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House of Commons — general election

United Kingdom elections · 2005-05-05 · held

House of Commons: 646 seats in the recorded elected component.

Results: final · complete coverage · Commons Library reported national vote total (27,148,510); source group definitions retained

Turnout: 61.4%

House of Commons — general election — recorded results
Party / candidateVotesVote shareSeatsElectoral votes
Conservative878491532.3587%198—
Labour955243635.1859%355—
Liberal Democrat598545422.0471%62—
Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party — source aggregate5871052.1626%9—
Ulster Unionist Party1274140.4693%1—
Social Democratic and Labour Party1256260.4627%3—
Democratic Unionist Party2418560.8909%9—
Sinn Féin1745300.6429%5—
Other parties and non-party candidates15691745.78%4—

Only House of Commons seats are counted; the upper chamber has a separate institutional history. Seat totals include unopposed returns and abstentionist MPs. Historic constituencies, franchise and territory differ from today. The primary Commons Library historical series takes precedence over conflicting secondary counts. Results use its published categories, not invented party-by-party detail. The CON series includes source-grouped National/National Liberal/National Labour allies in specified historical years; the Liberal series includes Coalition Liberal in 1918, National Liberal in 1922 and Independent Liberal in 1931. SNP and Plaid Cymru remain a labelled source aggregate, not a claimed alliance. Explicit Northern Ireland parties from 1974 are deducted once from UK Other and use the UK denominator. Shares are calculated from the exact source vote totals; historical published rounded percentages may differ. The Speaker follows the source convention: former party through 1992, Other from 1997. Turnout follows the source electorate convention, excluding unopposed contests where relevant.

Sources & further reading

Commons Library: national results, source group definitions and Northern Ireland details

Commons Library: national election dates and polling intervals

Commons Library: historical seat capacities

Historical election and result bibliography