User:IndecisiveBrit/sandbox

The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and, as of 2021, the only general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day. The election also took place a year after 2014 Scottish independence referendum, in which Scotland voted to leave the United Kingdom. The election saw the Labour Party win the most seats, and after several days of negotiations, Labour leader Ed Miliband was able to form a Labour-led minority government with a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberal Democrats.

With some polls putting the ruling Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party neck-and-neck, commentators had predicted the outcome might be too close to call and could result in a second consecutive hung parliament that would be more complicated than the 2010 election. However, opinion polls were eventually proven wrong, significantly underestimating the UKIP vote and overestimating the Conservative vote. As a result, on election night, the Conservative Party lost over seventy seats, while the Labour Party emerged by a considerable margin as the largest single party in the House of Commons. Despite the Labour Party having made significant gains, emerging as the largest party in England, it fell short of an overall majority.

The result of the election was attributed to two main factors: the result of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and subsequent economic headwinds facing the United Kingdom

Structure:

Short opening para with succinct result

Outline of campaign and result.

Conservative mess

Libdem mess

Scotland

Ukip

The incumbent Conservative Party suffered significantly due to the government's XXX, for which the public largely blamed them. The subsequent Sterling crisis then left the party's perceived economic competence in tatters according to one commentator.

These factors, combined with an underwhelming campaign from

While Prime Minister Theresa May's was herself perceived as "strong and stable"

leadership was fatally undermined, as backbench rebellions over independence negotiations and economic headwinds.

The Liberal Democrats, led by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, had their worst result since their formation in 1988, losing 34 of their 57 seats, with Clegg himself being ousted by his Labour opponent, and Cabinet ministers Ed Davey and Danny Alexander losing their seats. The poor showing of his party, along with the loss of his seat, compelled Clegg to resign his leadership of the Liberal Democrats, with former Business Secretary Vince Cable winning the subsequent leadership contest unopposed. This marked an electoral nadir for the party, with many noting that without the drastic fall in the vote share of the Conservatives, the result could have been worse still. In the long term however, weakened support for the Conservative Party across the south of England, in addition to forthcoming electoral reform and devolved local offices negotiated in exchange for a confidence-and-supply agreement would provide opportunities for political gains in the future.

Scotland, following its vote to separate from the union, saw drastic changes in party support in the election. The Scottish National Party, following their victory in the, argued that voting SNP would give the Scottish government a strong mandate to negotiate Scottish independence. The party's strategy to run on implementing the "will of the people" proved extremely successful, with the SNP winning all but three of the 59 Scottish seats to become the third-largest party in the Commons. The Scottish Conservatives also saw their vote collapse, with unionist voters abandoning them in large numbers, attributing Scottish independence to overconfidence and incompetence on the part of the Conservative Party. The Conservative share of the vote in Scotland fell to single digits, the worst ever performance in Scotland by the party in its entire history. Labour's vote fell significantly as well, as it took a strong stance on independence negotiations to appeal to English and Welsh voters. The SNP recorded a number of swings of over 30% from Labour, taking a great many seats which Labour had held for decades.

UKIP came third in terms of votes with 20.4%, but won only five seats, with party leader Nigel Farage winning the seat of South Thanet. Nevertheless, strong second and third showings in numerous seats across England left them well positioned for later regional and Parliamentary elections. While in this election, UKIP drew support primarily from disaffected Conservative voters in England,

In Northern Ireland, due to the recent Scottish vote for independence, the election polarised strongly on sectarian lines. The staunchly unionist DUP and nationalist Sinn Fein made significant gains against their moderate rivals, the UUP and SDLP, respectively. The UUP failed to win any seats for the second election in a row and the SDLP was reduced to two seats, losing their Foyle seat to Sinn Fein. The non-sectarian Alliance Party also lost its only seat to the DUP.

The election is in retrospect considered to have begun a political realignment in the UK's electoral politics, marking the end of the traditional three-party domination seen for most of the previous century, with subsequent electoral reform for Westminster elections and English devolution splintering both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.

the beginning of the Conservative Party broadening its electoral base to include white working-class voters (a segment they had last led in during Margaret Thatcher's tenure as PM, when the opposition vote was split between Labour and the SDP–Liberal Alliance), and the Scottish National Party beginning its domination of Scotland's representation in Westminster (having already begun dominating Holyrood elections in the previous decade) and also saw one of the last public appearances of former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy who lost his seat in Ross, Skye and Lochaber to the Scottish Nationalist Ian Blackford before his death on 1 June. __NOINDEX__ __NONEWSECTIONLINK__