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Hung parliament facts for kids

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Composition of the House of Commons after the February 1974 election
The House of Commons of the United Kingdom after the February 1974 election. It is an example of a hung parliament. The Labour government (bottom) does not have a majority of seats, so it is a hung parliament. They did not make any agreement with other parties, so they had to start a minority government.

A hung parliament (also called a balanced parliament, or as a legislature under no overall control) is when no political party (or coalition that existed before) has a majority in the Westminster system of legislatures. If this isn't solved with something like a confidence and supply agreement or a new coalition, the largest party will have to form a minority government. This is bad because they can easily lose a vote of no confidence, so a government is hard to run.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Parlamento colgado para niños

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