The Labour Party’s Road to 2010

Abstract

Any serious analysis of the result of the 2005 election led most observers to conclude that the likely outcome of the next contest was a hung parliament. The two major parties combined had received barely more than two out of three votes cast, and Labour’s 36.5 per cent was the lowest ever to produce an overall majority of seats. Despite the 5.5 percentage point drop in Labour’s share of the vote compared with 2001, the Conservatives had made just thirty-three net gains, leaving them still short of 200 of the 646 seats in parliament. The Liberal Democrats’ 22.6 per cent had provided them with sixty-two seats.