The
2015 general election took place on 7 May 2015 and saw each of Parliament's 650
constituencies return one
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) to the
House of Commons.
Parliament, which consists of the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
and the elected House of Commons, was
convened on 27 May at the
Palace of Westminster by
Queen Elizabeth II. It was
dissolved just after midnight on 3 May 2017, being 25 working days ahead of the
general election on 8 June 2017. The dissolution was originally scheduled for 2020, but took place almost three years early following a call for a
snap election by
Conservative Prime Minister
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
which received the necessary
two-thirds majority in a 522 to 13 vote in the House of Commons on 19 April 2017. It was the shortest Parliament since
1974.
The 2015 general election resulted in a
Conservative majority, a massive loss of seats for the
Liberal Democrats, and all but three Scottish seats going to the
SNP.
The
UK Independence Party elected their
first MP at a general election. The
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and the
Respect Party
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...
lost their singular seats that they had in the previous Parliament. The
Ulster Unionist Party won back representation electing two MPs, having had none in the previous Parliament.
Notable newcomers to enter the House of Commons in this General Election included future
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Rishi Sunak and Leader of the
Labour Party;
Keir Starmer, as well as the future
parliamentary leaders of the
Scottish National Party and
Plaid Cymru;
Ian Blackford and
Liz Saville Roberts.
Other new MPs included;
Chris Philp,
Rebecca Long-Bailey,
Angela Rayner,
Antoinette Sandbach,
Mhairi Black,
Richard Burgon,
Sue Hayman
Susan Mary Hayman, Baroness Hayman of Ullock (''née'' Bentley; born 28 July 1962) is a British politician and life peer who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Labour P ...
,
Joanna Cherry
Joanna Catherine Cherry (born 18 March 1966) is a Scottish politician and lawyer serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South West since 2015. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she was the party's Shadow Home Secr ...
,
Oliver Dowden,
Andrea Jenkyns
Andrea Marie Jenkyns (born 16 June 1974) is a British politician serving as Deputy Chairwoman of the European Research Group (ERG) since 2019. She was first elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood in West York ...
,
Suella Braverman,
Chris Matheson,
Amanda Milling,
Heidi Allen,
Stephen Kinnock
Stephen Nathan Kinnock (born 1 January 1970) is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberavon since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Immigration since 2022.
Early life and educ ...
,
Jess Phillips
Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguardi ...
,
Ruth Smeeth,
Kelly Tolhurst,
Tulip Siddiq,
Amanda Solloway,
Craig Mackinlay
Craig Mackinlay (born 7 October 1966) is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. Since May 2015, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.
Initially a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Mackinlay served a ...
,
Alison Thewliss and
Clive Lewis.
During the 2015–17 Parliament,
John Bercow was the
Speaker of the House of Commons,
David Cameron and
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
served as
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
, and
Harriet Harman and
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialis ...
served as
Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition.
House of Commons composition
Below is a graphical representation of the House of Commons showing a comparison of party strengths as it was directly after the 2015 general election. This is not a seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the Speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time.
This table shows the number of MPs in each party:
;Notes
*See
here
Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to:
Software
* Here Technologies, a mapping company
* Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here
Television
* Here TV (formerly "here!"), a ...
for a full list of changes during the fifty-sixth Parliament.
*In addition to the parties listed in the table above, the
Co-operative Party was also represented in the House of Commons by Labour MPs sitting with the
Labour Co-operative designation. The number of these MPs was 24 after the general election, and was 28 at dissolution.
*The actual government majority is calculated as Conservative MPs less all other parties. This calculation excludes the Speaker, Deputy Speakers (two Labour and one Conservative) and Sinn Féin (who follow a policy of
abstentionism).
List of MPs elected in the general election
The following table is a list of MPs elected, ordered by constituency. Names of
incumbents are listed where they stood for re-election; for details of defeated new candidates and the incumbent who stood down in those cases see individual constituency articles.
;Notes
Changes and by-elections
After the general election, changes can occur in the composition of the House of Commons. This happens as a result of the election of Deputy Speakers, by-elections, defections, suspensions or removal of
whip.
After the swearing in of MPs and the elections of the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers, the initial government majority was calculated to be sixteen.
Technically,
MPs cannot resign. However, they can effectively do so by requesting to be appointed as the
Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead or the
, which vacates their seat.
The net outcome of all changes over the course of the Parliament had resulted in two fewer Labour MPs, two fewer SNP MPs, one more Liberal Democrat MP and three more independent MPs.
Deputy Speakers
In accordance with a decision taken by the House of Commons on the final day of its sitting in the previous Parliament, the Speaker appointed two members to serve as Temporary Deputy Speakers until the Deputy Speakers had been elected. Directly after the 2015 State Opening of Parliament, the Speaker nominated Sir
Roger Gale (Conservative,
North Thanet
North Thanet is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1983 creation by Sir Roger Gale, a Conservative.
History
North Thanet and South Thanet were created by a rearrangement of the former ...
) and
George Howarth (Labour,
Knowsley) for these positions.
The election of Deputy Speakers took place on 3 June 2015.
Although Deputy Speakers do not resign from their parties, they cease to vote (except to break ties) and they do not participate in party-political activity until the next election.
By-elections
By-elections are held for seats that become vacant.
A
by-election was planned to be held in the seat of
Manchester Gorton
Manchester Gorton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Labour's Afzal Khan, who was elected at the 2017 general election. It is the safest Labour seat in Greater Manchester by numerical majority and ...
following the death of
Sir Gerald Kaufman on 26 February 2017. Following the announcement on 18 April 2017 of a
snap general election by Theresa May, it was confirmed that the
Cabinet Office would intervene to cancel the by-election, leaving the seat vacant until the general election on 8 June 2017.
Defections, suspensions and removal of whip
In some situations, the label under which MPs sit in the House of Commons can change. When this happens, MPs often become
independents.
Progression of government majority and party totals
The government voting total is the total number of Conservative MPs, minus the Conservative Deputy Speaker. The opposition voting total is the total number of other MPs, minus the Speaker, the two Labour Deputy Speakers, and all Sinn Féin MPs. The majority is the difference between the former and the latter.
See also
*
Members of the House of Lords
*
List of MPs for constituencies in England 2015–17
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland 2015–17
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of MPs for constituencies in Northern Ireland 2015–17
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of MPs for constituencies in Wales 2015–17
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
List of United Kingdom MPs by seniority, 2015–17
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
:UK MPs 2015–2017
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mps Elected In The United Kingdom General Election, 2015
UK MPs
2015 United Kingdom general election
2015