2017 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held on the 8 June 2017 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It ended in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party winning the most seats. They had a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party so they would pass a vote of no confidence. Theresa May stayed as prime minister.[2]

2017 United Kingdom general election
8 June 2017
All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326[n 1] seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout68.8% (Increase2.5%)[1]
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Theresa May Jeremy Corbyn Nicola Sturgeon
Party Conservative Labour SNP
Leader's seat Maidenhead Islington North Did not stand[n 2]
Last election 330 seats, 36.9% 232 seats, 30.4% 56 seats, 4.7%
Seats won 317* 262 35
Seat change Decrease13 Increase30 Decrease21
Popular vote 13,636,684 12,878,460 977,569
Percentage 42.4% 40.0% 3.0%
Swing Increase5.5% Increase9.6% Decrease1.7%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Tim Farron Arlene Foster Michelle O'Neill
Party Liberal Democrats DUP Sinn Féin
Leader's seat Westmorland and Lonsdale Did not stand[n 3] Did not stand[n 4]
Last election 8 seats, 7.9% 8 seats, 0.6% 4 seats, 0.6%
Seats won 12 10 7[n 5]
Seat change Increase4 Increase2 Increase3
Popular vote 2,371,910 292,316 238,915
Percentage 7.4% 0.9% 0.7%
Swing Decrease0.5% Increase0.3% Increase0.1%
A map of UK parliamentary constituencies
* Figure does not include the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who was included in the Conservative seat total by some media outlets.
Prime Minister before election

Theresa May
Conservative

 Prime Minister after election

Theresa May
Conservative

Labour won a lot of seats from the Conservatives. This was the first time Labour had gained seats since 1997. The election happened because Parliament voted for a snap election after the 2016 Brexit referendum.[3]

Results
PartyLeaderSeats won
ConservativeTheresa May330
LabourJeremy Corbyn232
SNPNicola Sturgeon56
Liberal DemocratsTim Farron8
DUPArlene Foster8
Sinn FéinGerry Adams
SDLPColum Eastwood3
UUPMike Nesbitt3
UKIPPaul Nuttall1
GreenCaroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley1

Date

The next general election was due to be held on 8 May 2020. Theresa May announced on 18 April 2017 that she wanted it to be held on 8 June .[4] The House of Commons voted in favour of this proposal on 19 April 2017[4] allowing the election to take place in June 2017.

Results

Exit poll

BBC News, ITV and Sky News all released an exit poll at 10pm. This poll predicted the Conservatives would be the largest party but lose their majority. Exit poll results:

  • Conservative Party - 314
  • Labour Party - 266
  • Scottish National Party - 34
  • Liberal Democrats - 14
  • Plaid Cymru - 3
  • Green Party - 1
  • UK Independence Party - 0
  • Others - 18

Final results

The final results were very similar to the exit poll.

  • Conservative Party - 317 (down 13 seats)
  • Labour Party - 262 (up 30 seats)
  • Scottish National Party - 35 (down 21 seats)
  • Liberal Democrats - 12 (up 4 seats)
  • Plaid Cymru - 3 (no change)
  • Green Party - 1 (no change)
  • United Kingdom Independence Party - 0 (down 1 seat)
  • Others - 18


When the election was called the Conservative Party had a big lead in the polls and they were expected to win by a landslide. As the campaign went on the Labour Party closed the gap in the polls and the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons.[5]

Important MPs who lost their seats include former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and The leader of the SNP in the House of Commons Angus Robertson.

Notes
  1. Given that Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats and the Speaker and deputies do not vote, the number of MPs needed for a majority is, in practice, slightly lower. Sinn Féin won 7 seats, meaning a practical majority requires at least 320 MPs.
  2. Nicola Sturgeon sits as an MSP in the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Southside. Before the election, the SNP delegation to the House of Commons had been led by Angus Robertson, MP for Moray, who lost his seat. Ian Blackford, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, succeeded him.
  3. Arlene Foster sits as an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The party's leader in the Commons is Nigel Dodds, the MP for Belfast North
  4. Michelle O'Neill, sits as an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly for Mid Ulster
  5. Sinn Féin MP's abstain from taking their seats in the British House of Commons.

References
  1. "General Election 2017: full results and analysis". UK Parliament. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  2. "Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Conservative Party and the DUP" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk.
  3. McAuley, James (9 June 2017). "After shocking British vote result, Europe ponders fate of Brexit negotiations". Washington Post. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  4. "Theresa May seeks general election". BBC News. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  5. "UK election 2017: Conservatives 'to fall short of majority'". bbc.com. BBC. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
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