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Next United Kingdom general election

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Next United Kingdom general election
← 2024
On or before 15 August 2029
All 650 seats in the House of Commons
326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Party Leader Last election
Labour Andy Burnham 411[a]
Conservative Kemi Badenoch 121
Liberal Democrats Ed Davey 72
SNP John Swinney[b] 9
Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald[c] 7
Reform Nigel Farage 8
DUP Gavin Robinson 5
Green (E&W) Zack Polanski[d] 4
Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth[e] 4
SDLP Claire Hanna 2
Alliance Naomi Long[f] 1
UUP Jon Burrows[g] 1
TUV Jim Allister 1
Independents N/A 6
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle 1
Incumbent Prime Minister
Andy Burnham
Labour

The next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held no later than 15 August 2029.[2] It will determine the composition of the House of Commons.

Background

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2024 election

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The 2024 general election resulted in a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, but with the smallest share of the electoral vote of any majority government since record-keeping of the popular vote began in 1830. The combined vote share for Labour and the Conservatives reached a record low, with smaller parties doing well. Labour returned to being the largest party in Scotland and remained so in Wales. The election was noted as the most disproportionate in modern British history,[3] mainly as a result of the first-past-the-post voting system.[4][5][6][7]

The Conservative Party under Rishi Sunak lost 251 seats and suffered their worst ever defeat, ending their 14-year tenure as the primary governing party. The Conservatives won no seats in Wales and only one seat in North East England.[8] On 2 November 2024, Kemi Badenoch won the 2024 Conservative leadership election to succeed Sunak, becoming the first Black British person to become the Conservative leader.[9]

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, came third in the share of the vote in the 2024 election and had MPs elected to the Commons for the first time.[10] Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats, led by Ed Davey, made significant gains especially in seat terms to reach their highest number of seats since (as their predecessor Liberal Party) the 1920s (and highest since the merger with the SDP). The Green Party of England and Wales also won a record number of votes and seats alongside a number of independent MPs.[8] The Scottish National Party (SNP) lost around three-quarters of its seats.[11]

Current composition of the House of Commons

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This table relates to the composition of the House of Commons after the 2024 United Kingdom general election. As of 9 October 2026, it summarises the changes in party affiliation that took place during the 2024–present Parliament.

Affiliation Members[12]
Elected
in 2024[13]		 Current Differ­ence
Labour[h] 411[i] 404[j][k] Decrease 7
Conservative 121 118[l][k] Decrease 3
Liberal Democrats 72 71 Decrease 1
SNP 9 8 Decrease 1
Reform 5 8 Increase 3
Sinn Féin[m] 7 7 Steady
DUP 5 5 Steady
Green (E&W) 4 5 Increase 1
Plaid Cymru 4 4 Steady
Ind. Alliance[n] – 4 Increase 4
SDLP 2 2 Steady
Your Party[15] – 2 Increase 2
Alliance 1 1 Steady
UUP 1 1 Steady
TUV 1 1 Steady
Restore[16] – 1 Increase 1
Speaker[k] 1 1 Steady
Independent[o] 6 7 Increase 1
Total MPs 650 650 Steady
Total voting[m][k][19] 639 639 Steady
Government majority[p] 173 159 Decrease 14
Working majority[q] 181 167 Decrease 14
This table:

For full details of changes during the 2024–present Parliament, see By-elections and Defections, suspensions and resignations.

Events since 2024

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The 2025 United Kingdom local elections led to a rise in the number of seats held by smaller parties at the expense of the Conservatives and Labour. On 2 September 2025, Zack Polanski was elected as leader of the Green Party of England and Wales in a landslide, with 85% of the vote share[20][21] succeeding Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay in that position. The party's membership figures doubled, from around 70,000 to over 140,000, overtaking the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.[22]

On 17 July 2026, Andy Burnham won the 2026 Labour Party leadership election (having won the 2026 Makerfield by-election a month prior) to succeed Starmer, and was appointed as prime minister on 20 July.[23]

Electoral system

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Voting eligibility

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At present, in order to vote in general elections, one must be:[24]

  • on the Electoral Register,
  • aged 18 or over on polling day,
  • a British citizen, a Commonwealth citizen (with leave to remain or not requiring it) or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
  • a resident at an address in the United Kingdom (or a British citizen living abroad), and
  • not legally excluded from voting (for example a convicted person detained in prison or a mental hospital, or unlawfully at large if they would otherwise have been detained, or a person found guilty of certain corrupt or illegal practices, or a sitting Member of the House of Lords)

Individuals must be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day. Anyone who qualifies as an anonymous elector has approximately five working days before polling day to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) may be able to register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can only vote in one constituency at the general election. In July 2025, the government announced plans to reduce the voting age to 16 before the next general election.[25] Extending the vote to 16- and 17-year-olds would add well over a million potential voters across England and Northern Ireland.[26] Analysts found that this would expand voter participation, but the additional votes would represent only a small share of the national electorate.[27]

Members not standing for re-election

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Members of Parliament not standing for re-election
Portrait MP Seat First elected Party Date announced
Helen Grant Maidstone and Malling 2010 Conservative 19 July 2026[28]
James Cleverly Braintree 2015 Conservative 29 August 2026[29]
Christine Jardine Edinburgh West 2017 Liberal Democrats 26 September 2026[30]

Date of the election

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Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the prime minister has the power to request the monarch call an election at any time during the five-year length of a parliamentary session. If the prime minister chooses not to do this, then parliament is automatically dissolved five years after the day it first met,[31] and a general election is held 25 working days after dissolution.[32] Parliament first met on 9 July 2024,[33][34][35] meaning that unless Parliament is dissolved earlier it will be automatically dissolved on 9 July 2029, and the latest an election could be held is 15 August 2029.[36]

In September 2026, speculation of an early general election mounted amid media reports that Prime Minister Andy Burnham was being encouraged by advisors to call a snap election in early 2027.[37] However, Burnham quickly denied any intention of calling an early election. When asked whether the next election would take place in 2029 specifically, he replied "Yes, that's when the next election will be."[38]

Opinion polling

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Following the election, Labour's lead in polls collapsed, with Nigel Farage's Reform UK gaining the lead by spring 2025.[39] Following the election of Zack Polanski as leader of the Green Party of England and Wales in September 2025, the party surged in polls,[40] gaining even more support after winning the Gorton and Denton by-election in February 2026.[41] However, after Starmer's resignation due to a leadership crisis caused by heavy losses in 2026 local elections and replacement by Andy Burnham as Prime Minister in July 2026, Labour retook the lead, gaining back support from the Greens and Liberal Democrats. [42] Meanwhile, Reform lost support due to scandals around the party and the formation of the far-right Restore Britain party.[42] Labour further increased their vote share and lead on other parties after Burnham's speech at the 2026 Labour Party Conference and party's victory in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election is being carried out continually by various organisations to gauge voting intention. Most of the polling companies listed are members of the British Polling Council (BPC) and abide by its disclosure rules. The dates for these opinion polls range from the 2024 general election on 4 July to the present day.

Declared candidates

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England

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Northern Ireland

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Scotland

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Wales

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Includes 43 MPs sponsored by the Co-operative Party, who are designated Labour and Co-operative,[1] and does not include Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, a longtime MP for Labour.
  2. ↑ Dave Doogan leads the SNP in the House of Commons.
  3. ↑ Sinn Féin are an all-Ireland political party with an abstentionist stance from the UK Parliament. McDonald is a TD (Republic of Ireland MP). Michelle O'Neill leads Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
  4. ↑ Ellie Chowns leads the Greens in the House of Commons.
  5. ↑ Liz Saville Roberts leads Plaid Cymru in the House of Commons.
  6. ↑ Sorcha Eastwood is the sole Alliance Party MP in the House of Commons.
  7. ↑ Robin Swann is the sole Ulster Unionist Party MP in the House of Commons.
  8. ↑ The Labour total includes 43 MPs elected in 2024 (43 current MPs as at 19 June 2026) who are sponsored by the Co-operative Party and are designated Labour and Co-operative.[14]
  9. ↑ Some media outlets, such as BBC News, listed Labour's total as 412, by including the Speaker (who, to demonstrate his neutrality, had resigned his Labour Party membership on taking office).
  10. ↑ Includes one deputy speaker
  11. 1 2 3 4 The Speaker and three deputy speakers by convention comprise two MPs from the government side and two from the opposition side. They do not vote in House of Commons divisions and exercise only a casting vote.[18]
  12. ↑ Includes two deputy speakers
  13. 1 2 Sinn Féin's seven MPs follow a policy of abstentionism. They do not swear into the House of Commons, and do not take part in its formal processes. As a result, they are not able to sit or vote in the House of Commons.[17]
  14. ↑ Independent politicians affiliated to the Independent Alliance group of MPs. Some sources group Independent Alliance MPs with other independent MPs, instead of treating the Independent Alliance as a separate group.
  15. ↑ Unaffiliated independent politicians
  16. ↑ Total number of MPs on the government side minus MPs on the opposition side. The government side comprises all Labour MPs. The opposition side comprises all other MPs (except the Speaker).
  17. ↑ Total number of voting MPs on the government side minus voting MPs on the opposition side
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Incumbent MP seeking reelection
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Elected as an independent
  20. 1 2 Incumbent MP has announced intention to retire
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Elected for the Labour Party
  22. 1 2 3 4 Elected for the Conservative Party
  23. 1 2 Elected for Reform
  24. ↑ Former MP seeking to return to Parliament
  25. ↑ Elected for the Liberal Democrats

References

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  1. ↑ "About: Members of Parliament". Co-operative Party. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
  2. ↑ Mason, Rowena; Stewart, Heather (25 September 2026). "No general election before 2029, Andy Burnham says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 October 2026. Parliament must be dissolved 5 years after first date the 2024 parliament first meets. The election then takes place 25 working days later. The 2024 parliament first met on 9 July 2024. The election will then happen 25 working days (i.e. not weekends or days that are bank holidays in any part of the UK) after dissolution. So if dissolution takes place on 9 July 2029, the election will be 5 weeks and 2 days after dissolution (2 intervening bank holidays in Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively, so 25 working days is 5 weeks and 2 days). So the election must happen on or before 15 August 2029.
  3. ↑ Gallagher, Michael. "Election Indices" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 July 2024. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  4. ↑ Surridge, Paula (5 July 2024). "Labour wins big but the UK's electoral system is creaking". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Curtice, John (5 July 2024). "Labour's strength in Commons is heavily exaggerated". The Times. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  6. ↑ Topping, Alexandra (8 July 2024). "'Disproportionate' UK election results boost calls to ditch first past the post". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  7. ↑ Chu, Ben (5 July 2024). "Biggest-ever gap between number of votes and MPs hits Reform and Greens". BBC News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  8. 1 2 Hannah Bunting; Joely Santa Cruz (5 July 2024). "Historic firsts from the 2024 general election in numbers and charts". Sky News.
  9. ↑ Picheta, Rob (2 November 2024). "Kemi Badenoch wins Conservative leadership contest, pitching party to the right after blowout UK election loss". CNN. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  10. ↑ "Nigel Farage storms the UK parliament". Politico. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  11. ↑ "UK general election results live: Labour set for landslide as results come in across country". BBC News. 4 July 2024. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  12. ↑ Cracknell, Richard; Baker, Carl; Pollock, Louie (3 March 2026). "General election 2024 results – House of Commons Library". UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
  13. ↑ "UK General election 2024 Results". BBC News. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  14. ↑ "Meet the team: Members of Parliament". Co-operative Party. Retrieved 20 May 2026.
  15. ↑ "Find MPs – Your Party". UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
  16. ↑ "Find MPs – Restore Britain". UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 November 2025.
  17. ↑ Kelly, Conor (19 August 2019). "Understanding Sinn Féin's Abstention from the UK Parliament". E-International Relations. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  18. ↑ Boothroyd, David. "House of Commons: Tied Divisions". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  19. ↑ Zodgekar, Ketaki; Baker, Finn; McAlary, Patrick; Bryer, Megan (24 August 2026). "How big is the Labour government's majority?". Institute for Government. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  20. ↑ Wheeler, Brian (2 September 2025). "Zack Polanski elected leader of the Green Party".{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ↑ "Zack Polanski elected leader of the Green Party". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 September 2025. Thousands of new members joined the party during the leadership campaign, taking its membership to 68,500.
  22. ↑ Walker, Peter (26 October 2025). "We have to book bigger rooms': Green membership surge causes novel problems". The Guardian.
  23. ↑ "Andy Burnham says 'I have a plan' as he is confirmed new Labour leader". BBC News. 17 July 2026. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  24. ↑ "Types of election, referendums, and who can vote". GOV.UK. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  25. ↑ "Voting age to be lowered to 16 across UK by next general election - live updates". BBC News. 17 July 2025. Retrieved 17 July 2025.
  26. ↑ Johnston, Neil (9 May 2025). "Voting age". Commons Library.
  27. ↑ Bush, Stephen (18 July 2025). "Lowering the voting age won't reshape the electorate". Financial Times. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  28. ↑ Chesson, Max (19 July 2026). "Maidstone and Malling Conservative MP Helen Grant to step down at next election". KentOnline. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
  29. ↑ Cleverly, James. "Sir James Cleverly". Cleverly 4 Braintree.
  30. ↑ Jardine, Christine [@cajardineMP] (26 September 2026). "I've taken the decision not to stand as Lib Dem candidate in Edinburgh West at the next GE" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  31. ↑ "Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022: Section 4", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 24 March 2022, 2022 c. 11 (s. 4), retrieved 5 December 2024
  32. ↑ "General Election 2024: What happens now an election has been called?". Sky News. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  33. ↑ "Date of first meeting of Parliament following the 2024 General Election – a Freedom of Information request to House of Commons". WhatDoTheyKnow. 5 December 2024. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  34. ↑ "What happens next in the House of Commons". parliament.uk. 4 July 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  35. ↑ "General Election 2024 timetable". Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  36. ↑ "When is the next UK general election and who decides?". BBC News. 30 September 2025. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
  37. ↑ "Downing Street advisers push for early election". The Telegraph. 24 September 2026.
  38. ↑ Richard Wheeler and Kate Whannel (25 September 2026). "I'm not tempted to call an early election, Andy Burnham says". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  39. ↑ "Reform UK tops landmark poll for first time". Sky News. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  40. ↑ Kevin Schofield (7 November 2025). "Zack Polanski Says Greens Are 'Just Getting Started' As Party Hits New High". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  41. ↑ Kevin Schofield (3 March 2026). "Greens Leapfrog Labour Into Second Place After By-Election Triumph, New Poll Reveals". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  42. 1 2 "Commentary 30 July 2026". www.electoralcalculus.co.uk. Retrieved 30 July 2026.
  43. ↑ Pack, Mark (3 June 2026). "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". markpack.org.uk. Retrieved 18 August 2026.
  44. ↑ Morton, Wendy [@morton_wendy] (5 September 2026). "Delighted to have been re-adopted by Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association as their Parliamentary candidate for the next General Election" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  45. ↑ Crick, Michael (8 September 2025). "Tomorrow's MPs". Twitter. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  46. ↑ Young, Max (1 October 2026). "Former Minister Who Resigned Over Boris and Continued Under Rishi Re-Adopted as Tory Candidate". Guido Fawkes.
  47. ↑ Grimmer, Dan (1 October 2026). "Restore Britain names first Norfolk candidate for next general election". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  48. ↑ Garnier, Mark [@Mark4WyreForest] (16 September 2025). "Delighted to have been readopted to stand as Wyre Forest's Conservative candidate at the next general election" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
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