Since the 1920s the two main political parties in the UK, in terms of the number of seats in the
House of Commons, are the
Conservative and Unionist Party and the
Labour Party. The
Scottish National Party has the second largest party membership, but a smaller number of MPs as it only fields candidates for constituencies in Scotland. The modern day Conservative Party was founded in 1834 and is an outgrowth of the
Tory movement or party, which began in 1678. Today it is still colloquially referred to as the Tory Party and members/supporters are referred to as
Tories. The Liberal Democrats (or "Lib Dems") were founded in 1988 by an amalgamation of the
Liberal Party and the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), a right-wing Labour breakaway movement formed in 1981. The Liberals and SDP had contested elections together as the
SDP–Liberal Alliance for seven years previously. The modern Liberal Party had been founded in 1859 as an outgrowth of the
Whig movement or party (which began at the same time as the Tory Party and was its historical rival) as well as the
Radical and
Peelite tendencies. The Liberal Party was one of the two dominant parties (along with the Conservatives) from its founding until the 1920s, when it rapidly declined in popularity, and was supplanted on the
left by the Labour Party, which was founded in 1900 and formed its first minority government in 1924. Since that time, the Labour and Conservative parties have been dominant, with the Liberals (later Liberal Democrats) being the third-largest party until
2015, when they lost 49 of their 57 seats. They lost 1 seat in the
2019 general election, but in the
2024 general election gained 64 seats and are, once again, the third-largest party in the House of Commons, with a total of 72 seats. From the 2015 general election until the 2024 general election, the
Scottish National Party was the third-largest party. They gained 56 seats in 2015. Founded in 1934, the SNP advocates
Scottish independence and has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1967. The SNP currently leads a
minority government in the
Scottish Parliament, and after the
2019 general election had 48 MPs in the House of Commons. This number was significantly reduced to just 9 MPs in the
2024 general election, making the SNP the fourth-largest party.
Reform UK, a right-wing party, currently has eight MPs, seven of which were elected in the 2024 general election. It was formerly known as the Brexit Party and is a supplantation of the now extra parliamentary
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Whilst formerly being a minor party, it has significantly grown in recent years, and are a contender to win the most seats in the next general election. There are several minor political parties in the UK: •
Plaid Cymru, the centre-left to left
Welsh nationalist party, has had continuous representation in Parliament since 1974, and currently hold four of the 32 Welsh seats. They currently have four MPs. Plaid has the third highest number of seats in the
Senedd, after
Welsh Labour, and the
Welsh Conservatives. • In
Northern Ireland, 17 of 18 MPs are from parties that only contest elections in Northern Ireland (except for
Sinn Féin, which contests elections in both Northern Ireland and the
Republic of Ireland). The exception being one MP as of the 2024 UK general election who is an independent. The right-wing and
unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) (who currently hold five seats), the left-wing and
republican Sinn Féin (who currently hold seven seats), the
nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) (who currently hold two), the centrist non-sectarian
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (who currently hold one seat), the centre-right unionist
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP; who currently hold one seat), and the right-wing unionist Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV; who have one seat), all hold seats in the House of Commons. Sinn Féin has a policy of
abstentionism and their MPs refuse to take their seats in Parliament, and have done so since 1918. The DUP, Sinn Féin, the
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Alliance Party and the SDLP are considered the five major political parties in Northern Ireland, holding the most seats in the
Northern Ireland Assembly. •
The Green Party of England and Wales has five MPs. • There are also
independent MPs. One is the
Speaker,
Lindsay Hoyle who revoked his Labour affiliation after the
2019 Speaker election. Others have had their whip revoked or have resigned from their political party. Six independent MPs were elected at the 2024 UK general election. After two years of being a minority government, the Conservatives gained a majority in the
general election in 2019, but lost this majority to the Labour Party in the
2024 general election.
Conservatives (Tories) The Conservative Party won the largest number of seats at the
2015 general election, returning 330 MPs, enough for an overall majority, and went on to form the first Conservative majority government since the
1992 general election. The Conservatives won only 318 seats at the 2017 general election, but went on to form a
confidence and supply deal with the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) who got 10 seats in the House of Commons, allowing the Conservative Party to remain in government. The Conservatives won a majority government in 2019, taking 365 seats and forming the first majority government since 2015–17. The party won 121 seats at the 2024 general election, making it the second-largest group in the House of Commons. The Conservative Party can trace its origin back to 1662, with the Court Party and the Country Party being formed in the aftermath of the
English Civil War. The Court Party soon became known as the
Tories, a name that has stuck despite the official name being 'Conservative'. The term "Tory" originates from the
Exclusion Crisis of 1678–1681 – the
Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of the Roman Catholic
Duke of York from the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland, and the Tories were those who opposed it. Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or "land magnates"), expansion and tolerance of Catholicism. The Rochdale
Radicals were a group of more extreme reformists who were also heavily involved in the
cooperative movement. They sought to bring about a more equal society, and are considered by modern standards to be
left-wing. After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of
Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1834 "
Tamworth Manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good. Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs and the
Radicals to form what would become the
Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party. The Conservatives were in government for eighteen years between 1979 and 1997, under the leadership of the first-ever female prime minister,
Margaret Thatcher, and former
chancellor of the exchequer John Major (1990–97). Their landslide defeat at the
1997 general election saw the Conservative Party lose over half their seats gained in 1992, and saw the party re-align with public perceptions of them. The Conservatives lost all their seats in both Scotland and Wales, and was their worst defeat since
1906. In 2008, the Conservative Party formed a pact with the
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) to select joint candidates for European and House of Commons elections; this angered the DUP as by splitting the Unionist vote, republican parties will be elected in some areas. After thirteen years in opposition, the Conservatives returned to power as part of a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, going on to form a majority government in 2015.
David Cameron resigned as prime minister in July 2016, which resulted in the appointment of the country's second female prime minister,
Theresa May. The Conservative Party is the only party in the history of the United Kingdom to have been governed by a female prime minister. In 2019,
Boris Johnson was appointed prime minister after May stepped down during Brexit negotiations. At one point during 2019 his party had a parliamentary minority for a short period after he ejected a large number of party members, of which some were subsequently allowed to return for the 2019 General election. Following the election the Tories returned with a majority government under Johnson. Historically, the party has been the mainland party most pre-occupied by
British unionism, as attested to by the party's full name, the Conservative and Unionist Party. This resulted in the merger between the Conservatives and
Joseph Chamberlain's
Liberal Unionist Party, composed of former Liberals who opposed
Irish home rule. The unionist tendency is still in evidence today, manifesting sometimes as a scepticism or opposition to devolution, firm support for the continued existence of the United Kingdom in the face of movements advocating independence from the UK, and a historic link with the cultural unionism of Northern Ireland.
Labour The Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the House of Commons at the 2024 general election, with 411 seats overall. The Party won the second-largest number of seats at the 2019 general election, with 202 seats, 60 seats less than 2017. The history of the Labour Party goes back to 1900, when a
Labour Representation Committee was established and changed its name to "The Labour Party" in 1906. After 1918, this led to the demise of the Liberal Party as the main reformist force in British politics. The existence of the Labour Party on the left wing of British politics led to a slow waning of energy from the Liberal Party, which has consequently assumed third place in national politics. After performing poorly at the general elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal Party was superseded by the Labour Party as being the party of the left. Following two brief spells in minority governments in 1924 and 1929–1931, the party was part of the
Churchill war ministry during
World War II. When the war ended the Labour Party won a landslide victory at the 1945 "
khaki election"; winning a majority for the first time ever. Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, Labour governments alternated with Conservative governments. The Labour Party suffered the "wilderness years" of 1951–1964 (three consecutive general election defeats) and 1979–1997 (four consecutive general election defeats). During this second period,
Margaret Thatcher, who became Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, made a fundamental change to Conservative policies, turning the Conservative Party into an
economically liberal party. At the
1979 general election, she defeated
James Callaghan's Labour government following the
Winter of Discontent. For all of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Conservative governments under Thatcher and her successor
John Major pursued policies of
privatisation, anti-
trade-unionism, and, for a time,
monetarism, now known collectively as
Thatcherism. The Labour Party elected left-winger
Michael Foot as their leader in 1980, and he responded to dissatisfaction within the Labour Party by pursuing a number of radical policies developed by its grassroots members. In 1981, several centrist and right-leaning Labour MPs formed a breakaway group called the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), a move which split Labour and is widely believed to have made the Labour Party unelectable for a decade. The SDP formed an alliance with the Liberal Party which contested the
1983 and
1987 general elections as a pro-European, centrist alternative to Labour and the Conservatives. Following some initial success, the SDP did not prosper (partly due to its unfavourable distribution of votes by the First-Past-the-Post electoral system), and was accused by some of splitting the Labour vote. The SDP eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988. The Labour Party was defeated in a landslide at the
1983 general election, and
Michael Foot was replaced shortly thereafter by
Neil Kinnock as party leader. Kinnock progressively expelled members of
Militant, a
left-wing group which practised
entryism, and moderated many of the party's policies. Despite these changes, as well as electoral gains and also due to Kinnock's negative media image, Labour was defeated at the 1987 and
1992 general elections, and he was succeeded by
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer,
John Smith.
Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair became Leader of the Labour Party following Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. He continued to move the Labour Party towards the "centre" by loosening links with the
unions and continuing many of Thatcher's neoliberal policies. This, coupled with the professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide at the
1997 general election, after eighteen consecutive years of Conservative rule. Some observers say the Labour Party had by then morphed from a
democratic socialist party to a
social democratic party, a process which delivered three general election victories but alienated some of its core base; leading to the formation of the
Socialist Labour Party. A subset of Labour MPs stand as joint
Labour and Co-operative candidates due to a long-standing
electoral alliance between the Labour Party and the
Co-operative Party – the political arm of the
British co-operative movement. At the
2019 general election, 26 were elected. Following
Tony Blair's election as leader of Labour, the part was reformed under the "
New Labour" branding and won the 1997 election with an overall landslide victory. Under "New Labour", the
Human Rights Act and
National Minimum Wage Act were passed in 1998.
Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats won the third largest number of seats at the 2024 general election, returning 72 MPs. The Liberal Democrats were founded in 1988 by an amalgamation of the Liberal Party with the Social Democratic Party, but can trace their origin back to the Whigs and the Rochdale Radicals who evolved into the Liberal Party. The term '
Liberal Party' was first used officially in 1868, though it had been in use colloquially for decades beforehand. The Liberal Party formed a government in 1868 and then alternated with the Conservative Party as the party of government throughout the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century. The Liberal Democrats are a party with policies on constitutional and political reforms, including changing the voting system for general elections (
2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum), abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with a 300-member elected Senate, introducing fixed five-year Parliaments, and introducing a National Register of Lobbyists. They also support what they see as greater fairness and social mobility. In the coalition government, the party promoted legislation introducing a
pupil premium – funding for schools directed at the poorest students to give them an equal chance in life. They also supported
same-sex marriage and increasing the
income tax threshold to £10,000, a pre-election manifesto commitment. In the 2010 election,
David Cameron formed a
coalition government with
Nick Clegg. After the 2015 elections, the Conservative government continued with a single party rather than a coalition. Some coalition government reforms that were proposed were for fixed term parliaments. This piece of legislation consisted of setting a five-year interval between general elections. Another piece of coalition reform that was enacted was the Scottish independence referendum. The result overall was remain.
Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party won the third-largest number of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election, winning 56 MPs from the 59 constituencies in Scotland having won 50% of the popular vote. This was an increase of 50 MPs on the result achieved in 2010. At the 2017 general election, the SNP won 35 seats, a net loss of 21 seats. At the 2019 general election, the SNP won 48 seats, a net gain of 13 seats. At the 2024 general election, the SNP won 9 seats, a net loss of 38 seats. The SNP has enjoyed parliamentary representation continuously since 1967. Following the 2007 Scottish parliamentary elections, the SNP emerged as the largest party with 47 MSPs and formed a
minority government with
Alex Salmond as
First Minister. After the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election, the SNP won enough seats to form a majority government, the first time this had ever happened since devolution was established in 1999. It won 64 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament in the
2021 Scottish Parliament election and currently runs a minority government in Scotland. Members of the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru work together as a single parliamentary group following a formal pact signed in 1986. This group currently has 13 MPs.
Northern Ireland parties The
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had 5 MPs elected at the 2024 general election. Founded in 1971 by
Ian Paisley, it has grown to become the larger of the two main
unionist political parties in
Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin MPs had 7 MPs elected at the 2019 election, but Sinn Féin MPs traditionally abstain from the House of Commons and refuse to take their seats in what they view as a "foreign" parliament. The unionist parties
Ulster Unionist Party,
Traditional Unionist Voice, crosscommunity
Alliance Party and nationalist party
SDLP also have Commons representation.
Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru has enjoyed parliamentary representation continuously since 1974 and had 4 MPs elected at the 2019 general election, though one was suspended. Following the
2007 Welsh Assembly elections, they joined Labour as the junior partner in a coalition government, but have fallen down to the third-largest party in the Assembly after the 2011 Assembly elections, and have become an opposition party.
Other parliamentary parties The
Green Party of England and Wales had a single MP,
Caroline Lucas, from 2010 until the 2024 UK general election (the party previously had an MP in 1992; Cynog Dafis, Ceredigion, who was elected on a joint Plaid Cymru/Green Party ticket). In the 2024 UK general election the Greens won four seats. It also has three seats on the
London Assembly and over 800 local councillors as of May 2024. Since the
election of London Assembly member
Zack Polanski as leader of the party, the Greens have experienced significant growth in their polling figures and membership numbers. The
Brexit Party was founded in January 2019, with leader
Nigel Farage (former retired UKIP leader). It initially had 14 MEPs, all of whom had been elected as members of UKIP. In the
2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, it returned 29 MEPs. The MEPs were elected representatives of the party until 11pm on 31 January 2020 when the UK left the European Union and the position of British MEPs was subsequently abolished. It was reconstituted into the
Reform Party. Reform won 5 seats in the 2024 UK general election. There are usually a small number of
independent politicians in parliament with no party allegiance. In modern times, this has usually occurred when a sitting member leaves their party, and some such MPs have been re-elected as independents. Between 1950 and 2023, only two new members were elected as independents without having ever stood for a major party: •
Martin Bell represented the
Tatton constituency in
Cheshire between 1997 and 2001. He was
elected following a "sleaze" scandal involving the-then incumbent Conservative MP,
Neil Hamilton. Bell, a
BBC journalist, stood as an anti-corruption independent candidate, and the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates from the election. • Dr.
Richard Taylor MP was elected for the
Wyre Forest constituency in 2001 on a platform opposing the closure of Kidderminster hospital. He later established
Health Concern, the party under which he ran in 2005. In the 2024 UK general election six independents were elected.
Non-Parliamentary political parties Other
political parties exist, but struggle to return MPs to Parliament. The
UK Independence Party (UKIP) had one MP and 24 seats in the
European Parliament as well as a number of local councillors. UKIP also had a MLA in the
Northern Ireland Assembly. UKIP had become an emerging alternative party among some voters, gaining the third-largest share of the vote in the
2015 general election and the largest share of the vote of any party (27%) in the
2014 European elections. In 2014 UKIP gained its first ever MP following the defection and re-election of
Douglas Carswell in the
2014 Clacton by-election. They campaign mainly on issues such as reducing
immigration and
EU withdrawal. They no longer have any MPs. The
Respect party, a
left-wing group that came out of the
anti-war movement had a single MP,
George Galloway from 2005 to 2010, and again between 2012 and 2015.
Change UK was a political party formed and disbanded in 2019. It had five MPs, four of whom were elected as Labour MPs, and one as Conservative MPs. Following the
2021 Scottish Parliament election the
Scottish Greens have 8 MSPs in the
Scottish Parliament and are the junior partner in the SNP/Green coalition. They also 35 local councillors. The
Green Party in Northern Ireland has previously had MLAs in the
Northern Ireland Assembly. They currently have 8 local councillors. The
Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) won its first seat in the Scottish Parliament in the
1999 Scottish Parliament election. In the
2003 Scottish Parliament election the party increased their number of seats to 6. The party built up its support through opposing the war in Iraq and fighting for policies such as free school meals and an end to prescription charges. In the
2007 Scottish Parliament election it lost all of its MSPs but remains politically active and continues to contest elections. The
British National Party (BNP) became the official opposition in the
2006 Barking and Dagenham Council election, won a seat in the
2008 London Assembly election, two seats in the
2009 European elections, and received the fifth-highest share of votes in the
2010 general election. At their peak they had 58 local councillors. However, the early 2010s saw the BNP's support collapse and became fractured, resulting in them losing all elected representation by 2018. The
British Democratic Party (BDP) was founded in 2013 by
Andrew Brons, one of the British National Party's two MEPs. In 2022, following the collapse of the BNP, a plethora of prominent ex-BNP members rapidly began coalescing around the British Democrats. It is currently the only far-right UK political party with any elected representation. The
Aspire Party has 24 out of the 45 seats in the Tower Hamlets council. The
Women's Equality Party (WEP) was founded in 2015. The party gained its first elected representation in the
2019 United Kingdom local elections, winning one local councillor seat on
Congleton Town Council. The party has no other elected representation at any other level of governance. The
Libertarian Party was founded in 2008 and has contested several local elections and parliamentary constituencies. It has no elected representatives at any level of governance. The
English Democrats was founded in 2002 and advocates England having its own parliament. The party's candidate was elected mayor of Doncaster in 2009, before resigning from the party in February 2013. Other parties include: the
Socialist Labour Party (UK), the
Socialist Party of Great Britain, the
Communist Party of Britain, the
Socialist Party (England and Wales), the
Socialist Workers Party, the
Liberal Party,
Mebyon Kernow (a Cornish nationalist party) in Cornwall, the
Yorkshire Party in Yorkshire, and the
National Health Action Party. The
Pirate Party UK existed from 2009 to 2020, before being relaunched in 2023. Several local parties contest only within a specific area, a single county, borough or district. Examples include the Better Bedford Independent Party, which was one of the dominant parties in
Bedford Borough Council and led by Bedford's former mayor,
Frank Branston. The most notable local party is
Health Concern, which controlled a single seat in the British Parliament from 2001 to 2010. The
Jury Team, launched in March 2009 and described as a "non-party party", is an umbrella organisation seeking to increase the number of independent MPs. The
Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) was founded in 1983. The OMRLP are distinguished by having a deliberately bizarre
manifesto, which contains things that seem to be impossible or too absurd to implement – usually to highlight what they see as real-life absurdities. It is effectively regarded as a
satirical political party.
2015 to 2019 After winning the largest number of seats and votes in the 2015 general election, the Conservatives under
David Cameron, remained ahead of the Labour Party, led by
Jeremy Corbyn since September 2015. The SNP maintained its position in Scotland, the party was just short of an overall majority at the Scottish parliamentary elections in May 2016. However, a turbulent
referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union, called for by David Cameron, led to his resignation, the appointment of a new prime minister Theresa May, and divided opinion on Europe amongst the party. In addition, the
EU referendum campaign plunged the Labour Party into crisis and resulted in a motion of no confidence in the party leader
Jeremy Corbyn being passed by the party's MPs in a 172–40 vote, which followed a significant number of resignations from the
Shadow Cabinet. This led to a
leadership election which began with
Angela Eagle, the former
Shadow First Secretary of State and
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills who eight days later withdrew from the leadership race, to support
Owen Smith, the former
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. This was won by Jeremy Corbyn with an increased majority. Following the vote to leave the European Union,
Nigel Farage offered his own resignation as leader, something he had campaigned for since 1992. A leadership contest also took place in the Green Party, which led to the joint election on 2 September 2016 of
Jonathan Bartley and
Caroline Lucas as co-leaders, who took over the role in a job-share arrangement. Lucas, was previously leader until 2010 and is the party's only MP. Strategic cross-party alliances have been initiated, including a "
progressive alliance" and a "Patriotic Alliance", as proposed by
UKIP donor
Arron Banks. In 2017, the prime minister,
Theresa May, called a general election. She hoped to increase the conservative majority to diffuse party opposition to her deal to leave the EU. In the election, the conservatives lost seats and the Labour party, under
Jeremy Corbyn, gained 30 seats. This led to a minority conservative government supported by the
DUP. In July 2019,
Boris Johnson won the leadership of the conservative party following the resignation of May. He became the prime minister by default. In August 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested the monarch, Queen
Elizabeth II, to
prorogue the
British parliament. Although this measure is common for incoming governments to allow time to prepare the
Queen's speech, the move caused
great controversy as it was announced to last 23 days instead of the usual 4 or 5 days. It would end the current session of the Parliament that had been running for 2 years and prevent further parliamentary debate. The government stated that it was nothing to do with
Brexit and that there would still be "ample time" for debate before Brexit happens. Opponents believed that parliament had been suspended to force through a
no-deal Brexit and prevent parliament from being able to thwart the government's plan. Others argued that it facilitated the
Brexit negotiations by forcing the EU to modify the current proposed deal. The move is unprecedented in British politics and caused debate in the media, an attempt to stop it in the Scottish
Court of Session, an attempt by ex-prime minister
John Major and others to stop it in the English
High Court and in the
High Court in Northern Ireland. It was reported by many media sources that the move takes the UK one more step towards a full
dictatorship from its current status of '
elective dictatorship'. The legality of the suspension of parliament was tested in courts in England and Scotland. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. On 24 September, it ruled unanimously that the prorogation was both justiciable and unlawful. The prorogation was quashed and deemed "null and of no [legal] effect". Parliament resumed the next day. On the return of parliament the government lost its
majority when Conservative MP
Phillip Lee crossed the floor of the house to join the Liberal Democrats. This meant that the combined votes of the Conservative and
DUP MPs amounted to one less than the combined votes of opposition parties. The government of Boris Johnson then lost a vote, 301 to 328, giving control of the agenda of the house to the MPs, removing the control the government had over the introduction of new laws. The 21 Conservative MPs who voted against their own government had the
whip removed by
Number 10, removing them from the party. This included long-standing members of the party. Johnson called for a general election and following a few attempts succeeded in getting a vote approving an election through parliament.
Current political landscape In the December 2019
general election, the
Conservative Party, led by
Boris Johnson, won a large overall majority.
Jeremy Corbyn resigned as leader of the
Labour Party.
Jo Swinson resigned as
Lib Dem leader after losing her own seat. On 20 December 2019, the
Brexit withdrawal agreement was passed. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 at 11 p.m. GMT and entered a transition period, set to finish on 31 December 2020. In January 2020, the Labour Party began the process of electing a new leader. On 4 April 2020,
Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party with 56.2% of the vote in the first round. In October 2020, Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party over his comments about antisemitism. According to
The Washington Post: :Corbyn's ouster from a party he led in the last two national elections, in 2019 and 2017, was a stunning rebuke and mark him now as a near-outcast, at least temporarily. The suspension also shines light on a long-running feud within Europe's largest democratic socialist party over its very soul, as hard-left "Corbynistas" pushing for radical change duke it out with a more moderate wing more ideologically aligned with
Tony Blair, the centrist former Labour prime minister. The present dispute within the Labour party is likely causing the leftist political coalition to further fragment since the catastrophic result in 2019. Polling generally indicates that
at present (August 2021) Labour has lost significant portions of its vote share to the Green party and the Liberal Democrats. At Labour Conference 2021, several showdowns between the left and right of the party are expected to take place. This includes but is not limited to: a motion to give members power to approve or reject decisions over the Labour whip within the PLP, a potential rejection of the pro-Starmer interim General Secretary
David Evans by unions and members alike, a debate over PR and a significant debate over the loss of members and their subscription fees since Corbyn's expulsion which has left the party in a dire state regarding its activist and financial bases. The
SNP and the
Scottish Greens won the right to form a Scottish coalition government in May 2021. The precise arrangement is loose and allows the Greens freedom to criticise official SNP policy on key areas of disagreement. However, it provides
FM Nicola Sturgeon with a mandate to call for a new independence referendum after the failed one in 2014. In 2022, the
Democracy Index rated the United Kingdom as a "
full democracy" ranking 18th worldwide with an overall score of 8.28 out of a maximum of 10. The
V-Dem Democracy Indices ranked United Kingdom 22nd worldwide on electoral democracy.
Membership All political parties have membership schemes that allow members of the public to actively influence the policy and direction of the party to varying degrees, though particularly at a local level. Membership of British political parties is around 1% of the British electorate, which is lower than in all European countries except for Poland and Latvia. Overall membership to a political party has been in decline since the 1950s. In 1951, the Conservative Party had 2.2 million members, and a year later in 1952 the Labour Party reached their peak of 1 million members (of an electorate of around 34 million). The table below details the membership numbers of political parties that have more than 5,000 members. No data could be collected for the four parties of Northern Ireland: the DUP, UUP, SDLP, and Sinn Féin. However, in January 1997, it was estimated that the UUP had 10,000 – 12,000 members, and the DUP had 5,000 members. In December 2020, the
UK Independence Party had 3,888 members. ==Local government==