United Kingdom general election, 2005

United Kingdom general election, 2005

5 May 2005

All 646 seats to the House of Commons 324 seats needed for a majority Turnout 61.4%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Tony Blair Michael Howard Charles Kennedy Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrat Leader since 21 July 1994 6 November 2003 9 August 1999 Leader's seat Sedgefield Folkestone and Hythe Ross, Skye and Lochaber Last election 413 seats, 40.7% 166 seats, 31.7% 52 seats, 18.3% Seats before 403 165 52 Seats won 355^ 198 62 Seat change 47^ 33* 11* Popular vote 9,552,436 8,784,915 5,985,454 Percentage 35.2% 32.4% 22.0% Swing 5.5% 0.7% 3.7%

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. * Indicates boundary change - so this is a nominal figure ^ Figure does not include the speaker

PM before election Tony Blair Labour Subsequent PM Tony Blair Labour

1997 election • MPs

2001 election • MPs

2005 election • MPs

2010 election • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but its majority now stood at 66 seats compared to the 160-seat majority it had previously held.

The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy, however Blair had suffered a decline in popularity even before the decision to send British troops to invade Iraq in 2003. The Conservative Party, led by Michael Howard since late 2003, campaigned on policies, such as immigration limits, improving poorly managed hospitals and reducing high crime rates, all under the slogan 'Are you thinking what we're thinking?'. The Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy, were opposed to the Iraq War given there had been no second UN referendum,^[1] and collected votes from disenchanted Labour voters.

Tony Blair was returned as Prime Minister, with Labour holding 355 MPs but with a popular vote of 35.2%, the lowest of any majority government in British history. In terms of votes they were only narrowly ahead of the Conservatives, but still had a comfortable lead ahead of them in terms of seats. The Conservatives however did manage to return 198 MPs, 32 more than they had previously, and managed to win the popular vote in England while still ending up with 91 fewer MPs in England than Labour. The Liberal Democrats saw their popular vote increase by 3.7% and won the most seats for any third party since 1923, in the form of 62 MPs. Former Labour MP and anti-war activist George Galloway was elected as an MP under the Respect – The Unity Coalition banner, and two Single Area Party candidates were elected; Blaenau Gwent People's Voice and Health Concern in Worcestershire.

In Northern Ireland, the moderately unionist Ulster Unionist Party, which had dominated Northern Ireland's politics since the 1920s, was reduced from six MPs to one, with party leader David Trimble himself losing his seat. The more hardline Democratic Unionist Party became the largest Northern Irish party, with nine MPs. Following the election, Conservative leader Michael Howard resigned and was succeeded by David Cameron and in 2007, Blair resigned as Prime Minister and Labour leader to be replaced by Gordon Brown. The election was broadcast live on the BBC, and presented by Peter Snow, David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Marr.^[2]

Overview

The governing Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, was looking to secure a third consecutive term in office and to retain a large majority. The Conservative Party was seeking to regain seats lost to both Labour and the Liberal Democrats since the 1992 general election, and move from being the Official Opposition into government. The Liberal Democrats hoped to make gains from both main parties, but especially the Conservative Party, with a "decapitation" strategy targeting members of the Shadow Cabinet. The Lib Dems had also wished to become the governing party, but more realistically hoped of making enough gains to become the Official Opposition and/or play a major part in a parliament led by a minority Labour or Conservative government. In Northern Ireland the Democratic Unionist Party sought to make further gains over the Ulster Unionist Party in unionist politics, and Sinn Féin hoped to overtake the Social Democratic and Labour Party in nationalist politics. (Note that Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats in the House of Commons—they refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen as required). The pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) stood candidates in every constituency in Scotland and Wales respectively.

Many seats were contested by other parties, including several parties without incumbents in the House of Commons. Parties that were not represented at Westminster, but had seats in the devolved assemblies and European Parliament included the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party. The Health Concern party stood again as well. A full list of parties which declared their intention to run can be found on the list of parties contesting the 2005 general election.

All parties campaigned through such tools as party manifestos, party political broadcasts and touring the country in what are commonly referred to as battle buses.

Local elections in parts of England and in Northern Ireland were held on the same day. The polls were open for fifteen hours, from 07:00 to 22:00 BST (UTC+1). The election came just over three weeks after the dissolution of Parliament on 11 April by Queen Elizabeth II, at the request of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Campaign

Following the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April, it was announced that the calling of the election would be delayed until 5 April.^[3]

Thanks to eight years of sustained economic growth Labour could point to a strong economy, with greater investment in public services such as education and health. This was overshadowed however by the issue of the Iraq war, which met widespread public criticism at the time, and would dog Blair throughout the campaign. Then-Chancellor Gordon Brown played a prominent role in the election campaign, regularly appearing with Tony Blair and ensuring that the economy would remain the central focus of Labour's message.

For the Conservatives their recently elected leader Michael Howard brought a great level of experience and stability to a party that had only ousted its former leader Iain Duncan Smith^[4] just 18 months before. The Conservatives focused their campaign on more traditional conservative issues like immigration, which created some controversy with the slogan "It's not racist to impose limits on immigration".^[5] They also criticised Labour's "dirty" hospitals and high crime levels, under the umbrella of the slogan "Are you thinking what we're thinking?".^[6]

However Labour counterattacked, by emphasising Howard's role in the unpopular Major Government of 1992-1997, airing an attack ad on Howard, showing a montage of scenes from Howards tenure as Home Secretary, including Prison Riots and home repossessions. It also launched a billboard campaign showing Howard, and the Conservative Party's four previous leaders: Iain Duncan Smith, William Hague, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, with the caption, "Britain's working, don't let the Tories wreck it again".

For the Liberal Democrats this would be the second and last election campaign fought by leader Charles Kennedy, who was strongly opposed to the Iraq war, and offered a more down to earth approach to voters which proved popular. There were some questions however over Kennedy's drinking problem when at the Liberal Democrat manifesto launch he was asked about local income tax, but appeared confused on the figures.^[7] Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives were keen to tackle Labour's introduction of tuition fees, which was opposed by both parties and they promised to abolish.^[8]

Ballot

At the close of voting (2200 BST) the ballot boxes were sealed and returned to the counting centre where counting proceeded under the supervision of the returning officer who was obliged to declare the result as soon as it was known. As previously, there was serious competition amongst constituencies to be first to declare. Sunderland South repeated its performance in the last three elections and declared Labour incumbent Chris Mullin re-elected as MP with a majority of 11,059 at approximately 2245 BST (failing by two minutes to beat its previous best, but making it eligible for entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as longest consecutive delivery of first results). The vote itself represented a swing (in a safe Labour seat, in a safe Labour region) of approximately 4% to the Conservatives and 4.5% to the Liberal Democrats, somewhat below the prediction of BBC/ITV exit polls published shortly after 2200 BST.

Sunderland North was the next to declare, followed by Houghton & Washington East, both Labour holds but with reductions in the incumbent majorities of up to 9%. The first Scottish seat to declare was Rutherglen and Hamilton West — another safe Labour seat, also a Labour hold, but with the majority reduced by 4%. The first seat to change hands was Putney, where Labour's majority of around 2,500 fell to a strong Conservative challenge, with a total swing of about 5,000 (6.2%). This was also the first seat to be declared for the Conservatives. The first Liberal Democrat seat to be declared was North East Fife, the constituency of LibDem party deputy leader Sir Menzies Campbell which he has held since 1987.

The Constituency of Crawley in West Sussex had the slimmest majority of any seat with Labour holding off the Conservatives by 37 votes after three recounts.

Polling

Following problems with exit polls in previous British elections, the BBC and ITV agreed for the first time to pool their respective data, using results from Mori and NOP. More than twenty thousand people were interviewed for the poll at one hundred and twenty polling stations across the country. The predictions were very accurate—initial projections saw the Labour party returned to power with a majority of 66 (down from 160),^[9] and the final result (including Staffordshire South, where the election was postponed due to the death of a candidate) would indeed be a Labour majority of 66.

The projected shares of the vote in Great Britain were Labour 35% (down 6% on 2001), Conservatives 33% (up 1%), Liberal Democrats 22% (up 4%) and other parties 8% (up 1%).^[9] The Conservatives were expected to make the biggest gains, however — forty-four seats according to the exit numbers — with the Liberal Democrats expected to take as few as two. Whilst the exit-poll-predicted vote share for the Lib Dems was accurate (22.6% vs an actual 22.0%), they had actually done better in some Lib Dem-Labour marginals than predicted on the basis of the national share of the vote, producing a net gain of 11 seats.

Notional election, 2001

Due to boundary changes in Scotland, the number of seats were reduced to 59 (down from 72). As a result of this a number of seats were lost by each party, and this notional election result below is based on the 2001 election results if they had been fought on these new 2005 boundaries.

UK General Election 2001
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	403			-10	62.38	40.7	10,724,953
	Conservative	165			-1	25.54	31.7	8,357,615
	Liberal Democrat	51			-1	7.89	18.3	4,814,321
	SNP	4			-1	0.62	1.8	464,314
	Others	23				3.57	7.5

Results

Party	Labour Party	Conservative and Unionist Party	Liberal Democrats	UK Independence Party	Scottish National Party	Greens (GPEW+SGP+GPNI)	Democratic Unionist Party
Leader	Tony Blair	Michael Howard	Charles Kennedy	Roger Knapman	Alex Salmond	Caroline Lucas (GPEW)	Ian Paisley
Votes	9,552,436 (35.2%)	8,784,915 (32.4%)	5,985,454 (22.0%)	605,973 (2.2%)	412,267 (1.5%)	257,758 (1.0%)	241,856 (0.9%)
Seats	355 (55.2%)	198 (30.7%)	62 (9.6%)	0 (0.0%)	6 (0.9%)	0 (0.0%)	9 (1.4%)

Wikinews has related news: Results of 2005 United Kingdom General Election

At 04:28 BST, it was announced that Labour had won Corby, giving them 324 seats in the House of Commons out of those then declared and an overall majority, Labour's total reaching 356 seats out of the 646 House of Commons seats. Labour received 35.3% of the popular vote, equating to approximately 22% of the electorate on a 61.3% turnout, up from 59.4% turnout in 2001. Increased turnout was mostly attributed to the extension and promotion of the postal voting system, which has however been criticised by many as being too insecure increasing the risk of electoral fraud.

As expected, voter disenchantment led to an increase of support for many opposition parties, and caused many eligible to vote, not to turn out. Labour achieved a third successive term in office for the first time in their history, though with reduction of the Labour majority from 167 to 67 (as it was before the declaration of South Staffordshire). As it became clear that Labour had won an overall majority, Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, announced his intention to retire from front-line politics. The final seat to declare was the delayed poll in South Staffordshire, at just after 1 a.m. on Friday 24 June.

The election was followed by further criticism of the UK electoral system. Calls for reform came particularly from Lib Dem supporters, citing that they received only just over 10% of the overall seats with 22.1% of the popular vote. The only parties to win a higher percentage of seats than they achieved in votes were Labour, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, and Health Concern, which ran only one candidate. The results of the election give a Gallagher index of dis-proportionality of 16.76.

The Labour Government claimed that being returned to office for a third term for the first time ever showed the public approval of New Labour's governance and the continued unpopularity of the Conservatives. Nevertheless, Labour's vote declined to 35.3%, the lowest share of the popular vote to have formed a majority government in the history of the UK House of Commons. In many areas the collapse in the Labour vote resulted in a host of seats changing hands. Labour also failed to gain any new seats, almost unique in any election since 1945. As well as losing seats to the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, Labour also lost their safest seat in Wales^[10] to Independent Peter Law, and Bethnal Green and Bow to Respect candidate George Galloway.

The Conservatives claimed that their increased number of seats showed disenchantment with the Labour government and was a precursor of a Conservative breakthrough at the next election. Following three consecutive elections of declining representation and then in 2001 a net gain of just one seat, 2005 was the first general election since 1983 where the number of Conservative seats increased appreciably, although the Conservatives' vote share increased only slightly and this election did mark the third successive general election in which the Conservatives polled below 35%. In some areas the Conservative vote actually fell. The Conservatives claimed to have won the General Election in England, since they received more votes than Labour although Labour still won a majority of seats.^[11]

The Liberal Democrats claimed that their continued gradual increase in seats and percentage vote showed they were in a position to make further gains from both parties. They pointed in particular to the fact that they were now in second place in roughly one hundred and ninety constituencies and that having had net losses to Labour in the 1992 general election and having not taken a single seat off Labour in 1997, they had held their gains off Labour from the 2001 general election and had actually made further gains from them. The Liberals also managed to take 3 seats from the Conservatives, notably Tim Collins, through the use of a decapitation strategy, which targeted senior Tories.^[12]

The Liberal Democrats increased their percentage of the vote by 3.7%, the Conservatives by 0.6%, and Labour's dropped by 5.4%.

The results were interpreted by the UK media as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and in Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular.

Meanwhile the SNP had a good night in Scotland, regaining the Western Isles from Labour, having lost it 1987.^[13] In Wales Plaid Cymru failed to gain any seats, and lost Ceredigion to the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland the Ulster Unionists were all but wiped out, only holding onto North Down, with leader David Trimble losing his seat in Upper Bann. For the first time the DUP became the biggest party in Northern Ireland.

It was the first general election since 1929 in which no party received more than ten million votes. It was the most "three-cornered" election since 1923, though the Liberal Democrats failed to match the higher national votes of the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the 1980s either in absolute or percentage terms. The total combined vote for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats proved to be the lowest main three party vote since 1922.

↓

355	198	62	31
Labour	Conservative	Lib Dem	O

 Summary of the Results of the 5 May 2005 General Election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

	Political Party	Candidates	Elected	Seats Gained	Seats Lost	Net Change in seats	% of Seats	Number of votes	% of Votes	Change in % of vote
	Labour	627	355	0	47	–47	55.2	9,552,436	35.2	–5.5	26,908
	Conservative	630	198	36	3	+33	30.7	8,784,915	32.4	+0.7	44,368
	Liberal Democrat	626	62	16	5	+11	9.6	5,985,454	22.0	+3.8	96,540
	UKIP	496	0	0	0	0	0.0	605,973	2.2	+0.8	N/A
	SNP	59	6	2	0	+2	0.9	412,267	1.5	–0.2	68,711
	Green	182	0	0	0	0	0.0	257,758	1.0	+0.4	N/A
	DUP	18	9	4	0	+4	1.4	241,856	0.9	+0.2	26,873
	BNP	119	0	0	0	0	0.0	192,745	0.7	+0.5	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	40	3	0	1	–1	0.5	174,838	0.6	–0.1	58,279
	Sinn Féin	18	5	1	0	+1	0.8	174,530	0.6	–0.1	34,906
	UUP	18	1	0	5	–5	0.2	127,414	0.5	–0.3	127,414
	SDLP	18	3	1	1	0	0.5	125,626	0.5	–0.1	41,875
	Independent	180	1	1	0	+1	0.2	122,416	0.5	+0.1	122,416
	Respect	26	1	1	0	+1	0.2	68,094	0.3	N/A	68,094
	Scottish Socialist	58	0	0	0	0	0.0	43,514	0.2	–0.1	N/A
	Veritas	65	0	0	0	0	0.0	40,607	0.1	N/A	N/A
	Alliance	12	0	0	0	0	0.0	28,291	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Scottish Green	19	0	0	0	0	0.0	25,760	0.1	+0.1	N/A
	Socialist Labour	49	0	0	0	0	0.0	20,167	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Liberal	14	0	0	0	0	0.0	19,068	0.1	0.0	N/A
	Health Concern	1	1	0	0	0	0.2	18,739	0.1	0.0	18,739
	Speaker	1	1	0	0	0	0.2	15,153	0.1	0.0	15,153
	English Democrats	24	0	0	0	0	0.0	15,149	0.1	N/A	N/A
	Socialist Alternative	17	0	0	0	0	0.0	9,398	0.0	N/A	N/A
	National Front	13	0	0	0	0	0.0	8,079	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Legalise Cannabis	21	0	0	0	0	0.0	6,950	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	19	0	0	0	0	0.0	6,311	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Community Action	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	5,984	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Christian Vote	10	0	0	0	0	0.0	4,004	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	4	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,552	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Forward Wales	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,461	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Christian Peoples	9	0	0	0	0	0.0	3,291	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	23	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,463	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Community Group	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,365	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Ashfield Independents	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	2,292	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Alliance for Green Socialism	5	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,978	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Residents	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,850	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Workers' Party	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,669	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Socialist Environmental	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,649	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Scottish Unionist	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,266	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	10	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,241	0.0	0.0	N/A
	New England	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,224	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Communist	6	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,124	0.0	0.0	N/A
	Community Group	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,118	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Peace and Progress	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,036	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Scottish Senior Citizens	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,017	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Your Party	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	1,006	0.0	N/A	N/A
	SOS! Northampton	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	932	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Independent Working Class	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	892	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Democratic Labour	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	770	0.0	N/A	N/A
	British Public Party	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	763	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Free Scotland	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	743	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Pensioners Party Scotland	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	716	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Publican Party	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	678	0.0	N/A	N/A
	English Independence Party	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	654	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Socialist Unity	2	0	0	0	0	0.0	581	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Local Community Party	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	570	0.0	N/A	N/A
	Clause 28	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	516	0.0	N/A	N/A
	UK Community Issues Party	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	502	0.0	N/A	N/A
Total			646				Turnout	27,148,510	61.4		42,026

^[14]

The figure of 355 seats for Labour does not include the speaker Michael Martin. 356 seats would give the majority of 66. See also the list of parties standing in Northern Ireland.

Government's new majority	66

^[15]

MPs who lost their seats

Party		Name	Constituency	Office held whilst in power	Year elected	Defeated by	Party
	Labour Party	Stephen Twigg	Enfield Southgate	Minister of State for Schools	1997	David Burrowes		Conservative Party
		Melanie Johnson	Welwyn Hatfield	Minister of State for Public Health	1997	Grant Shapps		Conservative Party
		Chris Leslie	Shipley	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs	1997	Philip Davies		Conservative Party
		Ivan Henderson	Harwich	Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Home Office	1997	Douglas Carswell		Conservative Party
		David Stewart	Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Scotland	1997	Danny Alexander		Liberal Democrats
		Peter Bradley	The Wrekin	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Rural Affairs	1997	Mark Pritchard		Conservative Party
		Keith Bradley	Manchester Withington	Treasurer of the Household	1987	John Leech		Liberal Democrats
		Barbara Roche	Hornsey and Wood Green	Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration	1992	Lynne Featherstone		Liberal Democrats
		Calum MacDonald	Western Isles	Minister for Gaelic	1987	Angus MacNeil		Scottish National Party
		Roger Casale	Wimbledon		1997	Stephen Hammond		Conservative Party
		Paul Stinchcombe	Wellingborough		1997	Peter Bone		Conservative Party
		Kerry Pollard	St Albans		1997	Anne Main		Conservative Party
		Tony Clarke	Northampton South		1997	Brian Binley		Conservative Party
		Helen Clark	Peterborough		1997	Stewart Jackson		Conservative Party
		Tony Colman	Putney		1997	Justine Greening		Conservative Party
		Lorna Fitzsimons	Rochdale		1997	Paul Rowen		Liberal Democrats
		Andy King	Rugby and Kenilworth		1997	Jeremy Wright		Conservative Party
		Lawrie Quinn	Scarborough and Whitby		1997	Robert Goodwill		Conservative Party
		Brian White	North East Milton Keynes		1997	Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lancaster		Conservative Party
		Huw Edwards	Monmouth		1997	David Davies		Conservative Party
		Phil Sawford	Kettering		1997	Philip Hollobone		Conservative Party
		Linda Perham	Ilford North		1997	Lee Scott		Conservative Party
		John Cryer	Hornchurch		1997	James Brokenshire		Conservative Party
		Tony McWalter	Hemel Hempstead		1997	Mike Penning		Conservative Party
		Candy Atherton	Falmouth and Camborne		1997	Julia Goldsworthy		Liberal Democrats
		Nigel Beard	Bexleyheath and Crayford		1997	David Evenett		Conservative Party
		Oona King	Bethnal Green & Bow		1997	George Galloway		Respect Party
		Valerie Davey	Bristol West		1997	Stephen Williams		Liberal Democrats
		Anne Campbell	Cambridge		1992	David Howarth		Liberal Democrats
		Jon Owen Jones	Cardiff Central		1992	Jenny Willott		Liberal Democrats
		Gareth Thomas	Clwyd West		1997	David Jones		Conservative Party
		Geraint Davies	Croydon Central		1997	Andrew Pelling		Conservative Party
		John Lyons	Strathkelvin and Bearsden		2001	Jo Swinson		Liberal Democrats
		Iain Luke	Dundee East		2001	Stewart Hosie		Scottish National Party
		Chris Pond	Gravesham		1997	Adam Holloway		Conservative Party
	Liberal Democrats	Brian Cotter	Weston-super-Mare		1997	John Penrose		Conservative Party
		Sue Doughty	Guildford		2001	Anne Milton		Conservative Party
		Matthew Green	Ludlow		2001	Philip Dunne		Conservative Party
		David Rendel	Newbury		1993	Richard Benyon		Conservative Party
	Conservative	Tim Collins	Westmorland & Lonsdale		1997	Tim Farron		Liberal Democrats
		Peter Duncan	Dumfries & Galloway		2001	Russell Brown		Labour Party
		Adrian Flook	Taunton		2001	Jeremy Browne		Liberal Democrats
		John Taylor	Solihull		1983	Lorely Burt		Liberal Democrats
	Ulster Unionist Party	David Trimble	Upper Bann	Parliamentary Leader of the Ulster Unionists	1990	David Simpson		Democratic Unionist Party
		Roy Beggs	East Antrim		1983	Sammy Wilson		Democratic Unionist Party
		David Burnside	South Antrim		2001	William McCrea		Democratic Unionist Party
	Plaid Cymru	Simon Thomas	Ceredigion		2000	Mark Williams		Liberal Democrats
	Scottish National Party	Annabelle Ewing	Perth (contested Ochil and South Perthshire)		2001	Gordon Banks		Labour Party

Post election events

Formation of government

Following the election result, Labour remained in power and Tony Blair remained Prime Minister, reshuffling Cabinet and junior ministers over the following weekend, with formal announcements made on 9 May 2005. The most senior positions of Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary remained the same, but a few new faces were added; most notably David Blunkett returned to cabinet as the Work and Pensions Secretary, although he was forced to resign again due to another scandal before the end of the year that spawned a national press and opposition campaign for his dismissal. Patricia Hewitt became the new Health Secretary, Tessa Jowell remained as Culture Secretary, whilst Alan Johnson was promoted to Trade and Industry Secretary. Meanwhile Ruth Kelly retained the Education job and Margaret Beckett stayed put at Environment.

The new Parliament met on 11 May for the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

New party leaders

On 6 May Michael Howard announced he would be standing down as leader of the Conservative Party, but not before a review of the leadership rules. The formal leadership election began in October, and was ultimately won by David Cameron. See Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005. The following day David Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. His successor, Sir Reg Empey, was elected at the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on 24 June. See Ulster Unionist Party leadership election, 2005.

End of the term

The prime minister Gordon Brown visited Buckingham Palace on 6 April 2010 and asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament on 12 April. The next election was held on 6 May 2010.^[16]

Further reading

• John Bartle and Anthony King, eds. Britain at the Polls 2005 (2005) excerpt and text search
• Andrew Geddes and Jonathan Tonge, eds. Britain decides: the UK general election 2005 (2005) 311 pages
• Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler, eds. The British General Election of 2005 (2006) essays by political scientists

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2005
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Scotland
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Wales
• 2005 United Kingdom general election results in Northern Ireland

References

External links

• NSD: European Election Database - UK

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom General elections 1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2020 Local elections 1889 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 Referendums 1975 2011 Elections and referendums in England (1264–1705) Great Britain (1708–1796) Ireland Northern Ireland Scotland Wales

United Kingdom general election, 2005 Constituency results Marginal constituencies MPs elected Pre-election Parties Results breakdown Re-Elected Prime Minister: Tony Blair (Labour) Parties elected to the House of Commons and their leaders Tony Blair (Labour) Michael Howard (Conservative) Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats) Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party) Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party) Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin) Ieuan Wyn Jones (Plaid Cymru) Mark Durkan (Social Democratic and Labour Party) Richard Taylor (Health Concern) George Galloway (Respect) Results by area Bristol Cornwall Greater Manchester Lancashire London Merseyside Northern Ireland Scotland Edinburgh Glasgow Surrey West Yorkshire United Kingdom local elections, 2005

Tony Blair Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997–2007) Leader of the Labour Party (1994–2007) Leader of the Opposition (1994–1997) MP for Sedgefield (1983–2007) Born 6 May 1953 (age 61) Politics Premiership Blair ministry Blair–Brown deal Electoral history Shadow Cabinet of Tony Blair Ideology Blairism New Labour Third Way General elections 1997 2001 2005 Party election 1994 Shadow Cabinet elections 1992 1993 Post-premiership Quartet on the Middle East Africa Progress Panel Tony Blair Faith Foundation Commission for Africa Books A Journey Family Cherie Blair (wife) Euan Blair (son) Nicky Blair (son) Kathryn Blair (daughter) Leo Blair (son) Leo Blair (father) Hazel Blair (mother) William Blair (brother) Cultural depictions The Tony Blair Witch Project (2000) The Deal (2003) "The Regina Monologues" (2004) The Queen (2006) The Blair Years (2007) The Trial of Tony Blair (2007) The Special Relationship (2010) The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011) The Killing of Tony Blair (proposed) Related topics Ugly Rumours Respect agenda Blatcherism Cool Britannia Blair babe Tony's Cronies Wiktionary Wikibooks Wikiquote Wikisource Commons Wikinews Wikibook Category

Michael Howard Politics Shadow Cabinet Folkestone and Hythe General election 2005 Party elections 1997 2003

New Labour Key figures Tony Blair Peter Mandelson Alastair Campbell Gordon Brown Anthony Giddens Anthony Crosland Philip Gould Lord David Sainsbury Political ethos Blairism Third Way Blatcherism Brownism General elections 1997 2001 2005 2010 (Post-election events) Government Premiership of Tony Blair Blair ministry Chancellorship of Gordon Brown Premiership of Gordon Brown Brown ministry Publications The Future of Socialism A Journey The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour The Blair Years The Purple Book Related topics Labour Co-ordinating Committee Blair–Brown deal New Labour, New Life For Britain New Labour, New Danger Things Can Only Get Better Progress Tony's Cronies Book Category