2012 UK Gov’t 55 th United Kingdom Parliament The Coalition Gov’t Conservatives & Lib Dems

UK House of Parliament Bi-cameral –House of Commons & House of Lords House of Lords –Lords Spiritual (Bishops of the Church of England) –Lords Temporal (appointed by Sovereign at advice from Prime Minister House of Commons and Lords meet at Palace of Westminster Formed after the Treaty of the Union (1707) which was agreement between England and Scotland

2010 General Election 650 Constituencies –326 seats needed for majority –5% swing from Labour to Conservative Similar to 5.12% swing to Conservative in 1979 ConservativesLabour Lib Dems seats 355 seats 62 seats 2012 ↑ 97 seats ↓ 91 ↓ 5 seats Percentage of votes 36%29%23%

Red: Labour Blue: Conservative Yellow: Liberal Democrat Green (England): Green Bright Yellow: Scottish National Dark Green: Sinn Fein Light Green (N. Ireland: Social Democrat & Labour

Hung Parliament First hung parliament since 1974; only second since WWII Coalition talks lasted 5 days –Labour/Lib Dems coalition would still lack the necessary 326 Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister on May 11 Queen accepted the resignation and invited David Cameron to form a gov’t in her name Queen accepted the resignation and invited David Cameron to form a gov’t in her name David Cameron and Nick Clegg formed the Conservative/Lib-Dem Coalition David Cameron and Nick Clegg formed the Conservative/Lib-Dem Coalition

Reflections of 2010 Elections First General Election to hold televised debates of party leaders First General Election to hold televised debates of party leaders Liberal Democrats enjoyed largest % of vote since party’s creation Green Party won its first-ever seat in Parliament First Black and Asian female Conservatives elected to Parliament First female Muslims elected to Parliament Female MPs rose to 21.7%