2019 United Kingdom general election

2019 United Kingdom general election

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All 650 seats in the House of Commons 326[n 1] seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	47,562,702
Turnout	32,014,110 67.3% ( 1.5 pp)[2]
First party Second party   Leader Boris Johnson Jeremy Corbyn Party Conservative Labour Leader since 23 July 2019 12 September 2015 Leader's seat Uxbridge and South Ruislip Islington North Last election 317 seats, 42.4% 262 seats, 40.0% Seats won 365 202[n 2] Seat change 48 60 Popular vote 13,966,454 10,269,051 Percentage 43.6% 32.1% Swing 1.2 pp 7.9 pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Jo Swinson Party SNP Liberal Democrats Leader since 14 November 2014 22 July 2019 Leader's seat Did not stand[n 3] East Dunbartonshire (defeated) Last election 35 seats, 3.0% 12 seats, 7.4% Seats won 48[n 4] 11 Seat change 13 1 Popular vote 1,242,380 3,696,419 Percentage 3.9% 11.6% Swing 0.8 pp 4.2 pp
A map presenting the results of the election, by party of the MP elected from each constituency
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Boris Johnson Conservative Prime Minister after election Boris Johnson Conservative

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,567,752 registered voters^[3] entitled to vote to elect 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party, led by the prime minister Boris Johnson, won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats,^{[n 5]} a net gain of 48, on 43.6 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election,^[4] though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by the Labour Party over the Conservatives at the 1997 general election. This was the second national election to be held in 2019 in the United Kingdom, the first being the 2019 European Parliament election.

After it lost its parliamentary majority at the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party governed in minority with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The prime minister, Theresa May, resigned in July 2019 after repeatedly failing to pass her Brexit withdrawal agreement in parliament. Johnson succeeded her as the leader of the Conservative Party and as prime minister in July 2019. Johnson could not persuade Parliament to approve a revised withdrawal agreement by the end of October, and chose to call a snap election, which the House of Commons supported under the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019.^[5] Opinion polls showed a firm lead for the Conservatives against the opposition Labour Party throughout the campaign.^[6]

The Conservatives won 365 seats, their highest number and proportion since the 1987 general election, and recorded their highest share of the popular vote since 1979; many of their gains were made in seats once considered previously safe for Labour, dubbed the red wall, which had voted strongly in favour of British withdrawal from the EU in the 2016 European Union (EU) membership referendum. Labour won 202 seats, its fewest since the 1935 general election.^[7][8][9] The Scottish National Party (SNP) made a net gain of 13 seats with 45 per cent of the vote in Scotland, winning 48 of the 59 seats there.^[10] The Liberal Democrats increased their vote share to 11.6 per cent, but won only 11 seats, a net loss of one since the last election. The party's leader, Jo Swinson, lost her seat to the SNP, thus triggering the 2020 party leadership election, which was won by Ed Davey.^[11][12] The DUP won a plurality of seats in Northern Ireland. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) regained parliamentary representation as the DUP lost seats.

The election result gave Johnson the mandate he sought from the electorate to formally implement the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and to complete the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972 on 31 January 2020. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour's leader at the election, resigned, triggering the 2020 party leadership election, which was won by his shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer.^[9][13] Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrats' leader in Wales, was also unseated in Brecon and Radnorshire.^[14] In Northern Ireland, Irish nationalist MPs outnumbered unionists for the first time, although the unionist popular vote remained higher at 43.1 per cent, and the seven Sinn Féin MPs did not take their seats due to their tradition of abstentionism.

Despite being elected with a landslide, Johnson went on to resign amid a government crisis in 2022, being followed by Liz Truss for fifty days and then by Rishi Sunak, who went on to lead the Conservatives in the subsequent election.

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