Results breakdown of the United Kingdom general election, 2010

This is the results breakdown of the United Kingdom general election, 2010.

Swing

The election was marked by no uniform national swing, with suburban and rural constituencies showing large swings from Labour to the Conservatives, but urban seats showing much smaller swings. Scotland recorded a small swing back to Labour.

Seats changing hands

The following table is a complete list of seats changing hands as a result of the election based on the notional results of the 2005 election, notwithstanding the results of by-elections to the 54th Parliament.[1]

The Conservatives gained more seats than at any other general election since their landslide result in 1931. Labour lost a total of 94 seats, the second most seats it had lost in a single election.

Seat 2005 election 2010 election
Aberconwy Labour Conservative gain
Amber Valley Labour Conservative gain
Arfon Labour Plaid Cymru gain
Battersea Labour Conservative gain
Bedford Labour Conservative gain
Belfast East DUP Alliance gain
Bethnal Green and Bow Respect Labour gain
Blaenau Gwent Blaenau Gwent PV Labour gain
Blackpool North and Cleveleys Labour Conservative gain
Bradford East Labour Liberal Democrat gain
Brent Central Labour Liberal Democrat gain
Brentford and Isleworth Labour Conservative gain
Brigg and Goole Labour Conservative gain
Brighton Kemptown Labour Conservative gain
Brighton Pavilion Labour Green gain
Bristol North West Labour Conservative gain
Broxtowe Labour Conservative gain
Buckingham Conservative Speaker gain
Burnley Labour Liberal Democrat gain
Burton Labour Conservative gain
Bury North Labour Conservative gain
Calder Valley Labour Conservative gain
Camborne and Redruth Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Cannock Chase Labour Conservative gain
Cardiff North Labour Conservative gain
Carlisle Labour Conservative gain
Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South Labour Conservative gain
Castle Point Independent Conservative gain
Chatham and Aylesford Labour Conservative gain
Chester Labour Conservative gain
Chesterfield Liberal Democrat Labour gain
Cleethorpes Labour Conservative gain
Colne Valley Labour Conservative gain
Corby Labour Conservative gain
Cornwall South East Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Crawley Labour Conservative gain
Crewe and Nantwich Labour Conservative gain
Croydon Central Labour Conservative gain
Dartford Labour Conservative gain
Derbyshire South Labour Conservative gain
Dewsbury Labour Conservative gain
Dorset South Labour Conservative gain
Dover Labour Conservative gain
Dudley South Labour Conservative gain
Ealing Central and Acton Labour Conservative gain
Eastbourne Conservative Liberal Democrat gain
Elmet and Rothwell Labour Conservative gain
Erewash Labour Conservative gain
Gillingham and Rainham Labour Conservative gain
Glasgow North East Speaker Labour gain
Gloucester Labour Conservative gain
Great Yarmouth Labour Conservative gain
Halesowen and Rowley Regis Labour Conservative gain
Harlow Labour Conservative gain
Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Harrow East Labour Conservative gain
Hastings Labour Conservative gain
Hendon Labour Conservative gain
Hereford and South Herefordshire Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
High Peak Labour Conservative gain
Hove Labour Conservative gain
Ipswich Labour Conservative gain
Keighley Labour Conservative gain
Kingswood Labour Conservative gain
Lancaster and Fleetwood Labour Conservative gain
Leicestershire North West Labour Conservative gain
Lincoln Labour Conservative gain
Loughborough Labour Conservative gain
Milton Keynes North Labour Conservative gain
Milton Keynes South Labour Conservative gain
Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Morecambe and Lunesdale Labour Conservative gain
Newton Abbot Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
North Down UUP Independent gain
Northampton North Labour Conservative gain
Northampton South Labour Conservative gain
Norwich North Labour Conservative gain
Norwich South Labour Liberal Democrat gain
Nuneaton Labour Conservative gain
Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Pendle Labour Conservative gain
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Labour Conservative gain
Portsmouth North Labour Conservative gain
Pudsey Labour Conservative gain
Reading West Labour Conservative gain
Redcar Labour Liberal Democrat gain
Redditch Labour Conservative gain
Richmond Park Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Romsey and Southampton North Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Rossendale and Darwen Labour Conservative gain
Rugby Labour Conservative gain
Sherwood Labour Conservative gain
Solihull Conservative Liberal Democrat gain
South Basildon and East Thurrock Labour Conservative gain
South Ribble Labour Conservative gain
Stafford Labour Conservative gain
Stevenage Labour Conservative gain
Stockton South Labour Conservative gain
Stourbridge Labour Conservative gain
Stroud Labour Conservative gain
Swindon North Labour Conservative gain
Swindon South Labour Conservative gain
Tamworth Labour Conservative gain
Thurrock Labour Conservative gain
Truro and Falmouth Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Vale of Glamorgan Labour Conservative gain
Warrington South Labour Conservative gain
Warwick and Leamington Labour Conservative gain
Warwickshire North Labour Conservative gain
Watford Labour Conservative gain
Waveney Labour Conservative gain
Weaver Vale Labour Conservative gain
Wells Conservative Liberal Democrat gain
Winchester Liberal Democrat Conservative gain
Wolverhampton South West Labour Conservative gain
Worcester Labour Conservative gain
Wyre Forest Health Concern Conservative gain
York Outer Liberal Democrat Conservative gain

England

Of the 533 seats in England, only 532 were contested on the day of the general election. Polling in Thirsk and Malton was delayed until 27 May due to the death of the UKIP candidate.[2] The Conservatives won an absolute majority of seats in England with 61 seats more than all other parties combined, and securing an average swing of 5.6% from Labour.[3]

Geographical representations of seats coloured by winning party can be misleading to the eye. Boundaries are drawn by number of electors not geography. This results in rural seats having a large area due to lower population density, while urban seats, with a high density of voters, are geographically quite small. A pure geographical representation of seats coloured by party can make parties with rural seats seem far more popular than urban ones. To counter this bias, the BBC published a map where each seat was an equal size hexagon.[4][5]

Party Seats Seats
change		 Votes % %
change
Conservative 297[6] +92 9,908,169 39.5 +3.8
Labour 191 -87 7,042,398 28.1 -7.4
Liberal Democrat 43 -4 6,076,189 24.2 +1.3
Green 1 +1 258,954 1.0 -0.1
Speaker 1 0 22,860 0.09 -
Turnout: 25,047,355 65.5

Details of results are given below:

Wales

There were 40 seats contested in Wales. The number of Conservative seats rose from three to eight – the party gained one seat from the Liberal Democrats and four from Labour. Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru retained three MPs, including Arfon which the boundary changes had notionally given to Labour. Overall, Labour lost four seats but held on to its remaining 26.

Party Seats Seats
change		 Votes % %
change
Labour 26 -4 531,601 36.2 -6.5
Conservative 8 +5 382,730 26.1 +4.7
Liberal Democrat 3 -1 295,164 20.1 +1.7
Plaid Cymru 3 0 165,394 11.3 -1.3
Turnout: 1,446,690 64.9

Scotland

There were 59 seats contested in Scotland. Every constituency in Scotland was won by the party that had won it at the 2005 election, with Labour regaining the two seats they lost in by-elections since 2005. There was a swing to Labour from the Conservatives of 0.8% (with Labour increasing its share of the vote by 2.5% and the Conservatives increasing by just 0.9%), this left the Conservatives with just a single MP representing a Scottish constituency.

For Scottish results in full, see 2010 United Kingdom general election results in Scotland

Party Seats Seats
change		 Votes % %
change
Labour 41 0 1,035,528 42.0 +2.5
Liberal Democrat 11 0 465,471 18.9 -3.7
SNP 6 0 491,386 19.9 +2.3
Conservative 1 0 412,855 16.7 +0.9
Turnout: 2,465,722 63.8

Northern Ireland

There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland. Both Irish nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and SDLP, held their seats. The unionist parties, DUP and UUP (the latter contested the election as UCUNF—an electoral pact with the Conservatives), lost one seat each. The DUP lost Belfast East to the Alliance and in North Down the UUP's Sylvia Hermon left the party over the alliance with the Conservatives and retained her seat as an independent. This left the nationalist parties with eight seats, the unionist parties with eight seats (all DUP), the Alliance with one seat and an independent with one seat. It is the first time since the Partition of Ireland that unionist parties failed to secure a majority of Northern Ireland's Westminster seats in a general election. It was also the first time since Partition that a Nationalist party, Sinn Féin, topped the popular vote at a Westminster election, though winning three fewer seats than the DUP.

Sinn Féin, as an Irish republican party, refuse to take their seats at Westminster (see abstentionism). This leaves 645 MPs to take their seats at Westminster (after the Thirsk and Malton poll), reducing the effective threshold for a parliamentary majority from 326 to 323.

Party Seats Seats
change		 Votes % %
change
DUP 8 -1 168,216 25.0 -8.7
Sinn Féin 5 0 171,942 25.5 +1.2
SDLP 3 0 110,970 16.5 -1.0
Alliance 1 +1 42,762 6.3 +2.4
Independent - Sylvia Hermon 1 +1 21,181 3.1 —
UCU-NF 0 -1 102,361 15.2 -2.6
Turnout: 673,871 57.6 -7.8

References

  1. ↑ The Times - Election '10 - Gains and losses
  2. ↑ "Tories triumph in Thirsk and Malton poll". The Times (London). 28 May 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
  3. ↑ Staff (7 May 2010). "Election 2010: England". BBC NEWS (BBC). Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "BBC map with selectable geographic and proportional views". BBC News. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  5. ↑ England results BBC News, accessed 9 May 2010
  6. ↑ Note: this figure excludes John Bercow (Buckingham), who is recorded by the BBC as a "Conservative", despite the fact he is the incumbent Speaker.