The General Election has resulted in a hung Parliament with the Conservatives as the largest party. This is only the third time since World War II that a General Election has produced a hung Parliament – the previous occasions being February 1974 and May 2010.
What were the results in the UK?
– The Conservative Party have won 317 seats (a net loss of 13 compared with 2015)
– The Labour Party have won 262 seats (up by 30)
– The SNP have won 35 seats (down by 21)
– The Liberal Democrats have won 12 seats (up by 4)
Of the 650 declared seats, 70 (10.8%) have changed hands compared with 2015.
Highest turnout since 1997
32.2 million valid votes have been cast across the UK – this represents a turnout of 69% of the electorate, up from 66% in 2015 and the highest turnout figure since 1997 (71%).
The total registered electorate was 46.8 million, up from 46.4 million in 2015.
The vote share in Great Britain swings back to the largest parties
The Conservatives got 43.4% of the vote in Great Britain, up by 5.8% compared with 2015, whereas Labour got 41.0%, up by 9.8%. This represents a GB-wide swing from Conservative to Labour of 2%.
The combined vote share of the two largest parties, Conservatives and Labour, is 84.4%, which is 15.6 percentage points higher than in 2015 and the highest combined vote share since 1970.
Results in England
The Conservatives increased their vote share in England to 45.4% (up from 40.9% in 2015) but their number of seats fell from 318 to 296. Labour on the other hand enjoyed a much larger increase in its vote share – up 10.3 percentage points to 41.9% – and increased its seat tally from 206 to 227.
The UKIP vote share in England collapsed from 14.1% in 2015 to 2.1% in 2017, and the party lost its only seat in the Commons (Clacton: CON gain).
Results in Wales
Wales shows a similar picture to England in that Labour and the Conservatives both scored substantial increases in their vote share at the expense of UKIP.
But Labour’s increase (up by 12.1 percentage points, from 36.9% to 48.9%) was around twice that of the Conservatives (up 6.3 percentage points, from 27.2% to 33.6%) and Labour achieved a net gain of seats (up from 25 to 28) while the Conservatives experienced a net loss (down from 11 to 8).
Plaid Cymru fell back slightly on vote share (down 1.7 percentage points, from 12.1% to 10.4%) but picked up an extra seat at the Lib Dems’ expense.
Results in Scotland
The Scottish National Party won 35 seats, a net fall of 21 seats compared with the near clean sweep of seats (56 out of 59) it achieved in 2015. Its vote share also fell, from 50% to 37% (down 13 percentage points). Despite these losses the SNP remains the largest party in Scotland in terms of votes and seats, and this was their second-best result ever in a Westminster election.
The Scottish Conservatives achieved a vote share of 28.6%, up 13.7 percentage points on their 2015 showing (14.9%) and their best result in terms of vote share since 1979 (31%). They also increased their seats from one to 13, all at the expense of the SNP.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats also recovered some lost ground in terms of seats, winning 7 (net gain: 6) and 4 (net gain: 3) respectively.
Results in Northern Ireland
A two-party picture has emerged in Northern Ireland: the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) won 10 seats, Sinn Féin won 7, and one Independent (Lady Sylvia Hermon) retained her seat. The vote shares for the DUP (36.0%) and Sinn Féin (29.4%) were the highest ever achieved by these parties in a Westminster election. The Ulster Unionist Party and Social Democratic & Labour Party lost all their seats.
We have now published our General Election 2017: results and analysis briefing paper – keep an eye out for updates with further analysis. We’ll also be publishing more blog posts on the election results, as well as a series on key issues for the new Parliament.
This post was updated on Monday 12 June to reflect the result in Kensington.
Picture credit: A view of the Elizabeth Tower by UK Parliament – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0)