2010 United Kingdom government formation

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The events surrounding the formation of the United Kingdom's government in 2010 took place between 7 May and 12 May 2010, following that year's general election which had failed to produce an overall majority for any single political party. The election had produced the first hung parliament in the UK for 36 years, and led to a series of negotiations which would form the first coalition government since the Second World War. Senior figures in both Labour and the Conservative Party embarked on a series of make-or-break meetings with representatives from the Liberal Democrats, which ultimately led to the formation of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government led by David Cameron on 12 May. While Cameron became Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.

Background

The general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010. Throughout that day GfK NOP and Ipsos MORI had been conducting an exit poll on behalf of the BBC, Sky and ITV news services, and the results of this was announced as the polls closed at 10:00pm. Data gathered from individuals at 130 polling stations around the country suggested a hung parliament with an initial estimate that the Conservative Party would achieve 307 seats - 19 seats short of a controlling majority. This was later adjusted to 21 seats. The distribution of seats amongst the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and other parties was initially suggested to be 307, 255, 59 and 29 respectively,^[1] but these figures were later updated to 303, 251, 69, and 27 respectively.^[2]

The apparently poor prospects for the Liberal Democrats came as somewhat of a surprise to commentators,^[3] as many previous opinion polls had indicated they would receive a higher number of seats. A later BBC Exit poll published at 5:36am on Friday 7 May predicted the Conservatives on 306, 20 short of an overall majority, with Labour on 262, and the Liberal Democrats on 55.^[2]

At 9:41am on 7 May, the BBC confirmed a "hung parliament", as it was by then impossible for the Conservative party to gain the number of seats needed to form a majority government. (326 or 323 for a majority, as the five Sinn Féin MPs were expected to boycott the House of Commons. At that time the Conservatives stood at 290 seats, Labour at 247 and Liberal Democrats at 51.)^[4][5]

The final results for the three main parties were Conservative, 305; Labour, 258; and Liberal Democrats, 57. Of the 532 seats contested in England (a final seat would be contested on 27 May), the Conservatives won an absolute majority with 61 seats more than all other parties combined, and secured an average swing of 5.6% from Labour.^[6] Each of Scotland's 59 seats was won by the party that won it at the 2005 election, with Labour regaining the two seats they lost in by-elections since 2005. There was a swing to Labour from the Conservatives of 0.8% (with Labour increasing its share of the vote by 2.5% and the Conservatives increasing by just 0.9%) This left the Conservatives with just a single MP representing a Scottish constituency. There were 40 seats contested in Wales. The Conservative share rose from three to eight, taking one from the Liberal Democrats and four from Labour. Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru gained one extra seat, Arfon, from Labour. Overall, Labour lost four seats but remained the biggest party, with 26.

There were 18 seats contested in Northern Ireland. Both Irish nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and SDLP, held their seats. The unionist parties, DUP and UUP (the latter in an electoral pact with the Conservatives), lost one seat each. This left the nationalist parties with eight seats, the unionist parties with eight seats (all DUP), the Alliance with one seat and an independent unionist with one seat. It is the first time since the Partition of Ireland that unionist parties failed to secure a majority of Northern Ireland's Westminster seats in a general election.

Initial statements and negotiations

With no one single party having achieved an overall majority, the 2010 general election had resulted in the first hung parliament since 1974.^[7] When it became clear that no party would achieve the outright majority needed to form the next government the three main party leaders made public statements offering to discuss the options for putting together an administration with the other parties. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron to act "in the national interest and not out of narrow party political advantage". However, having stated before the election that the party with the largest number of seats should have the initial say on forming a government, Clegg announced his intention to begin talks with the Conservative Party. Speaking outside his party's headquarters he said: "It is now for the Conservative Party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest."^[8] Gordon Brown said he intended to play his part in securing "a stable, strong and principled government", and indicated his willingness to speak with both Clegg and Conservative leader David Cameron on how to proceed in achieving this, saying: "What we have seen are no ordinary election results."^[9] But shortly after Cameron held a press conference at which he invited the Liberal Democrats to talks, saying: "I want to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats. I want us to work together in tackling our country's big and urgent problems - the debt crisis, our deep social problems and our broken political system."^[10]

Under the constitution governing what happens in the event of a hung parliament Brown, as the sitting Prime Minister, would remain temporarily in office until a new government could be formed, a process which could continue without resolution until the date of the State Opening of Parliament which was scheduled for 25 May. On Brown's instructions, Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell had updated the rule book which sets out the protocol for dealing with a hung parliament earlier in the year. and following the confirmation that no party had achieved an overall majority, Brown authorised O'Donnell to begin that process. Initially four-member teams of civil servants were sent to liaise with the main political parties to facilitate negotiations.^[11]

Cameron's willingness to hold talks with the Liberal Democrats was interpreted by BBC Political editor Nick Robinson as hinting at the possibility that Liberal Democrat MPs could serve as part of a Cabinet, ^[10] and on the afternoon of 7 May Cameron and Clegg spoke by phone, and had what the BBC reported as a "very constructive" conversation. By that evening exploratory talks between teams of senior representatives from the Liberal Democrats and Conservative had got underway. The Lib Dem team consisted of Chris Huhne, Danny Alexander, Andrew Stunell and David Laws, while George Osborne, William Hague, Oliver Letwin and Ed Llewellyn made up the Tory team.^[10]

Further talks

By the morning of Saturday 8 May talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were fully underway. A 70 minute meeting which took place at Admiralty House in Westminster was described by both parties as being "constructive and amicable", and another meeting was scheduled for the following day. At a private meeting that evening David Cameron and Nick Clegg held the first of a series of face-to-face talks to discuss the progress of the negotiations. Mmembers of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party had earlier met at Local Government House to discuss the coalition talks.^[12][13]

One of the chief issues that the Liberal Democrats wished to address in any future coalition agreement was that of electoral reform, and as Party members debated the negotiations, a 1,000 strong crowd of protesters from the pressure group 38 Degrees gathered outside. Amid chants of "Fair votes now" and "We want to speak to Nick",^[13] Clegg briefly left the meeting to accept petition, and told them: "Reforming politics is one of the reasons I went into politics." Following that meeting one of the Party's negotiators, David Laws, said members had "endorsed in full" the strategy outlined by Nick Clegg, i.e., that the Conservatives have first choice in negotiations on forming a government. Clegg also met with the Party's federal executive which also gave his decision the green light.^[12]

8 May 2010 was the 65th anniversary of V.E. Day – the day which marked the victory of the Allied Forces over Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe – and celebrations were held to mark that occasion. The leaders of all three Parties attended a ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, a duty which normally falls to the Prime Minister. After the ceremony, Gordon Brown flew to his family home in Scotland, but remained ready to negotiate with the Lib Dems if no deal with the Conservatives was reached. Labour denied reports of a heated telephone conversation between Brown and Clegg, and support among Brown's Cabinet colleagues remained strong, but one backbencher, John Mann, urged Brown to step aside as Labour leader before the party conference in September, arguing that while he remained in power it "rules out the credibility of a Lib/Lab pact".^[12]

Negotiations continue

On Sunday 9 May senior negotiators from the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives embarked on six hours of talks at the Cabinet Office, which were described as being "very positive and productive". William Hague emerged from the discussions to give a flavour of the topics which had been on the agenda: "The issues that we have covered have included political reform, economic issues and reduction of the deficit, banking reform, civil liberties, environmental issues. So, we've had good discussions about all of those areas. We are agreed that a central part of any agreement that we make will be economic stability and the reduction of the budget deficit, but each negotiating team is now going to report to our party leaders."^[14]

While the negotiations had been taking place, Gordon Brown returned to Downing Street, and held a meeting with Nick Clegg at the Foreign Office for talks. A Downing Street spokesman later confirmed the talks, together with the previous evening's telephone conversation between Brown and Clegg which was described as having been "an amicable discussion." Following the talks between their two parties, Clegg and Cameron held a second round of face-to-face discussions at Westminster that evening, lasting 45 minutes.^[14]

While negotiations continued to form the next administration, the business of government continued with the previous incumbents. In this respect Chancellor Alistair Darling flew to Brussels to attend a meeting of European finance ministers. In London Gordon Brown held meetings with Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, his deputy leader Harriet Harman, Secretary of State for Energy Ed Miliband and Tony Blair's former special adviser Alastair Campbell. Brown also sent an email to party activists in which he thanked them for their work during the election campaign. It concluded "The past few days have seen us enter a political landscape not considered possible a few short weeks ago - with the outcome of the election leading to no single party able to form a majority government. My duty as prime minister has been to seek to resolve this situation." But several senior Labour backbenchers, including MP George Howarth called on him to step down.^[14]

Labour enters the picture

Monday 10 May saw another day of talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, but at a meeting with his MPs Nick Clegg was urged to give assurances over offers which were being made by the Tories. They also wished him to continue negotiations with Labour. During the day it emerged that senior Labour and Liberal Democrat representatives had held discussions about forming a coalition, but that one of the barriers to bringing this about was the continued presence of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister.^[15]

At 5.00pm that afternoon Brown announced that he would step down as Labour leader by September. In a statement he said that he intended to "[A]sk the Labour Party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election." The statement went on to say: "I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour Party conference. I will play no part in that contest, I will back no individual candidate." He also urged any prospective candidates for the position to hold off throwing their hats into the ring until coalition negotiations were complete. Following this announcement formal talks then began between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, but many in the Party felt that a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition was an unrealistic prospect since it would still fall short of the 326 seats needed to form a majority government, with 315 seats to the Conservatives' 306. Labour MP Graham Stringer said, "I don't think it makes sense in the arithmetic - the numbers don't add up."^[15]

With Labour now attempting to form its own coalition government, the Conservatives promised the Liberal Democrats a referendum on changing the voting mechanism to the Alternative Vote (AV) system. In response Labour said that they would introduce AV then hold a referendum asking the public to approve it. In a statement outlining his decision to negotiate with Labour, Clegg said that although his Party had made progress with the Conservatives, they had not "reached a comprehensive partnership agreement for a full Parliament" and consequently it was the "responsible thing to do" to open negotiations with Labour.^[15]

Coalition deal reached

The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives entered into talks aimed at forming a coalition government.^[16][17] Talks between the Liberal Democrats and Labour were also held,^[18][19] but Brown's continued presence as Prime Minister was seen as a stumbling block to formulating a Labour-Liberal Democrat deal.^[20] A series of meetings between senior party officials were held over the weekend following the election, as each tried to negotiate a deal.

In order to help facilitate a deal with the Lib Dems, Gordon Brown announced on 10 May that he intended to step down as leader of the Labour Party, and instructed the party to put into motion the processes to elect a new leader.^[20] However, by 11 May, the possibility of a deal was looking unlikely as talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats continued,^[21] and after concluding that he would not be able to form a government, Brown announced his resignation on the evening of 11 May.^[22] He also said that he would be stepping down as leader of the Labour Party with immediate effect. He then left Downing Street, accompanied by his wife and children, driving to Buckingham Palace where he tendered his resignation to the Queen and advised her to call for David Cameron.^[23][24] Cameron became Prime Minister one hour after the Queen accepted Brown's resignation.^[25] In his first address outside 10 Downing Street, he announced his intention to form a coalition government, the first since the Second World War, with the Liberal Democrats. As one of his first moves, Cameron appointed Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister.^[25][26]

Cameron later told a BBC documentary that he had not expected to become Prime Minister, and the coalition agreement had not yet been completed when Gordon Brown resigned. Speaking on the programme, Five Days That Changed Britain, broadcasd on 29 July, he said that when he went to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the coalition deal had not been finalised. Formally, the Queen can only invite a prospective Prime Minister to form a Government; the shape of the Government is for the new Prime Minister to decide.^[27] William Hague said that as Cameron travelled to the Palace, the coalition agreement was still being completed and signed.

Shortly after midnight on 12 May 2010, the Liberal Democrats emerged from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been "approved overwhelmingly", meaning that David Cameron would lead a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Later that day, the two parties jointly published the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement specifying the terms of the coalition deal.^[28][29][30]

Harriet Harman became acting leader of the Labour Party.^[31]

References

External links

• "Election 2010 Timeline: How coalition was agreed". BBC News (BBC). 13 May 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8677552.stm. Retrieved 18 December 2011.