Aiken Dias

Deryl Endro

Steven Fernandes

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019 under the provisions of the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019, two years after the previous general election in 2017. The governing Conservative Party regained its majority in the House of Commons after having lost it in 2017, while the Labour Party suffered major losses that resulted in them obtaining their lowest proportion of seats since the 1935 general election. The Conservative Party, having failed to obtain a majority in the 2017 general election, faced a prolonged parliamentary deadlock over Brexit while it governed in minority with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In July 2019, Boris Johnson was elected as the Conservatives' leader and appointed as Prime Minister, after Theresa May resigned. Johnson failed to pass a withdrawal agreement through the Commons by the end of October, and chose to call for a snap election. The House of Commons voted by 438–20 in support of this, and the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 (EPGEA) became law on 31 October 2019. Johnson needed to obtain an overall majority in the election in order to accomplish his main goal of taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union by the end of January 2020. Opinion polls showed a firm lead for the Conservatives against Labour throughout the campaign. In the event, the Conservatives made a net gain of 48 seats, winning 43.6% of the vote (the highest share for any party since 1979), whereas Labour made a net loss of 60 seats, losing several of its constituencies in Northern England and across the Midlands to the Conservatives. Labour's losses in the general election led its leader Jeremy Corbyn to announce his intention to resign as the party's leader. The Scottish National Party made a net gain of 13 seats across Scotland, winning 45% of the Scottish vote. While the Liberal Democrats earned 11.6% of the votes, leader Jo Swinson was obliged under her party's rules to announce her resignation after losing her seat in East Dunbartonshire, leaving her party with 11 seats. The Green Party held their one seat, and saw their vote share increase, while in Wales, Plaid Cymru retained its four seats with no significant change in vote share. In Northern Ireland, for the first time more Nationalist MPs were elected than Unionists. Of the two main parties in the province, Sinn Féin retained the same number of seats, while the DUP lost two seats despite winning a larger share of votes. The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) regained two seats, while the Alliance Party regained a seat, giving both a restored presence in the House of Commons.

Milagres Gonsalves

Michael Baillie