Elections in England

There are five types of elections in England: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to the devolved London Assembly, local council elections, metro mayor elections, and the Police and crime commissioner elections, in addition to by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday.

Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, all five types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the UK parliament occurred in both 2017 and 2019.^[1]^[2] After winning the 2019 election, the Conservative Party committed to repealing the FTPA.^[3] On 1 December 2020, in fulfilment of this manifesto pledge, the government published a draft Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Repeal) Bill, which would repeal the FTPA and revive the royal prerogative power of dissolving Parliament as it existed before the Act.^[4] The legislation was formally announced as the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill in the Queen's Speech of 11 May 2021, and granted Royal Assent on 24 March 2022.^[5]

The three electoral systems used for elections in England are: first-past-the-post (for UK elections and local elections, though individual local authorities are able to move to STV under recent legislation), the additional member system (for Mayor and London Assembly elections) and the supplementary vote (for Police and Crime Commissioner elections; although proposals by the UK Government to change Assembly, Mayor and PCC elections to FPTP have been made).^[6]

UK Parliament

Since 1918, the Conservative Party has predominantly received the most English votes in UK general elections, winning a plurality 21 times out of 29. The other seven elections (1945, 1950, 1951, 1966, October 1974, 1997, 2001 and 2024) saw the popular vote in England being won by the Labour Party.^[7]

1918


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	315	N/A			65.0	~3,140,000	39.5	N/A
	Liberal	107				22.1	~2,140,000	26.4
	Labour	42				8.7	~1,810,000	22.5
	Other parties	21				2.5	~690,000	8.5
		485				100	~8,050,000	100

1922


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	307	N/A		8	63.3	~4,810,000	41.1	N/A
	Labour	95			43	19.6	~3,370,000	28.8
	Liberal	75			32	15.5	~3,210,000	27.2
	Other parties	8			13	1.6	~310,000	2.5
		485	N/A			100	~11,700,000	100

1923


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	221	N/A		86	45.6	~4,730,000	39.8	N/A
	Labour	138			43	28.5	~3,550,000	29.7
	Liberal	123			48	25.4	~3,570,000	29.9
	Other parties	3			5	0.62	~70,000	0.6
		485	N/A			100	~11,930,000	100

1924


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	347	N/A		126	71.5	~6,460,000	47.7	N/A
	Labour	109			29	22.4	~4,470,000	32.8
	Liberal	19			104	3.9	~3,390,000	17.6
	Other parties	10			7	1.9	~250,000	0.6
		485	N/A			100	~13,560,000	100

1929


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	226	N/A		117	46.6	~6,850,000	36.9	N/A
	Conservative	221			126	45.5	~7,180,000	38.8
	Liberal	35			16	7.2	~4,340,000	23.6
	Other parties	3			7	2.0	~130,000	0.7
		485	N/A			100	~18,500,000	100

1931


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	436	N/A		215	89.9	~11,480,000	63.3	N/A
	Labour	29			197	5.98	~7,180,000	30.2
	Liberal	19			16	3.91	~1,040,000	6.0
	Other parties	1			2	0.2	~100,000	0.5
		485	N/A			100	~18,080,000	100

1935


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	357	N/A		81	73.6	~9,990,000	54.5	N/A
	Labour	116			87	23.9	~7,050,000	38.5
	Liberal	11			16	2.26	~1,110,000	6.3
	Other parties	1			2	0.2	~120,000	0.7
		485	N/A			100	~18,270,000	100

1945


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	331	N/A		215	64.9	~9,970,000	48.5	N/A
	Conservative	167			190	32.7	~8,270,000	40.2
	Liberal	5			6	0.98	~1,910,000	9.4
	Other parties	7			6	1.37	~380,000	1.9
		510	N/A			100	~20,540,000	100

1950


Party		Seats					Votes
Party		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	251	N/A		80	46.1	~11,050,000	48.5	N/A
	Conservative	253			86	43.8	~10,500,000	40.2
	Liberal	2			3	0.98	~2,250,000	9.4
	Other parties	0			7	1.37	~160,000	1.9
		506	N/A			100	~23,950,000	100

1951

1955

1959

1964

1966

1970

February 1974

October 1974

1979

1983


Party^[8]		Seats					Votes
Party^[8]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	362	N/A	N/A	37	69.2	11,711,519	46.0	1.2
	Labour	148	N/A	N/A	45	28.3	6,862,422	26.8	9.8
	Alliance	13	N/A	N/A	8	2.5	6,714,957	26.4	11.5
	Other parties	0	N/A	N/A		—	183,748	0.7	0.5
							25,472,646	72.5

Popular vote

Conservative			46.0%
Labour			26.8%
SDP–Liberal Alliance			26.4%
Other			0.7%

Parliament seats

Conservative			69.2%
Labour			28.3%
SDP–Liberal Alliance			2.5%

1987


Party^[9]		Seats					Votes
Party^[9]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	358	9	13	4	68.5	12,546,186	46.2	0.2
	Labour	155	13	6	7	29.6	8,006,466	29.5	2.5
	Alliance	10	2	5	3	1.9	6,467,350	23.8	2.4
	Other parties	0	0	0		—	113,520	0.4	0.3
							27,133,522	75.4	2.9

Popular vote

Conservative			46.2%
Labour			29.5%
SDP–Liberal Alliance			23.8%
Other			0.4%

Parliament seats

Conservative			68.5%
Labour			29.6%
SDP–Liberal Alliance			1.9%

1992


Party^[10]		Seats					Votes
Party^[10]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	319	1	40	39	60.9	12,796,772	45.5	0.8
	Labour	195	40	0	40	37.2	9,551,910	33.9	4.4
	Liberal Democrats	10	4	4		1.9	5,398,293	19.2	4.7
	Other parties	0	0	0		—	401,531	1.4	1.0
							28,148,506	78.0

Popular vote

Conservative			45.5%
Labour			33.9%
Liberal Democrats			19.2%
Other			1.4%

Parliament seats

Conservative			60.9%
Labour			37.2%
Liberal Democrats			1.9%

1997


Party^[11]		Seats					Votes
Party^[11]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	328	133	1	132	62.0	11,347,882	43.5	9.6
	Conservative	165	0	159	159	31.2	8,780,881	33.7	11.8
	Liberal Democrats	34	26	1	25	6.4	4,677,565	18.0	1.3
	Referendum	0	0	0		—	746,624	2.9	N/A
	UKIP	0	0	0		—	103,521	0.4	N/A
	Independent	1	1	0	1	0.2	69,464	0.3	0.2
	Green	0	0	0		—	60,013	0.2	0.4
	Liberal	0	0	0		—	44,516	0.2
	Socialist Labour	0	0	0		—	44,114	0.2	N/A
	BNP	0	0	0		—	35,181	0.1	0.1
	Natural Law	0	0	0		—	25,958	0.1	0.1
	Independent Labour	0	0	0		—	24,447	0.1
	Speaker	1	1	0	1	0.2	24,447	0.1	N/A
	Ind. Conservative	0	0	0		—	18,667	0.1
	Prolife Alliance	0	0	0		—	13,890	0.1	N/A
	Other parties	0	0	0		—	42,020	0.2	N/A
							26,058,712	71.5	6.5

Popular vote

Labour			43.5%
Conservative			33.7%
Liberal Democrats			18.0%
Referendum			2.9%
Other			2.1%

Parliament seats

Labour			62.0%
Conservative			31.2%
Liberal Democrats			6.4%
Other			0.4%

2001


Party^[12]		Seats					Votes
Party^[12]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	323	1	6	5	61.1	9,056,824	41.4	2.1
	Conservative	165	8	8		31.2	7,705,870	35.2	1.5
	Liberal Democrats	40	8	2	6	8.1	4,246,853	19.4	1.5
	UKIP	0	0	0		—	374,775	1.7	1.3
	Green	0	0	0		—	158,173	0.7	0.5
	Independent	0	0	1	1	—	79,559	0.4	0.1
	Socialist Alliance	0	0	0		—	55,295	0.3	N/A
	Socialist Labour	0	0	0		—	51,299	0.2	0.1
	BNP	0	0	0		—	46,851	0.2	0.1
	Health Concern	1	1	0	1	0.2	28,487	0.1	N/A
	Liberal	0	0	0		—	13,302	0.1	0.1
	Other parties	0	0	0	1	—	53,474	0.2	N/A
							21,870,762	59.1	12.2

Popular vote

Labour			41.4%
Conservative			35.2%
Liberal Democrats			19.4%
UKIP			1.7%
Other			1.5%

Parliament seats

Labour			61.1%
Conservative			31.2%
Liberal Democrats			7.6%
Other			0.2%

2005


Party^[13]		Seats					Votes
Party^[13]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Labour	286	0	37	37	54.1	8,043,461	35.4	6.0
	Conservative	194	32	3	29	36.7	8,116,005	35.7	0.5
	Liberal Democrats	47	12	5	7	8.9	5,201,286	22.9	3.6
	Respect	1	1	0	1	0.2	67,422	0.3	0.3
	Health Concern	1	0	0		0.2	18,739	0.1
	UKIP	0	0	0		0.0	592,417	2.6	0.9
	Green	0	0	0		0.0	251,051	1.1	0.4
	BNP	0	0	0		0.0	189,570	0.8	0.6
	Veritas	0	0	0		0.0	39,044	0.2	New
	Liberal	0	0	0		0.0	17,547	0.1
	Others	0	0	0		0.0	177,343	0.8	N/A
							22,713,855	61.0	1.9

Popular vote

Conservative			35.7%
Labour			35.4%
Liberal Democrats			22.9%
UKIP			2.6%
Greens			1.1%
Other			2.3%

Parliament seats

Labour			54.1%
Conservative			36.7%
Liberal Democrats			8.9%
Respect			0.2%
ICHC			0.2%

2010


Party^[14]		Seats					Votes
Party^[14]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	297	95	4	91	55.7	9,908,169	39.5	3.8
	Labour	191	2	89	87	35.8	7,042,398	28.1	7.4
	Liberal Democrats	43	8	12	4	8.1	6,076,189	24.2	1.3
	UKIP	0	0	0		—	866,633	3.5	0.9
	BNP	0	0	0		—	532,333	2.1	1.3
	Green	1	0	0	1	0.2	258,954	1.0	0.1
	English Democrat	0	0	0		—	64,826	0.3	0.2
	Respect	0	0	0	1	—	33,251	0.1	0.2
	Speaker	1	1	0	1	0.2	22,860	0.1
	Health Concern	0	0	0	1	—	16,150	0.1
	Christian	0	0	0	0	—	15,841	0.1	N/A
	National Front	0	0	0	0	—	10,400	0.0
	TUSC	0	0	0	0	—	8,404	0.0	N/A
	Socialist Labour	0	0	0	0	—	4,368	0.0
	Other parties	0	0	0	0	—	224,341	0.9
							25,085,097	65.5	4.5

Popular vote

Conservative			39.5%
Labour			28.1%
Liberal Democrats			24.2%
UKIP			3.5%
BNP			2.1%
Greens			1.0%
Other			1.5%

Parliament seats

Conservative			55.7%
Labour			35.8%
Liberal Democrats			8.1%
Greens			0.2%
Speaker			0.2%

2015


Party^[15]		Seats					Votes
Party^[15]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	318	32	11	21	59.7	10,483,261	40.9	1.4
	Labour	206	21	6	15	38.6	8,087,684	31.6	3.6
	UKIP	1	1	0	1	0.2	3,611,367	14.1	10.7
	Liberal Democrats	6	0	37	37	1.1	2,098,404	8.2	16.0
	Green	1	0	0		0.2	1,073,242	4.2	3.2
	Speaker	1	0	0		0.2	34,617	0.1
	TUSC	0	0	0		—	32,868	0.1	0.1
	NHA	0	0	0		—	20,210	0.1	New
	Respect	0	0	0		—	9,989	0.0	0.1
	Yorkshire First	0	0	0		—	6,811	0.0	New
	English Democrat	0	0	0		—	6,431	0.0	0.2
	CISTA	0	0	0		—	4,569	0.0	New
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0	0		—	3,432	0.0
	CPA	0	0	0		—	3,260	0.0
	BNP	0	0	0		—	1,667	0.0	2.1
	Class War	0	0	0		—	526	0.0	New
	Other parties	0	0	0		—	127,133	0.5	0.2
							25,571,204	65.9	0.4

Popular vote

Conservative			40.9%
Labour			31.6%
UKIP			14.1%
Liberal Democrats			8.2%
Greens			4.2%
Other			0.9%

Parliament seats

Conservative			59.7%
Labour			38.6%
Liberal Democrats			1.1%
UKIP			0.2%
Greens			0.2%
Speaker			0.2%

2017


Party^[16]		Seats					Votes
Party^[16]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	296	8	30	22	55.5	12,344,901	45.4	4.4
	Labour	227	27	6	21	42.6	11,390,099	41.9	10.3
	Liberal Democrats	8	5	3	2	1.5	2,121,810	7.8	0.4
	UKIP	0	0	1	1	—	557,390	2.1	12.1
	Green	1	0	0		0.2	506,969	1.9	2.3
	Speaker	1	0	0		0.2	34,299	0.1
	Yorkshire	0	0	0		—	20,958	0.1	0.1
	NHA	0	0	0		—	16,119	0.1
	CPA	0	0	0		—	5,869	0.0
	BNP	0	0	0		—	4,642	0.0
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0	0		—	3,733	0.0
	Women's Equality	0	0	0		—	3,066	0.0
	English Democrat	0	0	0		—	1,913	0.0
	Pirate	0	0	0		—	1,875	0.0
	Workers Revolutionary	0	0	0		—	771	0.0
	SDP	0	0	0		—	321	0.0
	Others	0	0	0		—	151,054	0.6	0.4
Total		533					27,165,789	Turnout	69.1

Popular vote

Conservative			45.4%
Labour			41.9%
Liberal Democrats			7.8%
UKIP			2.1%
Green			1.9%
Other			0.9%

Parliament seats

Conservative			55.5%
Labour			42.6%
Liberal Democrats			1.5%
Green			0.2%
Speaker			0.2%

2019


Party^[17]		Seats					Votes
Party^[17]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net +/-	% seats	Total votes	% votes	Change
	Conservative	345	52	3	49	64.7	12,710,845	47.2	1.7
	Labour	180	1	48	47	33.7	9,152,034	34.0	7.9
	Liberal Democrats	7	2	3	1	1.3	3,340,835	12.4	4.6
	Green	1	0	0		0.2	819,751	3.0	1.2
	Brexit Party	0	0	0		—	545,172	2.0	2.0
	Yorkshire	0	0	0		—	29,201	0.1
	UKIP	0	0	0		—	18,891	0.1	2.0
	Liberal	0	0	0		—	10,876	0.0
	Change UK	0	0	0		—	10,006	0.0	new
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0	0		—	9,394	0.0
	CPA	0	0	0		—	6,246	0.0
	Animal Welfare	0	0	0		—	3,086	0.0
	SDP	0	0	0		—	3,000	0.0
	English Democrat	0	0	0		—	1,987	0.0
	Libertarian	0	0	0		—	1,375	0.0
	Workers Revolutionary	0	0	0		—	524	0.0
	Advance	0	0	0		—	351	0.0	new
	Others	0	0	0		—	246,094	0.9	0.8
							26,909,668	67.4	1.7

Note: the above figures include the Speaker being counted in the Labour totals, despite the Speaker being non-partisan.

Popular vote

Conservative			47.2%
Labour			34.0%
Liberal Democrats			12.4%
Green			3.0%
Brexit Party			2.0%
Other			1.4%

Parliament seats

Conservative			64.7%
Labour			33.7%
Liberal Democrats			1.3%
Green			0.2%

2024

Party^[18]		Seats					Aggregate votes
Party^[18]		Total	Gains	Losses	Net	Of all (%)	Total	Of all (%)	Difference
	Labour	347	173	7	166	63.9	8,339,884	34.3	0.5
	Conservative	116	1	230	229	21.4	6,279,411	25.9	21.3
	Reform UK	5	5	0	5	0.9	3,726,224	15.3	13.3
	Liberal Democrats	65	59	0	59	12.0	3,199,060	13.2	0.8
	Green	4	3	0	3	0.7	1,780,226	7.3	4.3
	Independent	5	5	0	5	0.9	513,266	2.1	1.4
	Workers Party	0	0	0		—	208,234	0.9	0.9
	Speaker	1	0	0		0.2	25,238	0.1
	SDP	0	0	0		—	33,385	0.1	0.1
	Yorkshire	0	0	0		—	17,227	0.0
	TUSC	0	0	0		—	10,507	0.0
	Rejoin EU	0	0	0		—	9,245	0.0
	Liberal	0	0	0		—	5,894	0.0
	UKIP	0	0	0		—	5,617	0.0
	CPA	0	0	0		—	5,604	0.0
	Heritage	0	0	0		—	5,441	0.0
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0	0		—	5,421	0.0
	English Democrat	0	0	0		—	5,182	0.0
	Party of Women	0	0	0		—	5,077	0.0
	Hampshire Ind.	0	0	0		—	2,872	0.0
	Socialist Labour	0	0	0		—	2,397	0.0
	Climate	0	0	0		—	1,863	0.0
	Communist	0	0	0		—	1,585	0.0
	Others	0	0	0		—	99,262	0.9
Total		543					24,288,122	60.0	7.4

Aggregate votes

Labour			34.4%
Conservative			25.9%
Reform UK			15.3%
Liberal Democrats			13.2%
Green			7.3%
Independent			2.1%
Other			1.7%

Members of parliament

Labour			64.1%
Conservative			21.4%
Liberal Democrats			12.0%
Reform UK			0.9%
Independent			0.9%
Green			0.7%

London mayor

The mayor of London is elected by the supplementary vote method for a fixed term of four years, with elections taking place in May. As with most elected posts in the United Kingdom, there is a deposit (in this case of £10,000), which is returnable on the candidate's winning of at least 5% of the first-choice votes cast.

References

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^ Butterworth, Benjamin (29 October 2019). "General election 2019: UK snap election to be held on 12 December after Boris Johnson wins Commons vote 438-20". i. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
^ "Get Brexit Done: the Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2019" (PDF). Conservative and Unionist Party. p. 48. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
^ "Government to fulfil manifesto commitment and scrap Fixed-term Parliaments Act". gov.uk. 1 December 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
^ Blewett, Sam (11 May 2021). "A brief look at the Bills included in the Queen's Speech". Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
^ Woodcock, Andrew (16 March 2021). "Priti Patel under fire over plan to change voting system for London mayor". The Independent. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
^ Pilling, Sam; Cracknell, Richard (18 August 2021). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2021: A Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library. pp. 20–21. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
^ "GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS, 9 JUNE 1983" (PDF). 1984. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
^ "GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS, 11 JUNE 1987" (PDF). 1989. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
^ "GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS, 9 APRIL 1992" (PDF). 1993. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
^ "General election results 1 May 1997". 9 May 1997. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
^ Morgan, Bryn (12 June 2021). "General election results, 7 June 2001" (PDF): 12. Retrieved 6 October 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ "Election 2005 | Results | England". BBC News. 10 May 2005. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
^ "Election 2010 Results England". BBC News.
^ Election 2015 Results England BBC News
^ "England Results". BBC News.
^ "Results of the 2019 General Election in England". BBC News.
^ "Results of the 2024 General Election in England". BBC News.

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[6] Woodcock, Andrew (16 March 2021). "Priti Patel under fire over plan to change voting system for London mayor". The Independent. Retrieved 30 September 2021.

[7] Pilling, Sam; Cracknell, Richard (18 August 2021). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2021: A Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library. pp. 20–21. Retrieved 30 September 2021.

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[10] "GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS, 9 APRIL 1992" (PDF). 1993. Retrieved 30 July 2018.

[11] "General election results 1 May 1997". 9 May 1997. Retrieved 22 July 2018.

[12] Morgan, Bryn (12 June 2021). "General election results, 7 June 2001" (PDF): 12. Retrieved 6 October 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[13] "Election 2005 | Results | England". BBC News. 10 May 2005. Retrieved 6 October 2021.

[14] "Election 2010 Results England". BBC News.

[15] Election 2015 Results England BBC News

[16] "England Results". BBC News.

[BBCresults-17] "Results of the 2019 General Election in England". BBC News.

[BBCresults2024-18] "Results of the 2024 General Election in England". BBC News.

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