1997 election

2001 election

2005/6 election

The United Kingdom general election of 7 June 2001 was dubbed as "the quiet landslide" by the media. After a landslide victory of the Labour Party in the previous 1997 elections, they now had another major victory by managing to maintain their position. In fact, Tony Blair was the first Labour prime minister to win a full second consecutive term in office, and he did so with the greatest majority ever for a party in government. Outside Northern Ireland (which mostly has different parties and a different electoral landscape from the rest of the UK although a few UK-wide parties stand with minimal success), 620 out of 641 seats remained with the same party as they had been in 1997. The Conservatives netted a gain of only 1 seat after their crushing defeat of 1997 (gaining a few seats from Labour, but losing to the Liberal Democrats), but the Liberal Democrats made a gain of 6 more seats from their already historical high of 1997. With 52 seats, the Liberal Democrats were well established as the third party of Britain and had their best result since the 1920s.

The general election was originally scheduled for the third of May. However in an effort to eradicate the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease the Prime Minister made the decision to postpone until June, a risky move to take as it gave the impression the country was in a state of crisis.

The elections were also marked by apathy from the voting public, turnout being only 59%, the lowest since 1918. Throughout the election the Labour party had maintained a significant lead in the opinion polls and the result was deemed to be so certain that some bookmakers paid out for a Labour majority before the election day.

Labour kept an overall majority of 167 (was 179) and 247 (was 254) over the Conservatives.

In Northern Ireland, the election was far more dramatic and marked a move away from the Good Friday Agreement, with the moderate Protestant and Catholic parties (UUP and SDLP) losing and the more extreme nationalist parties (DUP and Sinn Féin) winning. It also saw a tightening of the parties as the small UK Unionist Party lost its only seat.

Results

Party	Votes	Seats	Loss/Gain	Share of Vote (%)
Labour	10,724,953	412	- 6	40.7
Conservative	8,357,615	166	+ 1	31.7
Liberal Democrats	4,814,321	52	+ 6	18.3
SNP	464,314	5	- 1	1.8
UK Independence	390,563	0		1.5
Ulster Unionist	216,839	6	- 4	0.8
Plaid Cymru	195,893	4		0.7
Democratic Unionist	181,999	5	+ 3	0.7
Sinn Féin	175,933	4	+ 2	0.7
SDLP	169,865	3		0.6
Green	166,477	0		0.6
Independent	97,070	0	- 1	0.4
Scottish Socialist	72,516	0		0.3
Socialist Alliance	57,553	0		0.2
Socialist Labour	57,288	0		0.2
BNP	47,129	0		0.2
Alliance (NI)	28,999	0		0.1
Kidderminster Health	28,487	1	+ 1	0.1
Liberal	13,685	0		0.1
UK Unionist	13,509	0	- 1	0.1
Prolife Alliance	9,453	0		0.0
Cannabis	8,677	0		0.0
PJP	7,443	0		0.0
Monster Raving Loony	6,655	0		0.0
Progressive Unionist	4,781	0		0.0
Mebyon Kernow	3,199	0		0.0
NI Women's Coalition	2,968	0		0.0
Scottish Unionist	2,728	0		0.0
Rock N Roll	2,634	0		0.0
National Front	2,484	0		0.0
Workers	2,352	0		0.0
Neath Port Talbot Ratepayers	1,960	0		0.0
Northern Ireland Unionist	1,794	0		0.0
Socialist Alternative	1,454	0		0.0
Reform 2000	1,418	0		0.0
Isle of Wight	1,164	0		0.0
Muslim	1,150	0		0.0
Communist	1,003	0		0.0

Total votes cast: 26,368,204. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown.

The seat gains reflect changes on the 1997 general election result. Two seats changed hands in by-elections in the intervening period. These were as follows:

• Romsey from Conservative to Liberal Democrats. This seat stayed Liberal Democrat in 2001.

• South Antrim from Ulster Unionists to Democratic Unionists. This seat reverted to the Ulsters Unionists in 2001.

See also:

• MPs elected in the UK general election, 2001
• 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis

Manifestos

• Labour (Ambitions for Britain)
• Conservative (Time for Common Sense)
• Liberal Democrat (Freedom, Justice, Honesty)
• UK Independence Party