The General Election analysed
Now that the dust has settled on the most fascinating British General Election in a generation, what is the outcome?
In terms of seats and votes won, the result was as follows:
- Conservative Party: 306 seats (up 97) with a voting share of 36.1% (up 3.8%)
- Labour Party: 258 seats (down 91) with a voting share of 29.0% (down 6.2%)
- Liberal Democrat Party: 57 seats (down 5) with a voting share of 23.0% (up 1.0%)
- Other parties: 28 seats (down 3) with a voting share of 11.9% (down 1.4%)
- Total turnout nationwide was 65.1% up 4.0% on 2005
In terms of how various demographic sections of the electorate voted, the main changes were as follows:
- Among those aged 25-34, 11 percentage points more voted Conservative and 10 percentage point fewer voted Labour
- Among women voters aged 18-24, 10 percentage points more voted Lib Dem and 10 percentage points fewer voted Labour
- Among women voters aged 35-54, 8 percentage points more voted Conservative and 8 percentage points fewer voted Labour
- Among voters in social class E, six percentage points more voted Conservative and 5 percentage points more voted Lib Dem, while 18 percentage points fewer voted Labour
Looking at the elected Members of Parliament, the main changes are as follows:
- More than one-third (226) will be newcomers to the House of Commons compared to 18% in 2005
- The proportion of female MPs is now 21.5% – up marginally from 19.5% in 2005
- The number of black & ethnic minority MPs is 27, compared to 16 in 2005, with 8 of them Muslim
- We have the first female Muslim MPs – three of them, all Labour
- We have the first woman MP of African descent – again Labour
- We have the first MPs from the Green Party and Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party