Who is winning in the British Election?

Answer 1

The last United Kingdom general election - held on May 6 2010 - had no outright victor. It was the first time in over 36 years that neither of the UK's major parties, the Conservative Party or the Labour Party, won more than half of the seats in the House of Commons (Parliament's lower house) - this situation is known as a "hung parliament".

It was the Conservative Party which emerged as the strongest, winning 36% of the popular vote and 306 of the 650 seats in the House, up from 32% and 198 seats in the 2005 election. The ruling Labour Party was ousted from power, winning just 29% of the vote - a sharp fall on its 2005 performance, when the party had won a third term in office with 35% of the vote and 355 seats.

However, the Conservative Party was about 20 seats short of having enough to govern the UK on their own - Labour was around 70 short. Unlike many European countries where most or all elections produce a hung parliament and the largest party is usually considered the winner, the UK is accustomed to single-party majority government, and thus neither party was regarded as having an individual mandate to form the next government, despite the Conservatives having a clear lead in both votes and seats. Both major parties thus set about working to form a coalition with the eight parties that won the 86 seats in the Commons.

Eventually, on May 11 2010, the Liberal Democrats - who finished third with 23% and 57 seats (up from 22%, but down from 62 seats in 2005), formed a coalition government together under the leadership of Conservative leader David Cameron, who became Prime Minister. As such, the resulting Government theoretically represents 59% of the electorate and controlled 363 seats - this is the only time in history that a British government's percentage share of Commons seats is lower than the percentage share of the vote its member parties won, as well as the only coalition government to result directly from a general election.

Answer 2

Borris Johnson won the London elections for mayor