2019 United Kingdom General Election

About

The 2019 United Kingdom General Election refers to an election which took place on December 12th, 2019 which was voted for by Members of Parliament in the House of Commons with the aim to resolve the Brexit deadlock in the House of Commons.

introduced by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson who wanted to break the Brexit deadlock in parliament, he introduced a bill to be voted on after his attempts to win a two-thirds majority failed three times previously.

The election was the third election within four years to be held after the 2015 and 2017 general elections and the first general election to be held in December since 1923.

The election resulted in a Conservative Party landslide with 365 seats, gaining 48 seats, the Labour Party won only 203 seats, losing 53 seats. The Scottish National Party won a landslide in Scotland where they won 48 seats, a gain of 13, including Jo Swinson's, leader of the Liberal Democrats seat.

In the aftermath of the election, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrat leader Hi Swinson both intended to resign. Jo Swinson resigned imminently whilst Jeremy Corbyn said he would stay on 'into the new year'.

Developments

Beforehand, there was several attempts by the Prime Minister to get a general election voted through parliament but on the three occasions he had tried, he failed due to the Fixed Terms Parliament Act 2011 which changed the provisions for holding an early parliamentary general election as beforehand, the Prime Minister could call a general election freely at his/her's choice.

SNP-Liberal Democrat Election Proposal

A few days before the one-line bill vote, the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats proposed an election date of December 9th, 2019 but was initially rejected by the government however the government later agreed to their request on the condition that it would be held on December 11th, 2019 rather than the original proposed date.

General Election Vote

The general election was voted for by Members of Parliament in the House of Commons on October 28th, 2019 when Prime Minister, Boris Johnson introduced a one-line bill that simply needed a majority vote to trigger an election. 438 MPs voted in favor of a general election whilst 20 voted against with MPs from the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats abstaining due to their original proposal being rejected.

Television Debates

A few days after the election was announced, the main UK broadcasters started planning debates and interviews for the election.

BBC, ITV and Sky News all announced that they would hold debates in the run up to the election with the first ITV debate to be held on November 19th, 2019.

First Prime Ministerial Debate (19th November)

The first televised prime ministerial debate was held on 19th November by ITV. Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn participated in the debate.

The debate was watched by over 6 million people with reaction mixed. Certain polls after the debate swung in favour of Boris Johnson however there was several that swung in favour of Jeremy Corbyn.

BBC Question Time Leaders Special (22th November)

BBC Question Time held a leaders special on 22th November where Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson participated in a series of questions from members of the audience.

Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the SNP, was by many, seen as the winner of the night and received praise on social media by people across the United Kingdom due to her stance against Brexit and her natural ability to answer questions, including talking to a former drug addict on the show.

Jeremy Corbyn received a positive response however was heckled and jeered by the audience members over his position on where he would campaign in an event of a second EU referendum.

Boris Johnson received a lukewarm response, he was booed and laughed at when discussing certain topics like politicians telling the truth and using fair campaigns in the light of the "FactCheckUK" controversy.

Jo Swinson received a huge swarm of criticism from the crowds after she was forced to defend her voting record in government with the Conservatives from 2010 until 2015 and the Liberal Democrats' Revoke Article 50 policy.

Channel 4 Climate Change Leader's Debate (28th November)

On November 28th, Channel 4 hosted the first leaders debate focused solely on the issue of climate change.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price and Green Party co-leader Sian Berry attended the debate with Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage refusing to attend.

BBC Leaders Debate (29th November)

The BBC hosted their leaders debate on November 29th, 2019 with the Conservative Party's Rishi Sunak, the Labour Party's Rebecca Long-Bailey, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, the Liberal Democrat's Jo Swinson, Plaid Cymru's Adam Price, the Green Party and the Brexit Party's Richard Tice.

ITV Leaders Debate (1st December)

ITV hosted a second leaders debate with seven panelists (five party leaders and two representatives) being featured. Following Boris Johnson's decline to attend the debate, so did Jeremy Corbyn, instead Rishi Sunak stood in for Johnson again and Richard Burton stood in for Corbyn.

Second Prime Ministerial Debate (6th December)

The second prime ministerial debate was hosted by the BBC and moderated by Nick Robinson and was held on December 6th, 2019.

After the debate was finished, YouGov released a poll which suggested Boris Johnson won the second prime ministerial debate with 51% compared to Jeremy Corbyn on 49%.

Channel 4's Everything But Brexit Debate (8th December)

On December 8th, 2019, Channel 4 hosted a "Everything But Brexit" general election debate where issues such as the NHS, education, climate change and security were discussed.

Like the Climate Change debate, also hosted by Channel 4, the Conservative Party and Brexit Party did not participate in the debate.

BBC Question Time Under 30's Special (9th December)

A second Question Time programme aired on December 9th, 2019 with all of the mainstream parties taking part including the leaders of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, Green Party, Jonathan Bartley, Plaid Cymru, Adam Price and the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage.

The Conservative Party, Labour Party and Scottish National Party also participated in the debate

The debate took an approach towards undecided voters under the age of 30.

Other debates

Apart from the main UK-wide debates, there was other debates that were held during the election campaign in Scotland and Wales and in regional areas such as London.

Interviews

The Andrew Neil Interviews

Throughout the election campaign, BBC journalist Andrew Neil jostled an interview programme with leaders of the main political parties in the general election.

Nicola Sturgeon was the first of the party leaders to be interviewed (top left) and Jeremy Corbyn was the second leader to be interviewed (top right).

The week afterwards, Jo Swinson was the third party to be interviewed (bottom left) and Nigel Farage was the fourth (bottom right).

Boris Johnson's Andrew Neil Interview

During the midway stages through the general election campaign, the BBC hosted interviews with BBC host Andrew Neil. On November 27th, 2019, it was revealed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had not confirmed a fixed date to be interviewed by Andrew Neil.

During the concluding moments of Andrew Neil's interview with Nigel Farage, Andrew Neil talked to the camera and said that the invitation to be interviewed by him was still open to Boris Johnson (see below).

It was confirmed on December 5th, 2019 that Boris Johnson would not agree to an interview by Andrew Neil

Controversies

Television Debate Participation

In the run-up to the general election, there was numerous forms of controversy surrounding the participation of several politicians in the leaders debates planned by broadcasters, mainly towards the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Liberal Democrats.

On November 18th, 2019, the SNP and Liberal Democrats failed to win a legal bid against ITV to participate in the head to head debate scheduled to be held the following day.

Exclusion of Jo Swinson

On November 1st, 2019, ITV announced that they would be hosting the first head-to-head debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, this triggered a negative response from the public who wanted other leaders to take part in the debate, including Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP, Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, , Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru and Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party.

Liberal Democrat supporters started a hash tag "#DebateHer" on Twitter with the aim of allowing Jo Swinson to debate on the programme after she was excluded from the two way debate.

On November 4th, 2019, Jo Swinson announced that she would be taking legal action against ITV because of her exclusion citing sexism as a reason for it. On November 18th, she lost the legal bid against ITV and in response the party were disappointed.

Exclusion of the Scottish National Party

On November 4th, 2019, when Sky News announced details of their debate which would include Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson, there was uproar as it excluded the participation of the Scottish National Party (SNP) who are the third-largest party in the United Kingdom in terms of membership and representatives

The party cited that having the largest, second largest and fourth largest parties to debate excluding the third was outrageous.

First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon tweeted her anger on the exclusion of the party's appearance in the Sky News debate.

On the exclusion of the SNP in the ITV debate, the SNP, like the Liberal Democrats, took ITV to court and ultimately failed to win the case with politicians from the party that excluding the SNP from the debate was unacceptable and outrageous against democracy.

Channel 4 Ice Sculpture Inclusion

During the Channel 4 climate change debate, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage refused to attend the debate and in response, the Channel 4 News team, who organised the debate, instead put ice sculptures of the planet with the party logos of the Conservative Party and Brexit Party on them which melted throughout the duration of the debate.

In response to the stunt by Channel 4, the Conservative Party threatened to review its license and wrote to Ofcom after it stated the broadcaster breached impartiality guidelines.

Leeds General Infirmy Photograph Controversy

On December 8th, 2019, the British tabloid The Daily Mirror published a story and picture revolving around four year old Jack Willment-Barr, alledgely suffering from pneumonia who was being treated on the floor due to a shortage of beds in the NHS (see below).

During an interview for ITV that same day, Boris Johnson was shown a photo of the four year old boy. After being shown the photo by a reporter on his phone, Boris Johnson quickly grabbed it and shoved it in his pocket (see below).

After the incident occurred, Matt Hancock, the health secretary to the UK Government travelled to Leeds to investigate the situation and was met by protesters.

Shortly afterwards, BBC political editor Laura Kuennsberg reported on Matt Hancock's arrival to the hospital in Leeds and claimed that a Labour activist hut him on the way out of the hospital, this was later to be proven false.

In the hours after the interview with Boris Johnson aired, there was rumours that the photo of the boy was staged by the mother. It was claimed that the mother was a Labour Party activist in a deliberate attempt to smear the Conservative Party.

Further enhancing these rumours, a Facebook post was published by a woman claiming to know a nurse in the hospital, said that the mother had a bed there but put the boy on the floor in a staged photograph.

Some have claimed these rumours are false, including the woman who published the Facebook post who revealed that her account was hacked. There was a Tweet posted as well which used the same spelling format about a senior Leeds nurse noting the issue but some yet still claim it was a smear campaign by Momentum, the grassroots movement of the Labour Party to increase the party's chances at the general election.

"Fridgegate"

On December 11th, 2019, the day before the general election, Boris Johnson was campaigning on the final day of the campaign trail. In the early morning, Boris Johnson was in Leeds at a milk factory, when reporters from Good Morning Britain came to him live.

An aide of the Prime Minister told the cameraman and reporter to "f**k off" which prompted hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid to gasp.

During this time, Boris Johnson later went to try and hide in one of the fridges in the factory when Good Morning Britain was still live on air.

The term "Fridgegate" started trending on Twitter shortly after the incident.

PostalVoteGate

On December 11th, 2019, on the BBC current affairs programme Politics Live, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg and presenter Jo Coburn were discussing postal votes and turnouts.

During the interview, Laura mentioned about knowing that 'the Labour Party look miserable' in the postal votes, revealing that she had seen postal votes and reported it live on air.

In the aftermath of it, #SackKuenssberg and #PostalVoteGate began trending on Twitter alongside Electoral Commission and Electoral Fraud.

The Electoral Commission responded on Twitter and hinted that what Laura Kuenssberg did may have broke electoral law.

Opinion polling

Opinion polling for the 2019 United Kingdom general election has been organised by polling companies affiliated with the British Polling Council.

During the election campaign, media outlets such as BBC News and The Guardian released polling averages for each party.

Current polling averages for each party at time of polling day was:

• Conservative – 43%
• Labour – 33%
• Lib Dems – 13%
• Others – 5%
• Greens – 3%
• Brexit – 3%

Results

• Conservative – 365 (+48)
• Labour – 203 (-59)
• SNP – 48 (+13)
• Lib Dems – 11 (-1)
• Plaid Cymru – 4 (n/c)
• Greens – 1 (n/c)

The Conservative Party won 365 out of the UK's 650 seats, the largest Conservative victory since the 1979 United Kingdom general election where Margaret Thatcher won her third ter.

For the Labour Party, it was their worst defeat since the 1930s and worse than their 1983 defeat where they won only won 209 seats. In the 2019 election, they won only 203 seats.

The Scottish National Party won a landslide, winning 48 out of 59 seats, up 14 seats from the last election. They did better than expected as polls reflected that would only gain one or two seats off the Conservative Party but gained seven at their expense and all the Labour Party seats in Scotland bar one.

The Liberal Democrats, who were expected to be major players in the election with leader Jo Swinson claiming that she could be the next Prime Minister, flopped at the election with Jo ending up losing her seat to the Scottish National Party in East Dunbartonshire.

Other parties such as Plaid Cymru and the Green Party didn't gain any new seats but retained the seats they won in 2017.

The turnout of the election was lower compared to the 2017 election by only a small margin and with the election taking place in the midst of the Fixed Terms Parliament Act 2011, the next general election is not scheduled to be held until May 2nd, 2024.

Related Memes

Misleading Liberal Democrats Bar Graphs

Misleading Liberal Democrat Bar Graphs refers to a series of leaflets and online photos which included misleading bar graphs which showed significantly high percentages of Liberal Democrats performance in the United Kingdom in the run up to the general election.

Boris Johnson's "This Morning" Selfie

Boris Johnson's This Morning Selfie refers to a selfie of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. The selfie, and a picture of the selfie being taken, were mocked by internet users for the way it appeared to demonstrate how the show had shown a lack of journalistic integrity. The image was also used in numerous photo edits.

It'll Go Higher

It'll Go Higher refers to a phrase often associated with Labour Party supporters who responded to opinion polls which showed Labour increasing their vote share catching up with the Conservative Party vote share.

It was mocked by Conservative Party supporters and anti-Corbyn supporters when support for Labour declined in various polls.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn GIFs

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn GIFs refers to a series of GIFs that were posted in response to opinion polls conducted throughout the campaign which displayed Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn celebrating when a poll lead was in their favour

GIFs which were used which showed Boris Johnson celebrating were him dancing at the Olympic Games, driving in a car with his thumbs up, him throwing a basketball successfully in a hoop and him shouting "dude" at the Conservative Party conference and "come on!" in the House of Commons (see below).

GIFs which were used which showed Jeremy Corbyn celebrating included him revealing himself in a Santa costume (referring to the election date being in December), him stating into the camera, him celebrating with Emily Thronberry and a photoshopped version of him walking out on a WWE stage (see below).

Vote Conservative Actually

On December 9th, 2019, the Conservative Party released a campaign video parodying one of the scenes from the 2003 film, Love, Actually. (see below).

Image macros of a scene with Boris Johnson holding a blank card started circulating around Twitter with parodies added on to them

Nicola Sturgeon Cheering On Camera

Nicola Sturgeon Cheering on Camera refers to a moment during the election night which showed First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon reacting to SNP candidate Amy Callaghan's win in East Dunbartonshire where she ousted Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson.

The footage appeared on Sky News during a taping of an interview with her and was met with mixed reactions. Liberal Democrat politicians Alex Cole-Hamilton and Lalya Moran reacted with shock at the footage and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said it was unacceptable. Others however cheered and praised, notably anti-Liberal Democrat supporters.

It was uploaded on to YouTube via the Guardian and was the fifth highest trending video in the United Kingdom with over 200,000 views and 1,400 likes.

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