2019 United Kingdom general election in the context of "Peter Kyle"

The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (c. 1) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes legal provision for ratifying the Brexit withdrawal agreement and incorporating it into the domestic law of the United Kingdom. It is the most significant constitutional piece of legislation to be passed by Parliament of the Second Johnson ministry. The Withdrawal Agreement was the result of Brexit negotiations.

On 24 July 2018 the Government produced a white paper on the proposed bill and how the legislation would work. The bill was first introduced by the government in the second session of the 57th Parliament on 21 October 2019 with the long title "A Bill to Implement, and make other provision in connection with, the agreement between the United Kingdom and the EU under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union which sets out the arrangements for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU". This bill was not further debated after the second reading in the Commons on 22 October 2019 and lapsed on 6 November when parliament was dissolved in preparation for the 2019 general election.

The Liberal Democrats, colloquially known as the Lib Dems, is one of the major political parties in the United Kingdom. Ideologically adhering to liberalism, it was founded in 1988. The party is based at Liberal Democrat Headquarters, which since September 2025 has been based at Buckingham Gate, in the Westminster area of Central London. The party's leader is Ed Davey. It is the third-largest party in the United Kingdom, with 72 members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons. It has 75 members of the House of Lords, 5 in the Scottish Parliament, 1 in the Welsh Senedd, and around 3,200 local council seats. The party holds a twice yearly Liberal Democrat Conference, at which policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents, the Lib Dems grant all members attending Conference the right to vote on policy, under a one member, one vote system. As well as voting in the Conference Hall, the party allows its members to vote online for its policies and leadership elections. Members are also free to join organisations representing strands of party thinking, such as Liberal Reform and Social Liberal Forum, and for those under 30 years, Young Liberals.

In 1981, an electoral alliance was established between the Liberal Party, a group which descended from the 18th-century Whigs, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a splinter group from the Labour Party. In 1988, the parties merged as the Social and Liberal Democrats, adopting their present name a year later. Under the leaderships of Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy, the party grew in the 1990s and 2000s, focusing its campaigns on specific seats and retained the third-largest party status in the House of Commons, although with significantly more seats than the predecessor Liberal Party. In the 1997 election, the Liberal Democrats doubled their seat count to 46. In 2010, under Nick Clegg's leadership, the Lib Dems were junior partners in the Conservative-led coalition government, in which Clegg served as deputy prime minister. Though it allowed the party to implement some of its policies, the coalition damaged its electoral standing; it lost 48 of its 56 MPs at the 2015 general election, which relegated it to fourth-largest party in the House of Commons. Under the leaderships of Tim Farron, Vince Cable and Jo Swinson, the party refocused as a pro-Europeanist party opposing Brexit. In the 2019 general election, the party garnered 11.5% of the vote on an anti-Brexit platform, but this did not translate into seat gains. However, the party's success was renewed under the leadership of Ed Davey, winning hundreds of councillors and 72 MPs in the 2024 general election, its highest result since 1923, and resuming its status as the third largest party in the House of Commons.

Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation. The seat has been held by Danny Beales of the Labour Party since July 2024.

From 2015 to 2023, the seat was held by former Prime Minister (2019–2022) Boris Johnson, of the Conservative Party. Johnson won the seat in 2015 with a majority of 10,695. In 2017, as Foreign Secretary, he won a narrower majority of 5,034 votes. In 2019, as Prime Minister, he won an increased majority of 7,210. Johnson formally resigned in June 2023 after receiving a copy of the Standard Committee's report into Partygate, which recommended a recall petition. The subsequent by-election was won by Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwell, who then lost the seat to Danny Beales in the 2024 general election.

The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020; it was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and was the first European election in the United Kingdom since 1999 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. This was the first of two national elections held in the United Kingdom in 2019; the 2019 general election occurred six-and-a-half months later in December 2019.

At first no European Parliament election was planned in the United Kingdom, for Brexit (following the 2016 referendum) was set to take place on 29 March 2019. However, at the European summit on 11 April 2019, the British government and the European Council agreed to delay British withdrawal until 31 October 2019. From that time onward it was the default position in UK and EU law for the election to take place; however, the UK Government continued making attempts to avoid participation by seeking agreement on a withdrawal to take place before 23 May. On 7 May 2019, the UK government conceded, despite its opposition, that the election would have to go ahead.

Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It has five members of Parliament in the House of Commons, one member of the House of Lords, two members of the London Assembly, one member of the Senedd, one member of the Scottish Parliament and one police and crime commissioner. It also controls twelve local councils. It is right-wing and to the right of the Conservative Party. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK since June 2024.

Co-founded by Farage and Catherine Blaiklock in 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the most seats at the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but won no seats at the 2019 general election. The UK withdrew from the European Union in January 2020, and later in the same year the COVID-19 pandemic began in the UK. The Conservative government imposed a series of national lockdowns and Farage focused on anti-lockdown campaigning. The party was renamed Reform UK in January 2021. Farage stepped down as leader in March 2021 and was succeeded by Richard Tice.

The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, was elected Speaker on 4 November 2019, following the retirement of John Bercow. Hoyle began his first full parliamentary term in the role on 17 December 2019, having been unanimously re-elected after the 2019 general election.

The speaker presides over the House's debates, determining which members may speak and which amendments are selected for consideration. The speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House. By convention, the Speaker is strictly non-partisan; accordingly, a Speaker is expected to renounce all affiliation with their former political parties when taking office and afterwards.

In the United Kingdom's 2019 general election, 650 members of Parliament (MPs) were elected to the House of Commons – one for each parliamentary constituency.

Parliament consists of the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons. This Parliament first met on 17 December 2019. After the swearing-in of members and the election of Speaker, the State Opening of Parliament took place on 19 December. The 2021 State Opening of Parliament began the second session on 11 May 2021. The 2022 State Opening of Parliament began the third session on 10 May 2022. The 2023 State Opening of Parliament began the fourth session on 7 November 2023. Notable newcomers to enter the House of Commons in this general election included future cabinet ministers Claire Coutinho, Richard Holden and Laura Trott.

The second Johnson ministry began on 16 December 2019, three days after Boris Johnson's audience with Queen Elizabeth II where she invited him to form a new government following the 2019 general election. The Conservative Party was returned to power with a majority of 80 seats in the House of Commons. Initially the ministers were largely identical to those at the end of the first Johnson ministry, but changed significantly in cabinet reshuffles in February 2020 and September 2021.

In July 2022, following a government crisis as a result of dozens of resignations from his government, Johnson announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party. Johnson pledged to remain as prime minister and lead a 'caretaker' government until a new Conservative Party leader had been elected. The election results were revealed on Monday 5 September 2022, and the new leader Liz Truss became prime minister on 6 September, resulting in the cabinet's dissolution.

The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 25 October 1951, just twenty months after the previous general election in 1950; the Labour government called the election in hopes of increasing its parliamentary majority. However, this backfired, as even though Labour won the most votes, it was the Conservatives who won a majority, with the collapse of the Liberal vote allowing the Conservatives to gain seats by default.

Up to that point, the Labour Party achieved the most votes cast for a party; however, this would be surpassed several times, with the Conservatives breaking the record in 1992 and 2019. (13,948,385 is also the highest number of votes Labour ever won in a general election.) The Conservatives would also exceed the popular vote percentage (48.8%) achieved by Labour, in 1955 and 1959, winning over 49% in both cases. Turnout in this election declined slightly.