This is the results breakdown of the
2010 United Kingdom general election
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom und ...
.
Swing
The election was marked by no uniform national
swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing ri ...
, with suburban and rural constituencies showing large swings from
Labour to the
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, 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
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...
to the
54th Parliament.
The Conservatives gained more seats than at any other general election since their landslide result in
1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
. Labour lost a total of 94 seats, the second most seats it had lost in a single election.
* Due to Boundary Changes this seat was notionally Conservative, even though it was previously held by the Liberal Democrats, making it a Liberal Democrat gain.
England
Of the 533 seats in England, only 532 were contested on the day of the general election. Polling in
Thirsk and Malton
Thirsk and Malton is a constituency in North Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Kevin Hollinrake, a Conservative.
History
2010-date
Anne McIntosh, a Conservative, elected for Vale of York in 19 ...
was delayed until 27 May due to the death of the
UKIP
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...
candidate. 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.
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.
England results
BBC News, accessed 9 May 2010
Details of results are given below:
File:NorthumberlandParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
File:TyneWearParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcas ...
File:DurhamParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Durham
File:ClevelandParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
File:CumbriaParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Cumbria
File:LancashireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Lancashire
File:NorthYorkshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, North Yorkshire
File:WestYorkshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, West Yorkshire
File:SouthYorkshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, South Yorkshire
File:HumbersideParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Humberside
Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, We ...
File:MerseysideParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Merseyside
File:GreaterManchesterParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Greater Manchester
File:CheshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Cheshire
File:DerbyshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Derbyshire
File:NottinghamshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Nottinghamshire
File:LincolnshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Lincolnshire
File:ShropshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
File:StaffordshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Staffordshire
File:WestMidlandsParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, West Midlands
File:WarwickshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Warwickshire
File:LeicestershireRutlandParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Leicestershire and Rutland
File:NorthamptonshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Northamptonshire
File:HerefordshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Herefordshire
File:WorcestershireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Worcestershire
File:GloucestershireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Gloucestershire
File:OxfordshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Oxfordshire
File:BuckinghamshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Buckinghamshire
File:BedfordshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Bedfordshire
File:CambridgeshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Cambridgeshire
File:NorfolkParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Norfolk
File:SuffolkParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Suffolk
File:EssexParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Essex
File:HertfordshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Hertfordshire
File:BerkshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Berkshire
File:LondonParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
File:CornwallParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...
File:DevonParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Devon
File:SomersetParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Somerset
File:DorsetParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Dorset
File:AvonParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Avon
File:WiltshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Wiltshire
File:HampshireParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Hampshire
File:SurreyParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Surrey
File:WestSussexParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, West Sussex
File:EastSussexParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, East Sussex
File:KentParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg, Kent
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
Welsh nationalism ( cy, Cenedlaetholdeb Cymreig) emphasises and celebrates the distinctiveness of Welsh culture and Wales as a nation or country. Welsh nationalism may also include calls for further autonomy or self determination which includes ...
party Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
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.
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
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2010 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested. The election result in Scotland was unusual in that there wasn't any change of seats from the 2005 general election, although the Lab ...
Northern Ireland
There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland. Both Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
parties, Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...
and SDLP
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irela ...
, 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
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
and in North Down the UUP's Sylvia Hermon
Sylvia Eileen, Lady Hermon (née Paisley; born 11 August 1955) is a retired Unionist politician from Northern Ireland. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of North Down from 2001 to 2019.
She was first elected fo ...
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
The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern 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
Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.
The developm ...
party, refuse to take their seats at Westminster (see abstentionism
Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in ...
). 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.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Kingdom General Election, 2010
Election results in the United Kingdom