First NewsFirst TVSubscriptions

World News

Friday, 7 May 2010


General Election latest – 'hung parliament' explained

General Election latest – 'hung parliament' explained

The results of the General Election are nearly all in, and no party has had enough votes to win overall.

 

There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons, so a political party needs to win 326 seats to have a majority in parliament. This is essential for our Government because it means that the governing party cannot be outnumbered in votes and can make the decisions that they want to.

As we write this, David Cameron's Conservative Party has won 306 seats, which is 97 more than at the last election. Gordon Brown's Labour Party only managed to take 258 seats, which is 91 down.

The 'Cleggmania' hype around Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats failed to convince voters, and they have so far won 57 seats. This is actually five less than at the last General Election.

At the time of writing, there is just one result left to come in. This is the one from the Thirsk and Malton constituency, where the election was postponed after one of the candidates died. Their poll will now take place on 27 May.

When one party does not have an overall majority, this is known as a 'hung parliament'. The rules over what happens next are quite confusing, and many politicians seem to have different views. Although Gordon Brown's party has won less seats, he is still the Prime Minister and it is down to him to try to work with another party to form a stable government.

Labour and the Conservatives have such different points of view that they will not be able to work together. The most obvious party for Gordon Brown to make a deal with is the Liberal Democrats. This would involve Gordon Brown giving Nick Clegg certain things that he wants in exchange for helping him to form a government. One of the main things that the Lib Dems want is to reform the way that elections work, so that it is fairer for small parties.

However, at the moment it looks like the two parties together will not have enough seats for a majority. This could mean that Mr Brown will have to work with some other smaller parties as well, such as Northern Ireland's SDLP.

David Cameron has also offered to make a deal with Nick Clegg, so that the Conservatives and Lib Dems can form a government. Mr Clegg said that the result means that Mr Cameron should have the right to try and form a government first, so the two parties will now have to see if they can agree on several issues.

 

According to rules set out by the Cabinet Office for a hung parliament, a Prime Minister who cannot "command the confidence of the House of Commons" must resign. At that point, David Cameron would be appointed Prime Minister, because he is the leader of the party with the most seats. It would then be down to Mr Cameron and all of the political parties in parliament to try and work out who can work together to form a government.





What do you think? Leave a comment below to let us know!

Please note: All comments are moderated before they go live.
Offensive comments will not be published.


Did you like this? Why not give it a Thumbs Up!

0 Thumbs Up!

Give this article a Thumbs Up! by logging in
to your account or registering here.


11 Comments


You must be logged in to your account to add a comment about this article.


  • dancecrazy (Age 15) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 16:47

    I dont think it is fair that labour and lib dem's get to lead together as conservatives have most seats. However I think it should be a hung parliment between all of them

  • matty333 (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 17:51

    I think Conservative should have won the election as the policies are best but it is a hung parliment.....

  • matty333 (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 17:57

    Conservative have the most seats though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • EM1050 (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 18:43

    I don't know what to think as I thought that conservatives would win straight out but obviously not.

  • matty333 (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 19:44

    True but there will be another election soon

  • Chotty (Age 12) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 19:48

    Why don't they all form together, that way it would be much easier!

  • zeddy (Age 13) wrote on Friday, 7 May 2010 @ 19:57

    interesting debate. Who will be victories?

  • trains185 (Age 12) wrote on Saturday, 8 May 2010 @ 09:31

    I don't think that Labour and Conservatives will get on very well together (The country will be all over the place and confused with those two parties) but Lib Dems will never have a fair say as they haven't even got 100 seats. We should just have another election (like 1974) instead of having a hung parliment. It could be as simple as that.

  • Bexy140498 (Age 14) wrote on Saturday, 8 May 2010 @ 11:35

    :) I think it should be Hung Parliment aswell!!!

  • Lottie (Age 14) wrote on Saturday, 8 May 2010 @ 19:37

    I don't see why Labour and Conservative can't work together, because as it says they have different points of view so their different views put together could make the country really good... however I've always wanted Nick Clegg to win so I think they should all work together and Nick should be the Prime Minister, because he's very fair ;) go nick cegg!!! xx

  • defleppard (Age 13) wrote on Tuesday, 11 May 2010 @ 16:59

    I'm with Conservatives. It's not fair that they don't get to be the government because they are only 21 seats off a majority and a hung parliament just causes arguments and uncertainty. It doesn't mean the Tories will be out voted because the smaller parties or Lib Dems might take their side on a particular vote or law. I don't agree with the Lib Dems to make the election system PR, because then how will you know who is your MP and you will have to have loads of private deals like the ones at the moment.