British General Election 2005
The 2005 British general election took place on May 5th. Elections were made in 646 (previously 659) constituencies using a pure majority vote . Local elections were held in England and Northern Ireland on the same day. Election winner was at a higher by 2.0 percentage points turnout of 61.3%, the Labor Party , with 35.2% of the vote due to the force at the General Election majority voting again an absolute majority of seats won. The incumbent Tony Blair , Prime Minister since 1997, was confirmed in his office:
The Labor Party lost in its historical-statistical victory - Labor had never before won three elections in a row - but (converted to the new constituency), 47 constituencies and thus mandates in the lower house and came to 356 seats. 324 seats were necessary for victory. Three relatively young ministers in the Blair cabinet lost their seats in the lower house to their respective rival Conservative candidates: School Secretary Stephen Twigg in Enfield Southgate, Chris Leslie , Constitutional Affairs Minister , in Shipley, and Health Secretary Melanie Johnson in Welwyn Hatfield . The Conservative Party under challenger Michael Howard did not manage to increase its share of the vote significantly (32.3% of the vote); however, his party gained 33 seats in the lower house and thus came to 197 seats. The Liberal Democrats under their chairman Charles Kennedy increased their share of the vote with 22.0%; the number of their lower house mandates grew from 51 to 62. The Liberals thus achieved their highest number of mandates since 1923.
The smaller parties saw slight gains of two seats for the Scottish National Party (now 6 seats) and the loss of one seat for the Welsh regional party Plaid Cymru (now 3 seats). A former Labor MP, George Galloway , won an independent mandate from his former party in Wales. After a very fierce election campaign, the focus of which was the rejection of the Iraq war, he received a seat for the newly founded Respect party in the immigrant majority of London's East End . A total of three independent MPs were represented in the new lower house after Richard Taylor of the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern (IKKH) had also defended his seat. He won this award in 2001 with a protest against the intended partial closure of a hospital in the Wyre Forest constituency (near Birmingham).
In Northern Ireland, the radical Protestant DUP under the preacher Ian Paisley achieved considerable votes and won seats. With 9 out of 18 Northern Irish seats (+4), the DUP was by far the strongest force there. The other Protestant party, the UUP of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate David Trimble , lost five of its six seats, including the constituency of Trimble itself. On the Catholic side, only the political arm of the IRA, Sinn Féin, gained one seat, making five seats. The moderate SDLP continued to win three constituencies.
A total of more than 27 million votes were cast in Great Britain, the turnout was 61.3% and was 2.0% higher than in 2001.
Election date
According to the law, the date of the election day is not set in advance, so that the incumbent government can announce the election at very short notice and before the end of the term of office. On April 5, the Prime Minister announced that the election would take place on May 5 and asked Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve Parliament. New elections should have taken place in June 2006 at the latest. However, it is common practice for the incumbent government to announce new elections after four years. Especially if it has a comfortable majority or wants to benefit from a benevolent mood in the population.
Reduction of seats in Scotland
The number of constituencies in Scotland had been reduced from 72 to 59 for the first time for this election. Up until then, Scotland was heavily overrepresented compared to the rest of the country to compensate for the lack of a separate parliament. After the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, which has numerous regional competences, the reason for the privilege ceased. From 2005 onwards, the constituencies across the entire country were determined evenly on the basis of the population.
Election results
In the constituency of Staffordshire South could not be voted on national election day because the candidate of the Liberal Democrats died after the registration deadline. The election was rescheduled on June 23, 2005.
| Political party | be right | Mandates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | % | +/- | number | +/- | ||
| Labor Party | 9,552,436 | 35.2 | −5.5 | 355 | −57 | |
| Conservative party | 8,784,915 | 32.4 | +0.7 | 198 | +33 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 5,985,454 | 22.0 | +3.7 | 62 | +11 | |
| UK Independence Party | 605.973 | 2.2 | +0.7 | - | - | |
| Scottish National Party | 412.267 | 1.5 | −0.3 | 6th | +1 | |
| Green Party of England and Wales | 283,414 | 1.0 | +0.4 | - | - | |
| Democratic Unionist Party | 241,856 | 0.9 | +0.2 | 9 | +4 | |
| British National Party | 192.745 | 0.7 | +0.5 | - | - | |
| Plaid Cymru | 174,838 | 0.6 | −0.1 | 3 | −1 | |
| Sinn Féin | 174,530 | 0.6 | −0.1 | 5 | +1 | |
| Ulster Unionist Party | 127.414 | 0.5 | −0.3 | 1 | −5 | |
| Social Democratic and Labor Party | 125,626 | 0.5 | −0.1 | 3 | - | |
| Independent | 99,691 | 0.4 | - | - | - | |
| Respect | 68.094 | 0.3 | +0.3 | 1 | +1 | |
| Scottish Socialist Party | 43,514 | 0.2 | −0.1 | - | - | |
| Veritas | 40,607 | 0.1 | +0.1 | - | - | |
| Alliance Party of Northern Ireland | 28,291 | 0.1 | - | - | - | |
| Candidates without description | 22,958 | 0.1 | - | 1 | - | |
| Socialist Labor Party | 20,167 | 0.1 | -0.1 | - | - | |
| Liberal party | 19,068 | 0.1 | - | - | - | |
| Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern | 18,739 | 0.1 | - | 1 | - | |
| Speaker | 15,153 | 0.1 | - | 1 | - | |
| Others | 110,760 | 0.3 | - | - | - | |
| total | 27.148.510 | 100.0 | 646 | |||
| Eligible voters | 44.245.939 | |||||
| voter turnout | 61.4% | |||||
| Source: UK Parliament | ||||||
Election analysis
According to BBC reports, 22% of the electorate voted for New Labor this time , which is a relative proportion of 36% in the election result. This time the British gave Labor a majority of the seats, not because of Tony Blair, but in spite of Blair. Even 53% of Labor voters said, according to the polls, that Blair's party deserved a reduced majority and that they only preferred it as a lesser evil because the alternatives were even more dire. He himself admitted that the Iraq war issue had divided the electorate and contributed most to the lost seats. The Liberal Democrats (+ 11 seats) and Independents (+ 2) benefited from this.
The second major electoral movement identified was the exodus of younger voters between the ages of 18 and 34 years away from Labor and towards the LibDems. This was based except on the controversial participation in the war question on the anger over the sharp rise in tuition fees (Student Tuition Fees). The Labor Party also lost support among British Muslims, one of its traditional constituencies, because of the Iraq war.
The third postponement was a voter migration, especially in London and the south-east of England, to which the Tories in particular owed their 33 constituencies. Nevertheless, for the second time in a row, under their chairman Michael Howard , they were unable to significantly advance beyond the disastrous result of the 1997 general election. This was also the decisive reason for the replacement of Howard by David Cameron .
Web links
- BBC election website
- Daily analysis of election forecasts
- Ex-Labor rebel George Galloway scored narrow victory in London's East End constituency - campaign highlight (engl.)
- Labor loses against historically strong independents (taz May 7, 2005, page 2)
- BBC election analysis broken down by party and voter group (May 6, 2005)
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b General Election 2005 UK Parliament , PDF file (English)
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