2020 United Kingdom general election

The 2020 United Kingdom general election was held on 3 December 2020. The Conservative Party, despite their large majority and declining popularity, sought a renewed mandate in face of the planetary blockade under the Mondals such that they would have the power to rapidly implement legislation relevant to preparation for war and interstellar diplomacy.

The Conservative Party, which had won an eighty seat majority the year before, was defending against the Labour Party, the official opposition led by Jaya Acharya. The Prime Minister, Imelda Cadogan, who had won the leadership election on the resignation of her predecessor, sought to take a more isolationist approach to the combined issues of Brexit and impending invasion and called for a snap election to legitimise her mandate. With the House of Commons passing the Early General Election Act 2020 by 467-18, the election date was set for 3 December of that year. Opinion polls expressed a small lead for the Conservatives.

With the final seat declaration, the result of the election was a hung parliament with no party holding a majority - indeed, no party had achieved three-hundred seats or more, the last time such a result occurring being the 1929 general election, over ninety years earlier. The Conservatives made few gains, all of which were located in Scotland and mostly attributed to the collapse in the Scottish National Party vote share. Labour gained seventy-nine seats, most notably regaining strength in the former heartlands of the Red Wall, the North East, the central belt of Scotland and north Wales. The Liberal Democrats, led by Percy Blythe, increased their vote share by a small amount and doubled the number of seats they held but still failed to reclaim third party status in the House of Commons.

The election result failed to give Cadogan the mandate she desired to pursue a more isolationist policy towards the impending Mondalian threat and economic issues of Brexit. Despite the defeat, her position as leader of the Conservatives and as Prime Minister was not threatened due to the high number of Brexit allies she had within the party and the lack of desire for a leadership challenge with the issue of invasion looming. After long and heated talks, all three major parties agreed to join a National Unity Government in the face of humanity's first extraterrestrial war. Andy Callanach, leader of the SNP and MP for Argyll and Bute, resigned from his position as leader following the loss of his seat to the Conservatives.

Results
No party won a majority and no party won over three-hundred seats. The Conservative Party, the largest party at 293 seats, had lost seventy-two seats and shifted into second place in terms of vote share; however, they edged over Labour in terms of seats by twelve seats. Labour won an extra seventy-nine seats in this election but the party was not able to persuade the voting public into supporting it into government. The resilience of some of the Conservative seats is believed to be caused by a 'rally around the flag' effect in the face of national adversity. The Liberal Democrats were able to double their seats despite a small national increase due to intense campaigning efforts in select target seats, many constituencies simply offering paper candidates for the ballot.

The failure of overtly nationalist parties to increase their share of the votes and seats can similarly be explained by the 'rally around the flag' effect, with separatist politics falling rapidly in importance in polls across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A failure of the SNP and Sinn Fein to adjust to these sentiments led to their losses but the economic and social positions were sufficient to prevent extensive damages. Indeed, the SDLP and Alliance, who minimised their separatist language and policies or were neutral on the issue, saw themselves become more popular in Northern Ireland in votes with the Sinn Fein losing seats to them or having safe seats become marginals.

Summary
A summarised results of the parties in the election is as follows:

Marginal seats
This table shows all seats where the winning candidate won a majority of less than 500 votes: