Election Special: What is a Hung Parliament?

So, if you are following the election campaign you’ll see that many of the polls are saying it will be a very close race and this could lead to a hung parliament. So what is a hung parliament? As Ben mentioned in the last blog, it is when none of the parties gains a majority. As there are a total of 650 seats, this means that one party needs to get 326 Members of Parliament voted into the House of Commons.


How can we stop a hung parliament?
Firstly, Labour will stay in power if they don’t lose any of their seats however; if they lose 24 seats they’ll lose their absolute majority. If the Conservative Party get an extra 116 seats, they’ll gain a majority; but the Liberal Democrats need a further 264 seats for an absolute majority. Everything else would lead to a hung parliament.

What would a hung parliament mean to Britain?
This is an interesting question and we may well find out very soon!! If the election results in a hung parliament then Gordon Brown remains Prime Minister unless he decides to step down (unlikely). He may then decide to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrat party (lead by Nick Clegg) if their joint number of seats reaches a majority, if not they can invite other smaller parties to join them until they have 326 seats or more. The main concern with a hung parliament seems to be that it can be very difficult to pass laws because they aren’t supported by enough MPs; however this could be unfounded because many countries seem to successfully run a coalition style government such as Germany and New Zealand. The last British hung parliament was in 1974. Edward Heath (Conservative PM) called a hasty election after finally bringing the minors strike to an end. He looked certain to win but on polling day, the Liberal vote surged. The final result was Labour 301, Conservative 297 and Liberals 14. Heath tried to form an alliance with Jeremy Thorpe the Liberal Leader but failed so he resigned and Harold Wilson of the Labour Party became PM. Between March and October 1974 only 27 laws were passed and these weren’t contentious relating to roads and railways. In my humble opinion, a hung parliament could be just what this country needs. To keep up-to-date with the election go to the BBC election website.

Glossary

Poll (n) - the process of finding out what people think, survey

Close race - the two main parties may be quite equal in the end

Seat (n) - a position as an elected member of a government

Absolute majority - when a party wins more than half the total votes in an election

Coalition (n) - a union of two or more political parties to form a government

Unfounded (adj) - something that is wrong because it's not based on fact or evidence

Hasty (adj) - done in a hurry, often with negative results

Strike (n) - a period of time when a group of workers deliberately stop work

Polling day - the day when the public votes in an election

Surge (v) - to suddenly move quickly in a particular direction

Resign (v) - to officially announce that you have decided to leave your job

Contentious (adj) - causing a lot of argument and disagreement between people

Humble (adj) - not considering your ideas to be as important as other people's