The outcome of last year’s general election left an important question hanging in the air. Could the UK’s traditional system of two-party politics continue to survive?
True, power did change hands in a familiar fashion. A majority Conservative government was replaced by a majority Labour one. Indeed, the new administration won an overall majority of no less than 174.
However, the new government was elected with a lower share of the vote than that secured by any previous majority government. At the same time, the Conservatives won by far their lowest share of the vote ever. For the first time since 1922, when Labour replaced the then Liberal party as the Conservatives’ principal competitor, Labour and the Conservatives together won fewer than three in five of all votes cast.
