Insights: patterns in UK general elections

Closest seats, landslides, hung parliaments, votes versus seats, turnout, longest-held seats, bellwethers and more, computed from every general election since 1918.

• Closest seatsThe smallest winning majorities in UK general elections since 1918, in votes and as a share of the vote.
• Biggest majoritiesThe safest wins: constituencies won by the largest share of the vote in each general election.
• Seats that changed handsEvery gain at each general election: which party took which seat from whom.
• Landslides and majoritiesEvery general election ranked by the winning party's overall majority in the House of Commons.
• Hung parliamentsGeneral elections where no party won a majority of seats, and what happened next.
• Votes versus seatsHow first past the post turns votes into seats: each party's share of the vote and of seats, and the disproportionality of every election.
• TurnoutTurnout at every general election since 1918, and the constituencies with the highest and lowest turnout.
• Beyond the big twoThe combined vote share and seats of every party other than the Conservatives and Labour, election by election.
• Longest-held seatsConstituency names held by the same party at the most consecutive general elections.
• Bellwether seatsConstituencies that have voted for the party that won the most seats nationally at every general election since a chosen year.
• Women electedHow many women were elected at each general election since 2010, by party.
• By-election upsetsBy-elections since 2010 where the seat changed hands, with the swing.

Closest results since 1918

1. Winchester, 1997: Liberal Democrats by 2 votes
2. North East Fife, 2017: Scottish National Party by 2 votes
3. Derbyshire Ilkeston, 1931: National Labour by 2 votes
4. Devonshire Tiverton, 1923: Liberal by 3 votes
5. Leeds West, 1924: Labour by 3 votes

Official results House of Commons Library and UK Parliament election results data. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. How we use this data