| 54th United Kingdom General Election |
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Under the provisions of the Parliament Acts Of 1911 And 1949 , the next United Kingdom general election must be held on or before 3 June 2010 , barring exceptional circumstances.Technically, the Parliament could vote to extend the lifetime of the current term beyond 5 years. This cannot be done by the House Of Commons alone; it must be additionally approved by the House Of Lords (the Parliament Acts may not be utilised in this case) and by the Queen-in-Parliament . Since 1911, extension of the maximum term of Parliaments has only occurred during the First and Second World War s. ( Reference ) The Previous General Election in the UK was held on 5 May 2005 . The next general election will be called following the '', April 5 2005 If the current Parliament follows the pattern of dissolution after four years, the next general election will occur in 2009. The elections of 2001 and 2005 were timed to coincide with local, regional or European elections, an effort to reduce costs and increase turnout. If that practice is also followed, the election will take place on 11 June 2009 , to coincide with Elections To The European Parliament and Local Elections In England And Those Planned For Northern Ireland . In November 2006 it was reported that activists for the governing '', December 8 2006 In June 2007, in his speech accepting his appointment as leader of the Labour Party, '', 25 June 2007 . The General Election will take place in all Constituencies of the United Kingdom, for seats in the House of Commons. There are currently 646 seats in the house; under the proposals made by 3 of the 4 national Boundary Commissions, this will rise to 650 seats with a number of boundary changes from those used at the previous general election, especially in England and Wales the new boundaries came into force on 27 June 2007 following approval by Parliament. OVERVIEW The governing '', 5 January 2007 The Conservative Party will seek to regain its dominant position in politics against losses in the 1990s, replacing Labour as the governing party. The Liberal Democrats hope to make gains from both sides; although they too would ideally wish to form a government, their more realistic ambition is to hold the Balance Of Power in a Hung Parliament , or to emerge as the Main Opposition Party . Bookmakers have been taking bets almost since the counting of the votes in 2005. As is often the case, following the Local Elections Held On 4 May 2006 , odds have mostly been showing the Conservatives as favourites to gain a majority in the next General Election but the opinion polls have shown a certain levelling off of support for the parties and mid term elections usually are far worse for a governing party than the general election at the end of the parliament. LEADERSHIP OF THE MAIN PARTIES David Cameron became Conservative leader in December 2005 replacing retiring leader Michael Howard . Sir Menzies Campbell replaced Charles Kennedy (who resigned after his own admission of having an alcohol problem) as leader of the Lib Dems in March 2006. Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 . The last time all three main parties went into a General Election with new leaders was in the 1979 Election , when James Callaghan , Margaret Thatcher and David Steel led the three main parties. The leadership of each party may have implications beyond party popularity at the polls, especially if a '', September 25 , 2006 Menzies Campbell so far has continued the position of 's personal website, February 15 2006 , Labour leader and incumbent Prime Minister .]] Conservative leader and incumbent Leader Of The Opposition .]] , Liberal Democrats leader.]] ''See also Conservative Party (UK) Leadership Election, 2005 , Liberal Democrats Leadership Election, 2006 , Labour Party (UK) Leadership Election, 2007 , Timeline For The 2007 Labour Party (UK) Leadership Elections And New Prime Minister , Labour Party (UK) Deputy Leadership Election, 2007 '' OTHER PARTIES Many constituencies will be contested by other, smaller parties. Parties with representation at the previous general election at Westminster include the Democratic Unionist Party , Sinn Féin (who do not take their seats as they will not swear the Oath Of Allegiance to the Queen), the Social Democratic And Labour Party , and the Ulster Unionist Party from Northern Ireland ; Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru from Scotland and Wales respectively; and RESPECT The Unity Coalition and Health Concern , each of which hold one Parliamentary seat from England . There is one independent member of Parliament, Dai Davies , elected in a By-election in succession to fellow independent Peter Law , who died in April 2006, and one Independent Labour member, Clare Short , who resigned the Labour whip in October 2006. Given vocal groups of opposition within both of the main parties, it is possible that the number of independent MPs will increase as members are expelled or resign. Parties expected to contest the election that won no representatives at Westminster in 2005, but have seats in the Devolved Assemblies and/or European Parliament , include the Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland , the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the Green Party Of England And Wales and the Scottish Green Party . UKIP's leader, Roger Knapman , retired as leader on his term ending in 2006 with the leadership election on 12 September 2006 electing Nigel Farage as his replacement. The Green Party has new joint speakers with Siân Berry and Dr. Derek Wall succeeding Caroline Lucas and Keith Taylor , repectively. Small parties and independents that fail to win a seat can still have an effect on the outcome of an election (as can larger parties in seats in which they have no realistic prospect of winning) by taking votes off candidates who have a reasonable prospect of winning that particular seat, especially in Marginal Seats possibly having an effect on who is elected MP and on the course of the campaign. ''See also List Of Political Parties In The United Kingdom '' OPINION POLLS, AND ANALYSIS OF VOTES IN RELATION TO NUMBERS OF SEATS The fact that each MP is elected separately makes it impossible to directly interpret national shares of the vote into a clear outcome in United Kingdom general elections as it is unknown for all constituencies in a General Election to exactly reflect national trends. However, analysis of previous elections shows that approximate forecasting of results can be achieved by assuming that the Swing in each individual constituency will be the same across the country. This system is used by much of the media in the UK to assess electoral fortunes. Due to the boundary changes which will come into effect at the election, the benchmarks for relating national vote share to the outcome in seats have been recalculated by a team led by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. Figures in brackets represents the headline lead. Note that these figures do not take into account the performance of the Liberal Democrats, minor or nationalist parties, Independent candidates, or localised effects caused by a change in the distribution of the Labour and Conservative vote and that of other parties. Normally governments can easily survive for a full parliamentary term on a majority of more than 20 seats over all other parties. Below that level there is a danger of byelections and MPs crossing the floor of the House reducing the government to a Minority such that it would be at increased risk of losing a Vote Of No Confidence In The Government . The First Past The Post system seldom closely reflects actual vote shares across the parties, although sometimes individual parties achieve similar shares of votes and seats. In addition, it is not necessarily the party with the most votes that ends up the largest grouping, and since 1935 no single party has ever achieved more than 50% in a UK General Election. Numbers of seats won reflect a large and complex interaction of factors of distribution of votes attained by parties. With a widely distributed vote not concentrated in particular areas, a party is at risk of getting a large vote share but doing poorly in terms of numbers of seats, whereas parties with very strong localised votes can win seats with a relatively small share of the vote. ''See also '' Exit Poll '', '' Opinion Poll '', '' Spoiler Effect '', '' Tactical Voting '', '' Voting System '', '' Wasted Vote '' MPS WHO HAVE ANNOUNCED THEIR RETIREMENT AT THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION Labour
'' Waltham Forest Guardian '', 23 February , 2007
'' Keith Hill MP For Streatham '', 23 May , 2007
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