2017 United Kingdom General Election

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About

The 2017 United Kingdom General Election was a general election which was held on June 8th, 2017 to elect 650 Members of Parliament to the House of Commons.

Background

On April 16th, 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a snap general election to be held on June 8th, 2017. The election came to a surprise to everyone as there was one two years previously in 2015.

Theresa May explained that she wanted to increase her majority which was won by then Incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2015 United Kingdom general election. The reason why she called one was to help increase her strength for negotiations for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.

Developments

On April 17th, 2017, the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted for a general election to be held as due to the Fixed Terms Parliament Act of 2011, an election can only be called if a two-thirds majority vote for one or if there is a successful vote of no confidence in the government.

TV debates

The BBC and ITV organised television debates as the campaign got underway. Controversy arisen as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, leaders of the two largest parties did not participate in the majority of the planned TV debates.

Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn rejected an appearance on ITV's debate whilst Theresa May solely rejected appearing on the BBC debate with Conservative MP Amber Rudd taking her place. Regional television debates were also held across the countries of the United Kingdom.

Results

After all results for the 650 consituencies were declared, the election resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservative Party, led by Theresa May, had remained the largest party with 318 seats, losing 13 seats in the process which resulted in them losing their majority in the House of Commons.

The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn won 262 seats, gaining 30 seats, mostly at the expense of the Conservative Party.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), led by Nicola Sturgeon won 35 seats, losing 21 seats to unionist parties. The cause of this was due to the controversial speech Nicola Sturgeon gave in March 2017 requesting a Section 30 order which would allow the Scottish Parliament to hold a second independence referendum.

The Liberal Democrats won 12 seats, gaining 4 from the last election. Despite having better results compared to the 2015 general election.

Aftermath

Conservative-DUP confidence-and-supply agreement

After Theresa May and the Conservative Party lost their majority in the House of Commons, Theresa May seeked working with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in a confidence and supply agreement.

Due to the Conservative Party winning 316 seats, (excluding the Speaker) and the DUP winning 10 seats, a 326 seat minority government with a majority of 2 was able to be formed.

Second Scottish independence referendum delay

Due to the SNP losing 21 seats in the general election, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon declared her intention to postpone a second independence referendum up until the end of the Brexit process where she would wait and see what the outcome would be for another referendum to be held.

Theresa May Running Through The Fields of Wheat

Theresa May Running Through the Fields of Wheat refers to a memorable moment in an ITV interview with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May where revealed that the naughest thing she ever did was running through fields of wheat when she was younger. This sparked several photoshopped memes and video remixes to be created.

Brenda from Bristol

Brenda From Bristol refers to a viral video of a woman called Brenda who complained about the announcement of the 2017 United Kingdom snap general election.

The Foodbank Nurse

The Foodbank Nurse refers to a series of posts and tweets surrounding Claire Austin, a member of the audience during an election debate hosted in Scotland by the BBC ahead of the election. She claimed that she had to use foodbanks due to living on a poor salary being a nurse but was found that she actually lied and received backlash from the public.