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On Thursday July 4^th 2024 the nation went to the polls to decide the MPs that would enter Parliament. In this worksheet, we are going to go through how an election is called, why it is important, and the factors involved in deciding who wins an election.

What is a General Election?

In the UK, the main legislative body (the people that make the laws) is the Parliament at Westminster, in London. This Parliament is made up of MPs (Members of Parliament). MPs represent constituencies, areas such as Oxford West and Abingdon or Harrow West. These constituencies usually have a population of around 70,000 people. The MPs are meant to represent these people to Parliament. These MPs, when they come together in parties, then form His Majesty’s Government and the Opposition. The way MPs enter Parliament is through an election, and the main election that brings MPs into Parliament is the General Election.

At the General Election, the electorate (those who can vote) go to the polls – which means they head to a polling station and put an ‘x’ next to the name of the person who they want to represent them in Parliament. After which, they count the votes and whoever gets the most votes wins the seat. This system is called first-past-the-post. So, it is possible that this situation happens:

Let’s call this constituency Morley and there are 4 candidates running:

MORLEY – Turnout 62%

James Timothy Alexander Broadbent – BLUE PARTY

Shaheen Ali – GREEN PARTY

Matthew Holliman-Ellis – RED PARTY

Gemma Aitken – ORANGE PARTY

CANDIDATE	VOTE SHARE
James Timothy Alexander Broadbent – BLUE PARTY	29%
Shaheen Ali – GREEN PARTY	16.9%
Matthew Holliman-Ellis – RED PARTY	40.7%
Gemma Aitken – ORANGE PARTY	8.3%
Spoilt Ballot	5.1%

In the Morley election, Matthew Holliman-Ellis is then elected MP and will go to Westminster to represent the people of Morley. A spoilt ballot is when a voting sheet is incorrectly filled, often for the purpose of showing dissatisfaction with the candidates available.

 

The results from Morley were based upon a real-life constituency result in the 2024 UK Election! As a side task, see if you can find where the constituency is and look at the results for your own constituency.

UK election results 2024 | Constituency map – BBC News

Each of the 650 constituencies in the UK do the same process and vote for an MP, who is part of a party to go to Parliament. If a party can get 326 seats, that is, over 50% of all the seats in Parliament, they can form a government where the PM will usually be chosen from the Leader of that Party.

This is significant as it chooses who will make the laws in the UK and who will execute them. The General Election is where the British public has the most power to choose where they want the country to go, and it is up to the politicians and candidates to present to them good options and reasons for why they should vote for them. In the UK, we have two major parties – a political party is a group of politicians and politically active/interested individuals who join to promote a shared cause or belief:

The Labour Party

The Conservative Party

Since 1922, all the Prime Ministers have been either from the Labour Party or the Conservative Party. These two parties have (for the most part) got the majority of seats in Parliament each election cycle. The major exceptions to this are when parties form minority governments (like in 2017 under Theresa May) where they have the most seats, but not the majority of them, or when parties form coalitions (like in 2010 between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats). These do not happen often in British politics. This is what is traditionally considered to be a ‘two-party system’ where power is swapped between two major political parties.

What is involved in winning an election? What factors must one consider? There are two kinds of victories one can have in a General Election:

• Constituency victory
• Party victory

A constituency victory is like the example in Morley described above, where an individual succeeds in winning a specific constituency over other candidates. A party victory is the kind of victory that is described in further down, where parties gain enough seats to form a majority government. So, let’s look at gaining victory in each case.

To win at the constituency level depends on the situation in each constituency. There are significant local concerns and there are diverse groups of people in each constituency. Yet politically we often divide constituencies into two kinds of seats:

• Safe seats – where it is highly likely that a specific party/candidate will win this constituency (judged from previous electoral history and opinion surveys in this seat).
• Marginal seats – where it is unclear which party/candidate will win this constituency.

If you want to win a safe seat, join the party that traditionally wins at that seat – become their candidate and use that electoral tradition and record to support your campaign in the constituency. Often, the pathway for you will be to garner support to get people to vote at all – since it is likely that if they vote for you, the campaign can be based on increasing the number of people voting.

To win a marginal seat is much more difficult. Here, you are competing and find yourself on some equal ground with your fellow candidates. In these kinds of seats, you’ll need to go out there – with your team, friends and party members to put your message to the electorate (this is still applicable to safe seats). Indeed the tactics of knocking on doors, winning local debates, understanding and addressing local issues goes a long way in helping your campaign.

Each different constituency has its own issues and its own unique identity, so any victory in a given constituency requires an understanding of it.

Now, we move from the candidacy level to the party level. How does a Leader of a Party manage an election (and ultimately become Prime Minister?)

Victory on this level requires dealing with national issues and wider political problems on the economy, foreign policy (decisions on the international level), domestic policy (decisions on the national level), among other issues.

Not only do you have to win your own constituency, you must have at least 326 constituencies with members of your party to win – winning more than that is essential. Effectively, you must not just win one seat but fight 650 battles across the country at the same time. It isn’t as simple as that. However, you (leading one of the major parties) will have a significant bank of safe seats to rely upon – your core support. You will need to win the pens of the people through publishing a manifesto which addresses the questions of the day. If you’re defending your place as PM already, you can appeal to your record. The final, probably sneakier thing to do, is to attack your opponent – their history, their competence and in some cases, rather unfortunately, even their character/personality. Politics is a rather ruthless business. And it is good to be aware of how politicians work to win their battles.