Next United Kingdom General Election

The next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than Wednesday 15 August 2029. It will determine the composition of the House of Commons, which determines the government of the United Kingdom.

Background

The 2024 general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, but with the smallest share of the electoral vote of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote began in 1830. The combined vote share for Labour and the Conservatives reached a record low, with smaller parties doing well. Labour returned to being the largest party in Scotland and remained so in Wales. The election was noted as the most disproportionate in modern British history, mainly as a result of the first-past-the-post voting system.

The Conservative Party under Rishi Sunak lost 251 seats and suffered their worst ever defeat, ending their 14-year tenure as the primary governing party. The Conservatives won no seats in Wales and only one seat in North East England. On 2 November 2024, Kemi Badenoch won the 2024 Conservative leadership election to succeed Sunak.

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, placed third in the share of the vote in the 2024 election and had MPs elected to the Commons for the first time. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats, led by Ed Davey, made significant gains to reach their highest ever number of seats. The Green Party of England and Wales also won a record number of seats alongside a number of independent MPs. The Scottish National Party (SNP) lost around three-quarters of its seats.

Current composition of the House of Commons

Electoral system

Voting eligibility

In order to vote in the general election, barring any changes in eligibility rules, one must be:

* on the Electoral Register,
* aged 18 or over on polling day,
* a British citizen, a Commonwealth citizen (with leave to remain or not requiring it) or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
* a resident at an address in the United Kingdom (or a British citizen living abroad), ''and''
* not legally excluded from voting (for example a convicted person detained in prison or a mental hospital, or unlawfully at large if they would otherwise have been detained, or a person found guilty of certain corrupt or illegal practices, or a sitting Member of the House of Lords)

Individuals must be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day. Anyone who qualifies as an anonymous elector has approximately five working days before polling day to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) may be able to register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can only vote in one constituency at the general election.

Date of the election

Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the prime minister has the power to request the monarch call an election at any time during the five-year length of a parliamentary session. If the prime minister chooses not to do this, then parliament is automatically dissolved five years after the day it first met, and a general election is held 25 working days after dissolution.

According to the House of Commons, Parliament first met on 9 July 2024 meaning that unless Parliament is dissolved earlier it will be automatically dissolved on 9 July 2029, and the latest an election could be held is 15 August 2029. However according to the Electoral Commission the appropriate date to use as the first meeting is the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July 2024, which would mean the latest an election could be held is on 21 August 2029.

Opinion polling

Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election is being carried out continually by various organisations to gauge voting intention. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The dates for these opinion polls range from the 2024 general election on 4 July to the present day.

Notes

References

{{United Kingdom elections

Future elections in the United Kingdom
General elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Premiership of Keir Starmer
Ed Davey
Nigel Farage
Kemi Badenoch