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.