Where Is The Starting Line In The British Election?
Those who follow British politics closely already know this, but if I ever had, I had forgotten. Luckily the far left Independent, which doesn’t seem to have any significant live coverage, does have those numbers. There are 646* seats in the British House of Commons. After the last general election in 2001, Labour held 413 seats, the Conservatives 166 seats, the Liberal Democrats 52 seats, and the minor parties 28 seats. In the four years since, I suppose there have some small shifts from by-elections, but that should give you an idea of just how deep a hole the Conservatives had to climb out of. You’d have to go back to 1936 to find comparable imbalances in the United States Congress. (*Don’t know how they handle ties, though their Speaker is chosen from the members of parliament, and does not vote, as I understand it.
