PARLIAMENTARY REPORT
UNITED KINGDOM
NEW MEMBERS, BUDGET 2015 AND ENGLISH VOTES
The State of the Parties Against the expectations of many, who had expected a hung Parliament, the May 2015 General Election resulted in a majority Conservative Government. Rt Hon. David Cameron MP (Con) returned as Prime Minister, with the Conservative Party holding 330 seats. Their erstwhile coalition partners – the Liberal Democrats – were reduced to just 8 seats. The former Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Nick Clegg MP, resigned as party leader and was replaced by Tim Farron MP. The main opposition party remains the Labour Party, with 232 seats. Their leader, Rt Hon. Edward Miliband MP, also stood down following the election. The results of a leadership election, contested by Rt Hon. Andy Burnham MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Liz Kendal MP and Rt Hon. Yvette Cooper
MP, will be announced on 12 September.
The biggest single change to the new Parliament relative to its predecessor came from Scotland, where the Scottish National Party increased its representation from 6 to 56 out of 59 Scottish constituencies. In Wales, Plaid Cymru held their three seats. In Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party and Social and Democratic Labour Party both maintained the same number of seats – 8 and 3 respectively. The Ulster Unionists gained two seats at the expense of Sinn Fein and the Alliance Party. Lady Hermon remains the only independent in the House.
Despite winning 12.6% of the national vote, the UK Independence Party won a single seat; as did the Green Party with 3.8% of the vote.
The New Members
The new Parliament has a record number of female MPs, 191 (29%), up from 143 in 2010. Research by University College London and
Birkbeck College suggest that
(excluding Northern Ireland) there are 42 non-white MPs in the new Parliament. At 6.6% this is also a record and compares to 27 in the previous Parliament. They included the first MP of Chinese
and East Asian origin, the Conservative Alan Mak MP. The average age of MPs has, however, changed little. At 51 it
Above: The youngest UK MP since the mid-19th
Century,
the new SNP member, Ms Mhairi Black MP.
232 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Three
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