2017 General Election Results

Polling Station
Photograph: ERS.
Author:
Doug Cowan, Head of Digital

Posted on the 29th August 2017

While Labour achieved a nearly proportional result, getting just over 40 percent of the seats on 40 percent of the vote, the Conservatives took a skewed seat-share, with just under 49 percent of the seats on 42 percent of the vote.

PartyVote %Vote % changeSeatsSeats
change		Seats %Seat % change
Conservative42.45.5318-1348.9-2
Labour409.52623040.34.6
SNP3-1.735-215.4-3.2
Lib Dem7.4-0.51241.80.6
DUP0.90.31021.50.3
Sinn Féin0.70.2731.10.5
Plaid Cymru0.5-0.1410.60.2
Green Party1.6-2.11–0.2–
UKIP1.8-10.80-1–-0.2
SDLP0.3–0-3–-0.5
UUP0.3-0.10-2–-0.3
Others1n/a1–0.2n/a

Yet other parties that have traditionally been marginalised in this system continued to be underrepresented. The Liberal Democrats’ 7.4 percent of the vote translated into just 12 seats (less than 2 percent of seat share) and the Greens only retained their one seat despite attracting over half a million votes – the largest votes per MP ratio. UKIP also attracted over half a million votes but no MPs in return.

Read our full report

Read more posts...

MPs suggest National Commission on Electoral Reform

In our increasingly fragmented and volatile political environment, the case for electoral reform becomes clearer every day. And as the political landscape changes, so too will the route to our objective of a fairly elected...

Posted 11 Sep 2025

National Commission on Electoral Reform terms of reference
View all posts