General Elections in The United Kingdom - 1979-2010

1979-2010

The last thirty years saw just five prime ministers, with Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair the two longest serving post-World War II prime ministers in the UK (the other prime ministers during this period being John Major, Gordon Brown and David Cameron). There was also a mini-revival of the Liberal Party which, after a merger with the Social Democratic Party became the Liberal Democrats and increased their seats in parliament from 11 in the 1979 election to 62 in 2005. The outcome of the 2010 election brought about the first hung parliament since 1974 and forced the victorious Conservative Party to accept the Liberal Democrats as their coalition partner.

Voter turnout also fell during this period, with the 2001 election seeing a post-World War Two low of 59.4%. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement has led to a vast reduction in conflict, though the moderate parties who gained power in the 1980s, such as the Ulster Unionist Party, have been replaced as the dominant powers by the likes of Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party. The elections of the 1990s and 2000s (decade) also saw an increased proliferation of smaller parties, with more parties standing at the 2005 general election than ever before.