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The next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than Wednesday 15 August 2029. It will determine the composition of the House of Commons, which determines the government of the United Kingdom.
The 2024 general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, but with the smallest share of the electoral vote of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote began in 1830. The combined vote share for Labour and the Conservatives reached a record low, with smaller parties doing well. Labour returned to being the largest party in Scotland and remained so in Wales. The election was noted as the most disproportionate in modern British history, [2] mainly as a result of the first-past-the-post voting system. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The Conservative Party under Rishi Sunak lost 251 seats and suffered their worst ever defeat, ending their 14-year tenure as the primary governing party. The Conservatives won no seats in Wales and only one seat in North East England. [7] On 2 November 2024, Kemi Badenoch won the 2024 Conservative leadership election to succeed Sunak becoming the first Black British person and fourth woman to become the Conservative leader. [8]
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, placed third in the share of the vote in the 2024 election and had MPs elected to the Commons for the first time. [9] Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats, led by Ed Davey, made significant gains to reach their highest ever number of seats. The Green Party of England and Wales also won a record number of seats alongside a number of independent MPs. [7] The Scottish National Party (SNP) lost around three-quarters of its seats. [10]
This table relates to the composition of the House of Commons after the 2024 United Kingdom general election and summarises the changes in party affiliation that took place during the 2024–present Parliament.
| Affiliation | Members | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elected in 2024 [11] | Current [12] | Difference | ||
| Labour [h] | 411 [i] | 399 [14] |  12 | |
| Conservative | 121 | 119 | 2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 72 | 72 |  | |
| Independent | 6 | 20 [j] |  14 | |
| SNP | 9 | 9 | | |
| Sinn Féin | 7 [k] | 7 [k] | | |
| DUP | 5 | 5 | | |
| Reform UK | 5 | 5 | | |
| Green (E&W) | 4 | 4 | | |
| Plaid Cymru | 4 | 4 | | |
| SDLP | 2 | 2 | | |
| Alliance | 1 | 1 | | |
| TUV | 1 | 1 | | |
| UUP | 1 | 1 | | |
| Speaker | 1 | 1 | | |
| Vacant | 0 | 0 | | |
| Total MPs [14] | 650 | 650 | | |
| Total voting [k] | 639 | 639 [14] | ||
| Majority of voting | 181 | 157 [14] | 24 | |
For full details of changes during the 2024–present Parliament, see By-elections and Defections, suspensions and resignations.
Presently, in order to vote in general elections, one must be: [17]
Individuals must be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day. Anyone who qualifies as an anonymous elector has approximately five working days before polling day to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) may be able to register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can only vote in one constituency at the general election.
The government has announced plans to reduce the voting age to 16 before the next general election. [18] Extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds would add well over a million potential voters across England and Northern Ireland. [19] Analysts have found that this would expand voter participation, but the additional votes would represent only a small share of the national electorate. [20]
Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the prime minister has the power to request the monarch call an election at any time during the five-year length of a parliamentary session. If the prime minister chooses not to do this, then parliament is automatically dissolved five years after the day it first met, [21] and a general election is held 25 working days after dissolution. [22]
Parliament first met on 9 July 2024, [23] [24] [25] meaning that unless Parliament is dissolved earlier it will be automatically dissolved on 9 July 2029, and the latest an election could be held is 15 August 2029. According to the Electoral Commission, the appropriate date to use as the first meeting is the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July 2024, which would mean the latest an election could be held is on 21 August 2029. [26]
| Opinion polling for UK general elections |
|---|
| 2015 election |
| Opinion polls • Leadership approval |
| 2017 election |
| Opinion polls • Leadership approval |
| 2019 election |
| Opinion polls • Leadership approval |
| 2024 election |
| Opinion polls • Leadership approval |
| Next election |
| Opinion polls • Leadership approval |
Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election is being carried out continually by various organisations to gauge voting intention. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The dates for these opinion polls range from the 2024 general election on 4 July to the present day.
