2024 United Kingdom general election

The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 2 May 2024. It resulted in a narrow Conservative victory, having received a small majority in the House of Commons, albeit one greatly reduced from their 80-seat majority in the previous election. The results were largely viewed as somewhat of an upset, as a Labour victory or hung parliament was widely expected by the vast majority of pundits and pollsters. As such, this election marked the fifth consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party.

The Conservatives won 342 seats, down 23 from their result in 2019 of 365, while Labour managed to secure an additional 8 seats, all of which were former "red wall" seats won by the Conservatives in 2019. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats secured an additional 15 seats, primarily in the South-East, as well as an increase in vote share of over 5%.

Campaign
The election campaign was marked for its unusually high focus on foreign policy (thanks to a number of global crises that occurred in the period 2022-24), and the Conservatives capitalised on this by pursuing a hawkish approach against Russia and China, while Labour adopted a more cautious stance that alienated voters on both sides of the debate. In addition to the foreign policy issue, corruption and incompetence in the government was also a key issue. While Labour attacked key Conservative scandals and promised to "restore honour to Downing Street", the Conservatives undercut Labour's anti-corruption appeal through their manifesto of civil service reform and streamlining the government.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats under Ed Davey ran their campaign appealing to Southern suburban voters, marketing themselves as a moderate, competent alternative to a Conservative Party overtaken by right-wing populism. Similarly to the 2019 campaign, they pursued a policy of equidistance between the Conservatives and Labour, which allowed them to appeal to traditional middle-class Tory voters put off by the seeming "radicalism" of Johnson's leadership.

The Conservative campaign was helped significantly by a strong economic recovery and falling inflation, and warned that Labour would derail this economic prosperity, while the Liberal Democrats would create uncertainty by attempting to bring the United Kingdom back into the EU. This contributed to the Conservatives' growing support in the final weeks of the campaign (from 30% to Labour's 45 at the beginning of April, to 38% to Labour's 39 the day before the election).