Coalition

Assuming no party wins a majority, does the party with the most votes have to be included in the government that is formed? If the Conservatives win 36%, the Lib-Dems win 29% and Labour wins 28% (with other minor parties taking the rest) could the Lib-Dems form a ruling coalition with Labour? I’m not familiar with the Parliamentary system so I’m curious if this could happen, has happened and, if it can’t happen, then what procedures are in place to prevent it.

It’s possible. There is in fact nothing in British law about this at all. We elect the MPs and that’s it – what happens after that is purely a matter of convention. If any party or combination of parties has the support of enough MPs that they can form a stable government, they can agree amongst themselves who will be Prime Minister and the Queen will appoint that person (PM is a Royal appointment, not necessarily anything to do with Parliament at all). It’s never happened that the party with most MPs isn’t part of the government, but there’s nothing to stop it happening.

Notice I say most MPs, rather than most votes. The interesting thing with the "first past the post" voting system is that it doesn’t necessarily depend on the number of votes anyway. It’s where those votes are that matters. In the 1951 general election, Labour got over a million more votes than the Conservatives but the Conservatives won more seats and formed the government, because those extra Labour votes were in safe Labour seats which Labour would have won anyway, so those votes were effectively wasted.

4 Responses

1. alex_mennen Says:
   May 4th, 2010 at 10:41 pm

   Parties are allowed to form coalitions. I would tend to expect that Labor and Lib-Dems would form a coalition government, but I am not familiar enough with British politics to be sure.
   References :

2. Grocer Jack Says:
   May 4th, 2010 at 11:25 pm

   Both you and Alex are quite right

   It can happen and indeed has happened with the Lib-Lab pact back in the 70’s. It’s never really been successful before, but these days the Labour party is much more ‘centre-left’ than ‘left’ as it was back then so who knows.

   There’s a pretty good guide on the subject on the BBC website here…..

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8427233.stm
   References :

3. darren m Says:
   May 4th, 2010 at 11:34 pm

   There is also the possibility of using the U.N. Charter of Human Rights to extend the vote to international or the single transferable vote system in Ire Land.
   References :
   U.N. Charter ,experiance.

4. The Dark Side Says:
   May 5th, 2010 at 12:16 am

   It’s possible. There is in fact nothing in British law about this at all. We elect the MPs and that’s it – what happens after that is purely a matter of convention. If any party or combination of parties has the support of enough MPs that they can form a stable government, they can agree amongst themselves who will be Prime Minister and the Queen will appoint that person (PM is a Royal appointment, not necessarily anything to do with Parliament at all). It’s never happened that the party with most MPs isn’t part of the government, but there’s nothing to stop it happening.

   Notice I say most MPs, rather than most votes. The interesting thing with the "first past the post" voting system is that it doesn’t necessarily depend on the number of votes anyway. It’s where those votes are that matters. In the 1951 general election, Labour got over a million more votes than the Conservatives but the Conservatives won more seats and formed the government, because those extra Labour votes were in safe Labour seats which Labour would have won anyway, so those votes were effectively wasted.
   References :

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