Conservative Party on course for majority government

The Conservative Party is in line to secure a slender majority in the House of Commons following yesterday’s General Election.

The incumbent prime minister, David Cameron has stated that he hopes to be able to form a government with forecasts giving the Conservatives up to 329 seats – enough to command a majority in power.

The Conservatives are expected to have secured a 37 per cent share of the UK vote, Labour 31 per cent, UKIP 13 per cent, the Liberal Democrats eight per cent, the SNP five per cent, the Green Party four per cent and Plaid Cymru one per cent.

It was a “difficult and disappointing” night for the Labour Party, with leader, Ed Miliband conceding that his party had lost the battle to oust the Conservatives from power having failed to claim enough marginal seats across England and Wales.

The Liberal Democrats saw leading figureheads, Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Danny Alexander lose their seats with the Lib Dems heading for as few as eight MPs in the Commons; down from 54 in 2010.

North of the border, the Scottish National Party recorded a historic landslide general election victory in Scotland, winning 56 out of 59 seats. The scale of the SNP’s success is unprecedented in Scotland, jumping from six seats in 2010 to 56 in 2015.

After retaining his place as MP for Witney, Oxfordshire, David Cameron made clear his intentions to press on with an in/out EU referendum and the Conservatives’ economic plan.

“My aim remains simple – to govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom,” said Cameron.

“I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland.

“In short, I want my party, and I hope a government I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost – the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government in the coming days.”



Image: Paul Wilkinson

Date published 8 May 2015 | Last updated 8 May 2015