Westminster Parliamentary Elections
General Elections are held when they are called by the Prime Minister (Acting by Royal Prerogative) and must be held at least every five years. 646 Members are elected, by a first past the post system, to the House of Commons which is the lower chamber of the Westminster Parliament. It is convention that the leader of the party with the most Members of Parliament who will be invited by the Queen as Prime Minister to form a government.
Since 1997 the Labour Party, under Prime Minister Tony Blair, has formed the government and has for the first time in its history achieved three successive election victories. After being returned with majorities of 179, 167 and 66.
In Spelthorne the Labour Party has finished second to the Consevatives in the General Elections since 1992 coming closest to winning the seat in 1997 and 2001, when the Conservative majority was as low as 3,262
History
The Westminster Parliament has been in existence in various forms since the thirteenth century; the first parliament of England was formed by Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester, in 1265. The Acts of Union (1707) created the union of England and Scotland and the first parliament of Great Britain. The Act of Union 1800 created the union of Great Britain and Ireland and the first parlimaent of the UK.
Parliament was dominated until the early twentieth century by the two main political parties, the Whigs (Liberal) and the Tories. Since 1923 when the first Labour Government was formed, there have been periods of Labour and Conservative government and during the war coalition Government.
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