The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970. It resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, which defeated the governing Labour Party under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The Liberal Party, under its new leader Jeremy Thorpe, lost half its seats. The Conservatives, including the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), secured a majority of 30 seats. This general election was the first in which people could vote from the age of 18, after passage of the Representation of the People Act the previous year, and the first UK election in which party affiliations of candidates were put on the ballots.
Martin Bell, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit".
The Maastricht Rebels were British Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to the then governing Conservative Party who refused to support the government of Prime Minister John Major in a series of votes in the House of Commons on the issue of the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty in British law.
Sir Nicholas Raymond Winterton is a retired British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Macclesfield from 1971 until he retired from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election.
The 1971 Alberta general election was the seventeenth general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada on August 30, 1971, to elect seventy-five members of the Alberta Legislature to form the 17th Alberta Legislative Assembly.
Macclesfield is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Tim Roca, a member of the Labour Party.
Chesham and Amersham is a parliamentary constituency in Buckinghamshire, South East England, represented in the House of Commons by Sarah Green, a Liberal Democrat elected at a 2021 by-election.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party led by Prime Minister Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats; the majority it won four years earlier had been of 167 seats. The UK media interpreted the results as an indicator of a breakdown in trust in the government, and especially in Blair.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, to elect Members of Parliament to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system. This was the first election held after the age of candidacy was reduced from 21 to 18. The election resulted in a large swing to the opposition Conservative Party led by David Cameron similar to that seen in 1979, the last time a Conservative opposition had ousted a Labour government. The governing Labour Party led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown lost the 66-seat majority it had previously enjoyed, but no party achieved the 326 seats needed for a majority. The Conservatives won the most votes and seats, but still fell 20 seats short. This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons. This was only the second general election since the Second World War to return a hung parliament, the first being the February 1974 election. This election marked the start of Conservative government for the next 14 years until the July 2024 Election.
The 2005 Conservative Party leadership election was called by party leader Michael Howard on 6 May 2005, when he announced that he would be stepping down as Leader of the Conservative Party in the near future following the party's third successive general election defeat. However, he stated that he would not depart until a review of the rules for the leadership election had been conducted, given the high level of dissatisfaction with the current system. Ultimately, no changes were made and the election proceeded with the existing rules, which were introduced in 1998.
Gordon Johnston Adam is a British mining engineer and Labour Party politician. With one brief interruption, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for 25 years.
The 1973 Lincoln by-election of 1 March 1973 saw the re-election of Dick Taverne as Member of Parliament for Lincoln as a Democratic Labour representative, after Taverne's pro-Common Market views saw him repudiated by the Lincoln Constituency Labour Party. The by-election led to considerable speculation, stoked by Taverne, about the formation of a new centre party, but Taverne was unable to make his victory last.
The 1972 Southwark by-election was a by-election held on 4 May 1972 for the British House of Commons constituency of Southwark. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the serving Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Ray Gunter.
The 2007 Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 4 May 2007 to elect members of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative Party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, won an unexpected majority victory of ten seats; they had been leading a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. It was the last general election to be held before the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016.
The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Theresa May remained the largest single party in the House of Commons but lost its small overall majority, resulting in the formation of a Conservative minority government with a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland.
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015.
The United Kingdom was a member state of the European Union (EU) and of its predecessor the European Communities (EC) – principally the European Economic Community (EEC) – from 1 January 1973 until 31 January 2020. Since the foundation of the EEC, the UK had been an important neighbour and then a leading member state, until Brexit ended 47 years of membership. During the UK's time as a member state two referendums were held on the issue of its membership: the first, held on 5 June 1975, resulting in a vote to stay in the EC, and the second, held on 23 June 2016, resulting in a vote to leave the EU.
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of North Shropshire was held on 16 December 2021. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Owen Paterson on 5 November 2021. The by-election was won by Helen Morgan, with a 34% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.
A by-election was held in the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire on 20 July 2023, following the announcement on 10 June that the incumbent Conservative Party member of Parliament (MP), Nigel Adams, was standing down from Parliament with immediate effect. Adams had previously announced his intention to stand down as an MP at the 2024 general election, with the party having selected a candidate to succeed him the previous day. Adams formally confirmed his resignation on 12 June.
