2017 United Kingdom general election facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
2017 United Kingdom general election

← 2015 8 June 2017 2019 →
← List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2015 List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 2017 →
All 650 seats in the House of Commons 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	68.8% (2.5%)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Theresa May Jeremy Corbyn Nicola Sturgeon Party Conservative Labour SNP Leader since 11 July 2016 12 September 2015 14 November 2014 Leader's seat Maidenhead Islington North Did not stand Last election 330 seats, 36.9% 232 seats, 30.4% 56 seats, 4.7% Seats won 317 262 35 Seat change 13 30 21 Popular vote 13,636,684 12,878,460 977,569 Percentage 42.4% 40.0% 3.0% Swing 5.5% 9.6% 1.7%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Tim Farron Arlene Foster Gerry Adams Party Liberal Democrat Democratic Unionist Sinn Féin Leader since 16 July 2015 17 December 2015 13 November 1983 Leader's seat Westmorland and Lonsdale Did not stand Did not stand Last election 8 seats, 7.9% 8 seats, 0.6% 4 seats, 0.6% Seats won 12 10 7 Seat change 4 2 3 Popular vote 2,371,910 292,316 238,915 Percentage 7.4% 0.9% 0.7% Swing 0.5% 0.3% 0.1%
A map of UK parliamentary constituencies * Figure does not include the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, who was included in the Conservative seat total by some media outlets.
Prime Minister before election Theresa May Conservative Appointed Prime Minister Theresa May Conservative

A general election was held on the 8 June 2017 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It ended in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party winning the most seats. They had a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party so they would pass a vote of no confidence. Theresa May stayed as prime minister.

Labour won a lot of seats from the Conservatives. This was the first time Labour had gained seats since 1997. The election happened because Parliament voted for a snap election after the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Results

Date

The next general election was due to be held on 8 May 2020. Theresa May announced on 18 April 2017 that she wanted it to be held on 8 June . The House of Commons voted in favour of this proposal on 19 April 2017 allowing the election to take place in June 2017.

Results

Exit poll

BBC News, ITV and Sky News all released an exit poll at 10pm. This poll predicted the Conservatives would be the largest party but lose their majority. Exit poll results:

• Conservative Party - 314
• Labour Party - 266
• Scottish National Party - 34
• Liberal Democrats - 14
• Plaid Cymru - 3
• Green Party - 1
• UK Independence Party - 0
• Others - 18

Final results

The final results were very similar to the exit poll.

• Conservative Party - 317 (down 13 seats)
• Labour Party - 262 (up 30 seats)
• Scottish National Party - 35 (down 21 seats)
• Liberal Democrats - 12 (up 4 seats)
• Plaid Cymru - 3 (no change)
• Green Party - 1 (no change)
• United Kingdom Independence Party - 0 (down 1 seat)
• Others - 18

When the election was called the Conservative Party had a big lead in the polls and they were expected to win by a landslide. As the campaign went on the Labour Party closed the gap in the polls and the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons.

Important MPs who lost their seats include former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and The leader of the SNP in the House of Commons Angus Robertson.

Images for kids

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  A polling station in north London

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  Campaigning on polling day, 8 June 2017

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  Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launching the party's general election campaign on 9 May 2017 in Manchester.

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  Conservative—

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  The disproportionality of parliament in the 2017 election was 6.45 using the Gallagher Index.

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  Election results showing the best-performing party in each constituency, other than Conservative or Labour.

See also

In Spanish: Elecciones generales del Reino Unido de 2017 para niños