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UK Election 2001

© Tony Lacey

Introduction

In Britain, the political party that controls a majority of seats in the Houses of Parliament becomes the government. The leader of that party becomes Prime Minister. Before the polls opened, the Prime Minister was Tony Blair (Labour party), the Opposition leader - the title belongs to the leader of the opposition party with the greatest number of seats - was William Hague (Conservative party), and the Liberal Democrats were the third largest party, lead by Charles Kennedy.

Results

The official results were as follows. Out of a total of 659 Parliamentary seats, the parties won:

Labour - 413 seats
Conservative - 166 seats
Liberal Democrats - 52 seats
Others - 23 seats

Commentary

Election night saw the Liberal Democrats make gains, reducing the number of Conservative seats in Parliament and reaching their highest number of seats so far. Labour also have cause for celebration as Prime Minister Tony Blair has made history by leading his party to its first consecutive double-term in office.

Turnout was disappointingly low. At an average of 60% of the electorate, it was the lowest recorded since 1918. Various political pundits chose different elements to blame for this; voter apathy and a feeling that a Labour victory was a foregone conclusion have both been mentioned. The Conservative party played on a fear of a second Labour landslide (with some predicting a majority of between 150-175 seats) threatening democracy. Their tactics do not appear to have motivated the voters, as the Labour party cruised to victory, handily defeating the Conservatives and establishing a major majority.

Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson, a former Labour government Minister forced to resign following several incidents, had long been rumoured to be finished in politics. However, his was by far the most important acceptance speech of the night so far. After retaining his seat, he made a bitter attack against his "enemies" and emphatically declared that he was "back".

No election night is complete without last-minute upsets, and there were three notable instances. Firstly, the far-right British Nationalist Party (BNP) secured almost 17% of the vote in the Oldham and Royton constituency, playing on recent race-related riots and urging an strongly nationalist approach.

Meanwhile, former news broadcaster Martin Bell ran as an Independent in the Conservative stronghold of Brentwood and Ongar. Few expected him to win, and whilst he did not, he came second - beating Labour and the Liberal Democrats - and in the process cut the Conservative's majority to a precarious 3000.

Perhaps the most astonishing surprise of the night was the election in the Wyre Forest constituency. A local doctor, Dr. Richard Taylor, campaigned on the sole issue of saving a hospital in the area - he won the seat, defeating all of the three main parties and highlighting the growing problems in the National Health Service.

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