UK ELECTIONS 1987 – 2005
| 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 ? | |||||||
| MPs | % of votes | MPs | % of votes | MPs | % of votes | MPs | % of votes | MPs | % of votes | MPs | % of votes | |
| Con | 397 | 42.4 | 336 | 41.9 | 165 | 34.7 | 166 | 31.7 | 198 | 32.5 | ? | |
| Lab | 209 | 27.6 | 271 | 34.4 | 418 | 43.2 | 413 | 40.7 | 356 | 35.3 | ? | |
| Lib Dem | 23 | 25.4 | 20 | 17.8 | 46 | 16.8 | 52 | 18.3 | 62 | 22.1 | ? | |
| Others | 23 | 4.6 | 24 | 5.9 | 30 | 5.3 | 28 | 9.3 | 30 | 11.1 | ? | |
| Turnout | 75.3 | 77.4 | 71.2 | 59.4 | 61.3 | ? ? | ||||||
| Total number of MPs | 650 | 651 | 659 | 659 | 656 | 650 | ||||||
| MPs needed for majority | 326 | 326 | 330 | 330 | 329 | 326 | ||||||
| Overall majority & name of PM | M THATCHER CON 102 | J MAJOR CON 21 | T BLAIR LAB 179 | T BLAIR LAB 167 | T BLAIR LAB 66 | ? | ||||||
Just look at the electoral arithmetic for all elections since 1987 and you can see why the Lib Dems advocate electoral reform – they have never had the number of MPs that have proportionately matched their % of the popular vote. This is because there are many constituencies where they come second. Note how in 1987 they were only just behind Labour in the % of popular votes but ended up with a tiny number of MPs!!!!!
The Conservatives also have grounds for complaint – in 2005 they were just under 3% behind Labour in the popular vote yet were behind by over 150 MPs.
The reason the system favours Labour is because urban seats, especially in the north and Scotland (which Labour tend to win) usually have a smaller number of voters than the large rural seats traditionally won by the Tories.
Notice how recently the “Other” parties have gained larger percentages of the popular vote but have not increased their number of MPs to any great extent. When a government only has a small overall majority, however, they tend to be courted by the bigger parties. “Others” are made up of almost entirely of regional parties from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Smaller parties like the Greens, UKIP and BNP find it very difficult to break into Parliament because their votes are spread all over the country.
The magic number this coming Thursday will be 326 – if none of the parties reach that figure then there will be a “Hung” Paliament leading either to a Coalition govt (Lib/Lab or Lib/Con) or the possibility of one party trying to muddle through each week as a minority govt…all very unpredictable…..
