How often are general elections held in the UK?

Current general election rules

The 2011 Fixed Term Parliament Act of 2011 scheduled a UK General Election for the first Thursday of May, five years after the previous election. The Act mandated that early elections could be called only when two-thirds of MPs voted to approve one, or if a government lost a vote of confidence.

The Conservatives Party’s 2019 manifesto pledged to replace the Act, which it did with its passing of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill in March 2022.

This act returned powers to call elections to the government. As such a general election can be called at any point within a five year period of the previous election.

Who calls a general election?

The Crown retains the powers to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament. However, these actions are traditionally taken after the sitting prime minister requests the monarch to do so.

By convention, this also happens if the government loses a no confidence vote in the House of Commons.

Example of gaps between previous UK general elections

1945: This was the first general election since 1935, given that general elections were suspended by Parliament for the duration of the Second World War in Europe. Labour rejected the continued suspension of a poll while war with Japan continued. This 1945 general election took place less than two months after VE Day. Winston Churchill was defeated by Clement Attlee.

1974: In this year, there were two general elections. Conservative PM Ted Heath requested for the Queen to dissolve Parliament as his government faced difficulties resolving issues with employment and inflation. Voters went to the polls on 28 February. The Labour Party, led by ex-prime minister Harold Wilson, gained 14 seats but was left 17 seats short of an overall majority in a so called hung parliament. After months of struggling to rule as a minority government, in October 1974, Wilson called a further general election. Labour gained a parliamentary majority of one.

2017: Following the Conservatives’ win of a working majority in the 2015 election, the next election was set for May 2020 under the Fixed Term Parliament’s Act.  However prime minister Theresa May‘s bid for an early election, which she hoped to “strengthen” her government’s “hand” in its attempt to negotiate the UK’s exit from the European Union, was successful. This was because Labour MPs voted to approve an early election. The Conservatives lost their majority, leading them to form a minority government with a confidence-and-supply agreement with Northern Ireland‘s Democratic Unionist Party.

2019: By July 2019 the Conservative minority government gained a new leader in Boris Johnson following Theresa May‘s resignation over her failure to resolve Brexit. However, prime minister Boris Johnson‘s revised EU withdrawal agreement was not approved by MPs by the end of October. The government subsequently gunned for a snap election. The House of Commons permitted this via the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019. Parliament was dissolved on 6 November and the GE took place on 12 December.

How often are other elections?

European Parliament – A European parliamentary election takes place every 5 years

Welsh parliament– MS elections take place every 5 years.

Scottish Parliament– Elections take place every five years.

Germany – Federal elections take place approximately every four years.

France- Presidential elections take place every five years. National Assembly members are elected every five years. Senate members are elected every six years.

USA- Elections to the house of Representatives and Senate take place every two years respectively. In any given election around one-third of the Senate and every member of the House is up for reelection. Presidential elections are held every four years.