Thenext United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than Wednesday 15 August 2029. It will determine the composition of theHouse of Commons, which determines thegovernment of the United Kingdom.
The2024 general election resulted in alandslide victory for theLabour Party led byKeir Starmer, but with the smallest share of the electoral vote of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote beganin 1830. The combined vote share for Labour and the Conservatives reached a record low, with smaller parties doing well. Labour returned to being the largest party in Scotland and remained so in Wales. The election was noted as the most disproportionate in modern British history,[2] mainly as a result of thefirst-past-the-post voting system.[3][4][5][6]
Reform UK, led byNigel Farage, placed third in the share of the vote in the 2024 election and had MPs elected to the Commons for the first time.[9] Meanwhile, theLiberal Democrats, led byEd Davey, made significant gains especially in seat terms to reach their highest number of seats since (as their predecessorLiberal Party) the 1920s (and highest since the merger with theSDP). TheGreen Party of England and Wales also won a record number of votes and seats alongside a number of independent MPs.[7] TheScottish National Party (SNP) lost around three-quarters of its seats.[10]
a resident at an address in the United Kingdom (or a British citizen living abroad),and
not legally excluded from voting (for example a convicted person detained in prison or a mental hospital, or unlawfully at large if they would otherwise have been detained, or a person found guilty of certain corrupt or illegal practices, or a sitting Member of the House of Lords)
Individuals must beregistered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day. Anyone who qualifies as ananonymous elector has approximately five working days before polling day to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) may be able to register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can only vote in one constituency at the general election.
The government has announced plans to reduce thevoting age to 16 before the next general election.[19] Extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds would add well over a million potential voters across England and Northern Ireland.[20] Analysts have found that this would expand voter participation, but the additional votes would represent only a small share of the national electorate.[21]
Under theDissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, theprime minister has the power to request themonarch call an election at any time during the five-year length of a parliamentary session. If the prime minister chooses not to do this, then parliament is automatically dissolved five years after the day it first met,[22] and a general election is held 25 working days after dissolution.[23]
Parliament first met on 9 July 2024,[24][25][26][27] meaning that unless Parliament is dissolved earlier it will be automatically dissolved on 9 July 2029, and the latest an election could be held is 15 August 2029. According to theElectoral Commission, the appropriate date to use as the first meeting is theState Opening of Parliament on 17 July 2024, which would mean the latest an election could be held is on 21 August 2029.[28]
Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election is being carried out continually by various organisations to gauge voting intention. Most of the polling companies listed are members of theBritish Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The dates for these opinion polls range from the 2024 general election on 4 July to the present day.
^Sinn Féin are an all-Ireland political party with anabstentionist stance from the UK Parliament. McDonald is aTD (Republic of Ireland MP).Michelle O'Neill leads Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
^Ellie Chowns leads the Greens in the House of Commons.
^Some media outlets, such asBBC News, listed Labour's total as 412, by including the Speaker (who, to demonstrate his neutrality, had resigned his Labour Party membership on taking office).
^abcdThe Speaker and three deputy speakers by convention comprise two MPs from the government side and two from the opposition side. They do not vote in House of Commons divisions and exercise only acasting vote.[16]
^abSinn Féin's seven MPs follow a policy ofabstentionism. They do not swear into the House of Commons, and do not take part in its formal processes. As a result, they are not able to sit or vote in the House of Commons.[15]
^Total number of MPs on the government side minus MPs on the opposition side. Government side comprises all Labour MPs plus the Speaker (as he was originally a Labour MP). Opposition side comprises all other MPs.
^Total number of voting MPs on the government side minus voting MPs on the opposition side.
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