In 1997 the Conservatives were in disarray. Their party had won its fewest seats since 1906. It had been wiped out in Scotland and Wales. It was bitterly divided over European policy. The party name had become synonymous with sleaze, due to several scandals that had popped up during the 1992–97 period. And many of its leading figures had lost their seats in Parliament at the 1997 poll and were thus ineligible to contest the party leadership election that followed.

John Major immediately announced his resignation as party leader after the 1997 election. William Hague, who in 1995 at age 34 had become Britain’s youngest cabinet minister, threw his hat in the ring against formidable foes, such as Kenneth Clarke (Major’s chancellor of the Exchequer and the party’s most pro-European figure), Michael Howard (the former home secretary), Peter Lilley (the former social security minister), and John Redwood (a leading anti-European who had challenged Major unsuccessfully for the party leadership in 1995). At that time MPs chose the party leader. Clarke finished first in the initial round of balloting, and Howard was eliminated. Lilley withdrew from consideration, and both Howard and Lilley endorsed Hague, who finished second to Clarke in the second round of voting. Finally, Hague emerged as the victor in the third round.

Hague set about reviving his party’s fortunes, announcing a series of reforms that would bring greater internal democracy to the party, including giving local party members a say in future leadership elections. At his first party conference as Conservative leader, Hague sought to soften the party’s image by declaring support for more compassionate policies. He also advocated “understanding and tolerance of people making their own decisions about how they lead their lives,” including accepting the rights of people to have same-sex relationships or to bear and raise children outside of marriage. Hague’s speech marked a clear break with the strictly “pro-family” ethos of the Thatcher years. Still, Hague’s Conservatives were no match for Blair’s New Labour government, and in 2001 the Tories performed almost as disastrously as they had in 1997—winning just a single additional seat.

Hague stepped down as leader in 2001 and was succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith in the first election in which party members selected a leader (Clarke was the top vote getter among MPs, but Duncan Smith defeated him with some three-fifths of the vote among party members). Duncan Smith, however, was unable to make much of a dent in Labour’s lead over the Conservatives and began to face dwindling support within the party as members questioned his ability to defeat Blair at the next general election. In October 2003 Duncan Smith lost a no-confidence vote, and on November 6 Howard, unopposed, was elected to head the Conservative Party. Howard repeatedly criticized Blair (and, implicitly, U.S. Pres. George W. Bush) for having allegedly issued false information ahead of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The Conservatives made gains in the House of Commons in 2005, increasing their number of seats from 166 to 198, but they still appeared unelectable to great swathes of the public. Shortly after the election, Howard resigned the leadership.

Clarke once again stood for the party leadership, but he was eliminated in the first round of balloting. Eventually the contest came down to a battle between David Cameron, a 39-year-old centrist with no government experience, and David Davis, a 56-year-old right-winger who had been brought up by his mother in a south London council house (a form of public housing) and served as minister for Europe in the 1990s. A charismatic speaker, Cameron quickly captured the imagination of party members. He defeated Davis by 68–32 percent in the ballot of party members and became party leader on December 6.

Cameron immediately signaled a shift away from the right and toward more centrist policies, including greater emphases on improving public services, redistributing wealth to Britain’s poor, and combating global poverty. His leadership brought a fresh Conservative face to the voters, though he was attacked by Labour for his aristocratic pedigree (he came from a wealthy family and went to Eton and Oxford).

The following year, with Iraq weighing heavily on Prime Minister Blair, Labour’s poll ratings began to drop, and many Labourites considered Blair an electoral liability. On Sept. 7, 2006, Blair announced his intention to resign within 12 months.

The Conservatives were the beneficiaries of Labour’s decline. Cameron sought to shed his party’s right-wing image, which had dented its popularity for the previous 10 years. In contrast to his three predecessors, he emphasized that cutting taxes would not be a priority for the next Conservative government; economic stability and strong public services would come first. He also sought to put his party at the heart of the debates about civil liberties and climate change—causes previously more associated with politicians to the left of centre. At his party’s annual conference in October 2006, Cameron told Conservative activists, “In these past 10 months we have moved back to the ground on which this Party’s success has always been built: the centre ground of British politics.”

Cameron’s energetic, moderate, and youthful appearance appealed to many voters. In 2006, for the first time in 14 years, the Conservatives established a sustained opinion-poll lead over Labour, averaging 5–7 percent. The Conservatives’ lead over Labour remained over the subsequent years, though Gordon Brown’s election as prime minister brought a brief resurgence for Labour. Still, as a general election drew near, an air of inevitability of a Conservative victory began to pervade the political atmosphere, and many began to consider Cameron a prime minister-in-waiting.

The Liberal Democrats and other parties

While almost all the focus was on the fight between Labour and the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) were becoming a formidable force in national politics, particularly since 1997. In that year they achieved a breakthrough, doubling their parliamentary representation to 46 seats. In 2001 they increased that to 52, and in 2005 they gained a further 10 seats to bring their total to 62. Many observers figured a Conservative revival in 2010 would wipe away many of the Lib Dems’ gains, but others also believed that the party might offset that by making some gains in Labour-held seats. Some political analysts rated the chance for a hung Parliament—in which no single party achieves a majority—as a potentially likely outcome, leading many to wonder who party leader Nick Clegg might throw his support to and what extractions he might be able to squeeze from the Conservatives or Labour.

Outside England, additional parties are key players because of their regional appeal. In Scotland Alex Salmond’s Scottish National Party won 6 seats and nearly 18 percent of the vote in 2005 and wrested control of the Scottish Parliament from Labour in 2007. In Wales the Plaid Cymru won 3 of the 40 seats in Wales in 2005 and captured 12 percent of the vote there. In Northern Ireland politics are dominated by regional parties rather than the mainland British ones. The Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin enjoy support from the Roman Catholic community in Northern Ireland, while the Ulster Unionist Party and Democratic Unionist Party compete for the votes of the Protestant majority. In a hung Parliament, any of these parties could theoretically hold the balance of power and help one party form a government.

Labour Party

• 2005 Percentage of Votes: 35.3 (−5.4)
• 2005 Number of Seats (of 646): 356 (−47)

Leader: Gordon Brown

• Born: Feb. 20, 1951, Glasgow, Scot.
• Education: University of Edinburgh (M.A., 1972; Ph.D., 1982)
• Spouse: Sarah Macaulay
• Children: 3 (Jennifer Jane [deceased], John Macaulay, and James Fraser)
• Political Experience: Prime minister of the United Kingdom and Labour Party leader, 2007–10; chancellor of the Exchequer, 1997–2007; House of Commons, 1983–2005 (Dunfermline East) and 2005–present (Kirkcaldy and Cowden)

Conservative Party

• 2005 Percentage of Votes: 32.3 (+0.6)
• 2005 Number of Seats (of 646): 198 (+33)

Leader: David Cameron

• Born: Oct. 9, 1966, London, Eng.
• Education: University of Oxford (M.A., 1988)
• Spouse: Samantha Sheffield
• Children: 3 (Ivan Reginald Ian [deceased], Nancy Gwen, and Arthur Elwen)
• Political Experience: Leader of the Conservative Party, 2005– ; House of Commons, 2001– (Whitney); became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2010

Liberal Democrats

• 2005 Percentage of Votes: 22.1 (+3.8)
• 2005 Number of Seats (of 646): 62 (+11)

Leader: Nick Clegg

• Born: Jan. 7, 1967, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, Eng.
• Education: University of Cambridge (M.A., 1989); College of Europe (M.A., 1992)
• Spouse: Miriam Gonzalez Durantez
• Children: 0
• Political Experience: Leader of the Liberal Democrats, 2007– ; House of Commons, 2005– (Hallam); European Parliament, 1999–2004; became deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2010

Scottish National Party

• 2005 Percentage of Scotland Votes: 17.7 (−2.4)
• 2005 Number of Scotland Seats (of 59): 6 (+2)

Leader: Alex Salmond

• Born: Dec. 31, 1954, Linlithgow, Scot.
• Education: St. Andrews University (M.A., 1978)
• Spouse: Moira French McGlashan
• Children: 0
• Political Experience: First Minister of Scotland, 2007– ); Scottish Parliament, 1999–2001 (Banff and Buchan) and 2007– (Gordon); Leader of Scottish National Party, 2001–07; National Convener for the Scottish National Party, 1990–2000; 2004– ); House of Commons, 1987– (Banff and Buchan)

Plaid Cymru

• 2005 Percentage of Wales Votes: 12.6 (−1.7)
• 2005 Number of Wales Seats (of 40): 3 (−1)

Parliamentary Leader: Elfyn Llwyd

• Born: Sept. 26, 1951, Betws-y-Code, Wales
• Education: Aberystwyth University (L.I.B., 1974), Chester Law College (Solicitors Examination, 1976)
• Spouse: Eleri Llwyd
• Children: Catrin, Rhodri
• Political Experience: Plaid Cymru Parliamentary Leader, 2000– ; House of Commons, 1992– (Meirionydd Nant Conwy; running in new constituency of Meirionydd Dwyfor in 2010)

Democratic Unionist Party

• 2005 Percentage of Northern Ireland Votes: 33.7 (+11.2)
• 2005 Number of Northern Ireland Seats (of 18): 9 (+4)

Leader: Peter Robinson

• Born: Dec. 29, 1948, Belfast, N.Ire.
• Education: Castlereagh College of Further Education
• Spouse: Iris Collins
• Children: 3 (Jonathan, Gareth, Rebekah)
• Political Experience: First Minister of Northern Ireland, 2008– ; Deputy Leader of Democratic Unionist Party, 1980–97; General Secretary of Democratic Unionist Party, 1975–80; House of Commons, 1979–85 and 1986–2010 (Belfast East)

Sinn Féin

• 2005 Percentage of Northern Ireland Votes: 24.3 (+2.6)
• 2005 Number of Northern Ireland Seats (of 18): 5 (+1)

Party President: Gerry Adams

• Born: Oct. 6, 1948, Belfast, N.Ire.
• Education: St. Mary’s Christian Brothers’ Grammar School (1969)
• Spouse: Collette McArdle
• Children: 1 (Gearoid)
• Political Experience: President of Sinn Féin, 1983– ; Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998– (Belfast West); House of Commons, 1983–91 and 1997– (Belfast West)

Social Democratic and Labour Party

• 2005 Percentage of Votes: 17.5 (−3.5)
• 2005 Number of Northern Ireland Seats (of 18): 3 (0)

Leader: Mark Durkan

• Born: June 26, 1960, Londonderry, N.Ire.
• Education: Queen’s University Belfast (did not graduate)
• Spouse: Jackie Durkan
• Children: 1 (Dearbháil)
• Political Experience: Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, 2001– ; House of Commons, 2005– (Foyle); Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998– (Foyle)

Ulster Unionist Party

• 2005 Percentage of Votes: 17.8 (−9.0)
• 2005 Number of Northern Ireland Seats (of 18): 1 (−5)

Leader: Sir Reginald Empey

• Born: Oct. 26, 1947, Belfast, N.Ire.
• Education: Queen’s University Belfast (B.A., 1970)
• Spouse: Stella Empey
• Children: 2 (Julie-Anne, Christopher)
• Political Experience: Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, 2005– ; Northern Ireland Minister of Employment and Learning, 2007– ; Northern Ireland Minister of Enterprise, Trade, and Investment, 1999–2002; Northern Ireland Assembly, 1998– (Belfast East); Lord Mayor of Belfast, 1989–90 and 1993–94