was planned to be kept at 17%, rather than lowered to 15% as planned. Overall, the Conservative manifesto was considered to have "little in the way of changes to spending" by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, but due to the cuts in taxes would result in the UK's debt-to-GDP continuing to rise throughout the duration of the 2019 parliament.

The Labour Party pledged an increase in the top rate of income tax to 55%, raising the corporation tax to 26%, as well as increases in diverted profits tax, financial transactions tax and capital gains tax, which was expected to raise in total £78 billion/year. This additional money was to be used to reverse austerity cuts to public services. Labour also proposed the nationalisation of energy, railways, Royal Mail, British Licensing (formerly the DVLA), British Passports (formerly the Passport Office), sewerage, and water companies, free bus travel for under-25s, and the construction of 100,000 council houses per year. In total, this would take the UK's public spending to GDP to 45%, which is historically high for the United Kingdom, although on par with other European nations.

The Liberal Democrat manifesto planned to raise an additional £36 billion/year in taxes, from a variety of sources, including a 1% increase in corporate tax and a 2% rise in all brackets of income tax. With just £26 billion additional spending commitments, the IFS analysis suggested that, of the three main parties' manifestos only the Lib Dems' would result in the UK's debt-to-GDP actually falling, with the Conservative tax cuts thought to contribute to the growing deficit, whilst Labour's tax plans were expected to raise less than expected, in part due to lower growth.

Europe
During his election as Conservative leader, Boris Johnson had pledged to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, and that promise was included in the Conservative manifesto, with the referendum planned for before the end of 2020. Labour refused to commit to this, with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell saying in April that there would be "absolutely no referendum on Europe". However, later on in the campaign, party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he would indeed hold a referendum if Labour got into power. It has been suggested by some, including the The Observer's Toby Helm that Labour's lack of clarity when it came to their European policy contributed to their defeat in the election. The Liberal Democrats did not support a referendum on Europe.

Immigration
The Conservatives favoured introducing a so-called "points-based" immigration system, which would prioritise wealthier, more educated, and higher skilled workers over others. Most notably, the Conservatives' previous pledge to lower net migration to just 100,000 a year was scrapped, which was suggested by The Spectator to make the Tories have "the most liberal immigration plan of all major parties, even the Liberal Democrats".

Similar to 2014, Labour promised "controls" on immigration with the aim of protecting those at the bottom of the labour market. The stated goal was to reduce the UK's net migration to "around 200,000 a year". The Liberal Democrats said that they would not support a reduction in immigration, but said that they would introduce "limited controls" if net migration went above 350,000.

The UK Independence Party, led by Nigel Farage, planned to impose controls which would aim to reduce net migration to 50,000 a year maximum, which would be its lowest level since 1994.

Other issues
Labour's manifesto contained a pledge to create four new bank holidays, corresponding to the days of St. George, St. Andrew, St. David, and St. Patrick, the patron saints of the UK's four constituent countries. Similarly, UKIP promised to make St. George's Day and St. David's Day bank holidays in England and Wales respectively.

The Liberal Democrats' other policies included increased spending on the NHS; free childcare for two-to-four year olds; recruiting 20,000 more teachers; generating 80% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030; freezing train fares; and legalising cannabis.

The Conservatives promised to maintain the "triple lock" on pensions. They also promised to renew David Cameron's efforts to replace the Human Rights Act with a British bill of rights.

Possibility of a hung parliament
Both Labour and the Conservatives said that they were on course for an outright majority, with Corbyn saying "We are out here to win it", and while polls did consistently show a lead for the Conservatives, there was nonetheless media speculation regarding a hung parliament, though not to the extent of 2014. The Liberal Democrats said that they would not form a coalition with either Labour or the Tories whilst they were led by their current leaders, but said that they could if either party was under a different leader. The SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party all rejected the possibility of working with the Conservatives. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said that if there was an "anti-Tory majority" after the election, then the SNP would work with all parties, including Labour, to "lock the Tories out of power".

The UUP and DUP said that they be willing to offer their support to the Conservatives, in exchange for certain guarantees regarding Northern Ireland. The DUP rejected the possibility of working with Labour whilst under Corbyn's leadership, but said that they could support a Labour-led government if the party was led by someone else. The SDLP said that they would support a Labour government. Sinn Fein reiterated its abstentionist policy.

Debates
In the run-up to the election, five leader debates were planned by ITV, the BBC, and Channel 4.

The first debate, between Johnson, Corbyn, Kendall, Farage, and Sturgeon, was broadcast on ITV on 12 April. The debate was largely considered to have been won by Johnson, who pressed the Labour leader consistently on economic issues. Kendall and Farage both had a decent performance, but were overshadowed by Johnson. The debate received approximately 4.62 million viewers.

Another debate, hosted by Channel 4, was to be held between Johnson and Corbyn on 19 April, but was cancelled when Johnson pulled out on 18 April, and Channel 4 refused to accept a surrogate in the form of Michael Gove.

The second debate was broadcast on the BBC on 21 April, and was initially planned to have been held between Johnson, Corbyn and Kendall, however, Kendall was unable to attend, leaving the debate as a head-to-head between the Conservative and Labour leader. Kendall's absence from the debate may have hurt the Liberal Democrats in the polls: in the days following its broadcast, the Lib Dems, having been 1 point ahead of Labour on 28% just prior, fell to third place at 24%. The BBC was accused of bias after it was revealed that laughter in response to one of Boris Johnson's responses was edited out from the final broadcast.



Channel 4 hosted a leaders' debate on 27 April focused on the climate. Johnson and Farage did not attend and were replaced on stage by ice sculptures with their party names written on them. The Conservatives alleged this was part of a pattern of bias at the channel, complained to Ofcom that Channel 4 had breached due impartiality rules as a result of their refusal to allow Michael Gove to appear as a substitute, and suggested that they might review the channel's broadcasting licence. In response, the Conservatives, as well as the UKIP, did not send a representative to Channel 4's six-way leaders' debate on 1 May, and Conservative ministers were briefed not to appear on Channel 4 News. Ofcom rejected the Conservatives' complaint on 3 May.

Campaign events
At the beginning of the campaign, Labour-supporting organisation Momentum issued what was called "the largest canvassing mobilising call in UK history", involving more than 2,000 canvassers. The organisation challenged Labour supporters to devote a week or more to campaigning full-time (by 4 December, 1,400 people had signed up). Momentum also developed an app called My Campaign Map that updated members about where they could be more effective, particularly in canvassing in marginal constituencies. Over one weekend during the campaign period, 700 Labour supporters campaigned in marginal Tory constituencies around London and the South East.

The Liberal Democrats won a court case stopping the SNP from distributing a "potentially defamatory" leaflet in Swinson's constituency over false claims about funding she had received.

In two recorded instances, Labour Party campaigners were attacked and verbally abused unprovoked while canvassing and campaigning. In Bromyard, Herefordshire, Labour campaigners began to canvass only in pairs after reporting being physically attacked and verbally abused as "Marxists".

Religious groups
The UK's Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, made an unprecedented intervention in politics when he warned that antisemitism in the Labour Party was a "poison sanctioned from the top", and said that British Jews were gripped by anxiety at the possibility of a Corbyn-led government. The Jewish Labour Movement, Labour's only Jewish affiliate, refused to campaign for the party during the election, although they did campaign for certain Labour candidates.

The Muslim Council of Britain called Islamophobia in the Conservative Party "particularly acute", and said that the Conservatives treat it "with denial, dismissal and deceit".

The Times of India reported that supporters of Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party were actively campaigning for the Tories in 48 marginal seats, and that they had sent WhatsApp messages to British Hindus across the country which urged the recipients to vote Conservative. The Hindu Council was strongly critical of the Labour Party, calling Labour and Corbyn "anti-Hindu". In particular, the party's condemnation of India's actions in Kashmir were objected to strongly, and were cited as evidence of Labour's bias against Hindus. The perceived "parachuting" of the Labour candidate for Leicester East, a constituency with many British Indians disappointed many with Indian heritage; specifically, no candidates of Indian descent were interviewed. The party selected (or re-selected) one candidate of Indian descent among its 39 safest seats.

Individuals
Several former Labour MPs critical of Corbyn, including former Transport Minister Tom Harris endorsed the Conservatives. Meanwhile, several former Conservative MPs, including former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine, endorsed the Liberal Democrats and/or independent candidates. A week before election day, former Conservative prime minister John Major warned the public against enabling a majority Conservative government, critical of what he saw as the "hardline Euroscepticism" of Johnson and his associates. Major encouraged voters to vote tactically and to back former Conservative candidates instead of those put forward by the Conservative Party. The Spectator, in its "Steerpike" column, remarked that the latter two may function as "anti-endorsements": "with Heseltine and Major being so hated among Thatcherite Conservatives, their rejection of Johnson might simply galvanise them into voting Tory".