United Kingdom general election, 2017

[mike2000 is back]

The United Kingdom general election of 2017 s scheduled to take place on 8 June 2017. Each of the 650 parliamentary constituencieswill elect one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament.

In line with the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, an election had not been due until 7 May 2020, but a call for a snap election by Prime Minister Theresa May received the necessary two-thirds majority in a 522 to 13 vote in the House of Commons on 19 April 2017.

The Conservative Party, which has governed since 2015 (and as a senior coalition partner from 2010), is defending a majority of 12 against the Labour Party, the official opposition. The third largest party, the Scottish National Party, won 56 of the 59 Scottish constituencies in 2015. The Liberal Democrats, and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, are the fourth and fifth largest parties, with 9 and 8 seats respectively.

Negotiation positions following Britain's invocation of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union in March 2017 to leave the EUare expected to dominate the election campaign. Opinion polling for the popular votesince the election was called has given May's Conservatives a lead over Labour led by Jeremy Corbyn.

All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls

Leader Theresa May Jeremy Corbyn
Party Conservative Labour

Leader Nicola Sturgeon Tim Farron
Party SNP Liberal Democrat

A map of UK parliamentary constituencies.



@waz, can we make this thread sticky please?

 

[mike2000 is back]

General Election 2017: Five charts showing how the race is evolving

• Patrick Scott , data journalist

22 MAY 2017 • 2:26PM

With less than three weeks left before polling day the 2017 general election campaign is hotting up.

All the major parties have now released their manifestos and the TV debatesbegan last week with a five-way discussion between Tim Farron (Lib Dems), Caroline Lucas (Greens), Paul Nuttall (UKIP), Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru).

The deadline for registering to vote is also upon us with people from all sides of the political spectrum especially keen to appeal to younger voters.

Traditionally younger voters are far less likely to cast a ballot compared with older age groups with the turnout among 18-24 year olds reaching a paltry 43 per cent in 2015. For those aged 65+ it was 78 per cent according to Ipsos Mori.

Labour are gaining in the polls
Over the weekend Labour received something of a polling boost when two surveys put them within nine points of the Conservatives.

It is still too early to say whether this marks the start of a significant shift towards Jeremy Corbyn's party but even when taking an average of the the latest eight polls, Labour are making ground.

The Telegraph has been taking a rolling average of the last eight polls over the course of the campaign. Labour are currently polling at 33.1 per cent of the vote, 12.7 points behind the Conservatives who are on 45.8 per cent.

This is a huge improvement on their position a month ago when pollsters were regularly putting them more than 20 points behind Theresa May's party.



Despite their polling improvement, Labour HQ won't be popping the champagne corks just yet.

Since Theresa May called for the election on April 18 both the Conservatives and Labour have gained in the polls with Labour gaining slightly more ground.

However, since the 2015 general election the Conservatives have made far more progress than Labour. Their current polling average of 45.8 per cent is 9.7 points higher than the share they achieved in 2015 while Labour's share has risen by just 2.7 points.

The Conservatives are making ground in Scotland
Ruth Davidson, the Conservative's leader in Scotland, launched a charm offensive last week in order to persuade anti-nationalists to back her party rather than Labour.

Her efforts appear to be working as earlier this month labour were knocked into third place in the local council elections with the Conservatives picking up far more support than is usual in Scotland.

This trend is set to replicate itself at next month's general election according to polls with the Conservatives currently polling at 27.9 per cent in Scotland - nearly double what they achieved in 2015.

While this gain will be encouraging to Ruth Davidson and Theresa May, the SNP would need to lose support - something that has only happened to a small degree so far - in order for a significant number of seats to change hands.

The Conservatives are reaching record highs in leadership ratings
Voting intention figures are usually the ones that grab the headlines, but polling companies also regularly ask people for their opinions on things like leadership.

Ipsos Mori have conducted such a poll on a semi-consistent basis for the past 27 years, asking respondents which party they feel has the leadership team best suited to dealing with the issues faced in the UK.

The latest results, released last week, gave the current collective Conservative leadership team the highest score on record when it comes to their perceived ability to address the UK's problems. Labour, meanwhile, are on their joint lowest score.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/22/general-election-2017-five-charts-showing-race-evolving/

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

It looks like it's going to turn into a situation of: "Please anybody except Jeremy Corbyn".

 

[Vergennes]

It looks like it's going to turn into a situation of: "Please anybody except Jeremy Corbyn".

The Tories have suffered backlash in opinion pollings because of some of their policies such as the 'dementia tax' which caused uproar. Their lead on the Labour has halved from 18%-20% to 9%.

They made a partial u-turn about it.

 

[mike2000 is back]

The Tories have suffered backlash in opinion pollings because of some of their policies such as the 'dementia tax' which caused uproar. Their lead on the Labour has halved from 18%-20% to 9%.

They made a partial u-turn about it.

Yes true. However, I still believe the Tory will have a majority. People just don't trust corbyn to lead the country. That's labour's main handicap.
It's true May's team made a blunder with her 'dementia tax' policy and then making a U-turn today on that. That was a mistake. I actually think she should have went forward with it once it was made public though.

Labour shouldn’t get too carried away by the rise they see in the polls.The focus on their manifesto may have helped them this week, but on many fundamentals such as leadership the public still puts them a long way behind the Conservatives, and their vote is much softer, with one in six of their supporters considering voting for Theresa May’s party. I believe May's team will start shifting the focus on her and Corbyn again,brexit etc.

More over, a YouGov poll suggests the conservative will become the biggest party in almost every area of Britain.Jeremy Corbyn’s unpopularity means that Labour has fallen behind the Tories even in areas such as Yorkshire and Wales(where they have been popular for decades).
In fact Labour is winning only in London, with 41 per cent to the Tories’ 36 per cent, and in the North-East where Labour has 42 per cent and the Conservatives are on 40 per cent, so still not a clear lead even in these area which have been labour's strong hold.
Me personally I'm voting conservative instead of Labour for the first time in my life. Yes......because of Corbyn.

Election 2017: How many women might win power?
By Ed LowtherBBC News

• 18 May 2017
  

• 
  
  

There are more than 3,300 candidates hoping to win one of the 650 seats in the UK's House of Commons on 8 June.

What do we know about those jockeying for position in the race for election?

1. There are more women running for office than ever before
Overall, about 30% of candidates are women - up from the previous record of 26% in 2015, although the actual number of women standing is down from 1,036 to 983. However, parties vary.

Image captionThe Conservatives are the only party to campaign in all four nations of the UK
Labour is putting forward the highest percentage of female candidates of any major party, at 41%. The Greens are on 36%, the SNP on 34%, and the Lib Dems on 29%.

The Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, both of which are led by women, are neck-and-neck towards the back of the pack with 28% of their parliamentary candidates female.*

The party with by far the fewest female candidates is UKIP, on 13%.

2. Labour has more women defending seats won in 2015
Labour also has a higher proportion of women standing in constituencies that the party won in 2015.

Image captionThe Lib Dems campaigned in 631 seats in 2015, but won just eight seats. Meanwhile the SNP lost just three of Scotland's 59 parliamentary constituencies
But the two biggest parties are fielding very similar proportions of women in seats they lost by less than 10% in 2015.

So if Labour increases its share of the vote in each of these places by five percentage points, it would gain 16 women and 32 men. A similar increase for the Conservatives would give them 18 women and 30 men.

3. The Conservatives have more candidates than any other party, but fewer than in 2015
With candidates in all British constituencies (bar one) and seven of the 18 seats in Northern Ireland, the Conservatives are standing in more of the country than any other party. In 2015 they contested 16 Northern Irish seats. Labour and the Lib Dems do not stand in Northern Ireland.

The Lib Dems have two fewer candidates than Labour, as they are not standing in Brighton Pavilion, which returned the UK's only Green MP in 2015, or in Skipton and Ripon in Yorkshire, reportedly to bolster the chances of the local Green candidate.

4. Very few MPs are quitting
Perhaps because they last stood for election only two years ago, just 14 Labour MPs and 12 Conservatives in the 2015-17 Parliament are not standing again.

Compared with previous general elections, these numbers are quite small. Thirty-nine Labour MPs and 38 Conservatives decided not stand for re-election in 2015. The average number of MPs standing down at general elections between 1979 and 2015 is about 90.

Of the 12 Conservatives standing down in 2017, 11 are men, but six of the candidates vying to replace them are women.

For Labour, 11 of the 14 standing down are men, and 10 of the candidates in their former seats are women.

* The Speaker of the House of Commons is an MP and has to stand for re-election as Speaker in their constituency at every general election.

Traditionally the biggest parties in the House of Commons do not stand against the Speaker however some parties, such as UKIP, do.

The current Speaker, John Bercow, is standing for election in Buckingham.

The Speaker is a neutral figure in Parliament, so Mr Bercow is no longer a member of the Conservative Party as he was before his election to the role (by parliament).

However, for the purposes of calculating the number of seats belonging to each party - and calculating those held, gained or lost by each party - Mr Bercow's seat is regarded as being a Conservative constituency as he won it for the party in 1997, 2001 and 2005 before being elected speaker.

For this reason, Mr Bercow is included in the Conservatives' tally of candidates on this page.

The BBC followed the same principle in 2005, when previous Speaker Michael Martin's Glasgow Springburn seat was added to the Labour party's tally of MPs.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39949042

 

[Blue Marlin]

im voting ukip simply because i hate both the tories and labour.
on one side we have a retard and on the other we have a b!tch leech

 

[mike2000 is back]

im voting ukip simply because i hate both the tories and labour.
on one side we have a retard and on the other we have a b!tch leech

Lol UKIP?? It's better you don't vote.

 

[Blue Marlin]

Lol UKIP?? It's better you don't vote.

i vote via post so its hardly any effort for me so i may as well i guess, or get the mrs to pick for me.

 

[Flash_Ninja]

im voting ukip simply because i hate both the tories and labour.
on one side we have a retard and on the other we have a b!tch leech

Any specific reason why? The UK's system is largely accountable to parliament, so leadership is not as important as the party's policies and mandate.

 

[Śakra]

im voting ukip simply because i hate both the tories and labour.
on one side we have a retard and on the other we have a b!tch leech

In your heart you know the only good choice is this guy

The ballot reader is going to be terribly confused when she realizes you wrote Modi in the ballot box.

 

[Vergennes]

im voting ukip simply because i hate both the tories and labour.
on one side we have a retard and on the other we have a b!tch leech

Lol UKIP?? It's better you don't vote.

What's the purpose of UKIP nowadays anyway,since their main goal,which was to take the UK out of the EU is soon to be achieved ? Better for them to disappear in peace and unnoticed.

@mike2000 is back So,who will get your vote ?

 

[Blue Marlin]

Any specific reason why? The UK's system is largely accountable to parliament, so leadership is not as important as the party's policies and mandate.

i would go labour but as i said it being run by a retard. but i heard blair want s to return and that all we fucking need, another blood thirst bAstard.

In your heart you know the only good choice is this guy

The ballot reader is going to be terribly confused when she realizes you wrote Modi in the ballot box.

he's a controversial figure here. even a good number of indians dont like him due to his past and what he is doing today. @vostok do you want to do a trade, we take putin and you can have may and corbyn. personally i think you should go for it, a 2 for 1 is a great deal.

What's the purpose of UKIP nowadays anyway,since their main goal,which was to take the UK out of the EU is soon to be achieved ? Better for them to disappear in peace and unnoticed.

@mike2000 is back So,who will get your vote ?

i dont know whats he's up to, last i heard he was bum chums with trump and still taking wages from the eu.

 

[Flash_Ninja]

i would go labour but as i said it being run by a retard. but i heard blair want s to return and that all we fucking need, another blood thirst bAstard.

A lot of people hate Corbyn, but imo he seems to have a lot of integrity and actually seems to care for the general public. He's mobilised a lot of the youth recently, and if he can bring them out to vote then he has a decent chance of winning.

I dont think Blair stands any chance of coming back, remember the Blairites tried to take down Corbyn twice and it only resulted in him winning an even bigger margin of victory in the leadership elections.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

I will vote for labour as usual . Labour would be favourite right now if they had right leadership but sadly Corbyn has no leadership abilities

my second favourite is liberal democrats so I wish labour get votes close to conservative and then labour + liberal democrat make the government


30 Pakistani-origin candidates contesting UK elections

30 candidates of Pakistani origin will be contesting the June 8 general elections in the United Kingdom, BBC Urdu reported.

According to lists of candidates released by different political parties, the Labour Party has given more tickets to women and Pakistani-origin citizens than any other party.

14 British-Pakistani candidates will represent the Labour Party in the elections. These include Shabana Mahmood, Khalid Mahmood, and Perry Barr in Birmingham, Yasmin Qureshi in Bolton, Naseem Shah and Imran Hussain in Bradford, and Rosena Allin-Khan in Tooting.

Labour Party candidate Shabana Mahmood/Twitter @ShabanaMahmood

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, have given tickets to nine Pakistani-origin candidates, the ruling Conservative Party has six candidates of Pakistani origin representing it in the elections, while the Scottish National Party has one British-Pakistani representing it during the elections.

Labour Party candidate Yasmin Qureshi/Twitter @YasminQureshiMP

London has the highest number of British-Pakistani candidates, with seven in the run in various constituencies.

More than 3,000 candidates from 350 constituencies are contesting the UK general elections, to be held next month.

One noteworthy fact is that the Labour Party has chosen women candidates for 41 percent of the seats. As many as 50 members of various minority groups will also be representing the party.

The ruling Conservatives have given tickets to women candidates for 29 percent of the seats. The Liberal Democrats have women candidates for 30 percent of the seats, while the Scottish National Party has 33 percent.

11 Pakistani-origin women candidates will be representing major political parties of the country in the upcoming polls.

 

[mike2000 is back]

What's the purpose of UKIP nowadays anyway,since their main goal,which was to take the UK out of the EU is soon to be achieved ? Better for them to disappear in peace and unnoticed.

Lol I was about to say the same thing.

i would go labour but as i said it being run by a retard. but i heard blair want s to return and that all we fucking need, another blood thirst bAstard.

Voting Labour is even worse with delusional corbyn as leader. This vote will have far reaching consequences for Britain now in future. So think wisely. Corbyn has no leadership skills, how do you expect him to negotiate a good BREXIT deal for us with the E.U? Might as well vote for the greens than Labour's Corbyn.