The Conservative Party’s victory in the UK election took everybody by surprise and proved the opinion polls wrong. The Conservatives, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, managed to obtain a overall parliamentary majority of 12 seats, which means they no longer need to govern in coalition with the Liberal Democrats who, as expected, performed very badly in this election.

Even though the Conservative majority is wafer thin, it is nevertheless a major victory for Mr Cameron who, despite the odds, and despite the fact that hard decisions were taken in the past five years, saw his party increase its share of both the popular vote and its number of seats.

On the other hand, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg resigned as leaders of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats respectively due their party’s weak performance, while Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader as he did not win a seat in Parliament, even though his party did well in terms of the popular vote.

The breakdown of the electoral result is as follows: Conservatives, 36.7 per cent of the vote and 331 seats; Labour, 30.5 per cent and 232 seats; Liberal Democrats, eight per cent and eight seats; Ukip 12 per cent and one seat; Scottish National Party, 4.8 per cent and 56 seats; Plaid Cymru (Wales), one per cent and three seats; the Greens, four per cent and one seat; and others, 19 seats.

Before looking at the implications of these figures it is important to point out how the electoral result once again highlights the unrepresentative nature of Britain’s first past the post electoral system. To cite a few examples, the Conservatives obtained an overall parliamentary majority with just 36.7 per cent of the vote, Ukip received 12 per cent of the national vote yet won only one parliamentary seat, while the Scottish National Party won 56 seats despite obtaining just 4.8 per cent of the popular vote throughout the UK.

British voters, however, seem to be content with this type of electoral system. In 2011 the UK voted overwhelmingly – by a margin of 67.9 per cent to 32.1 per cent – to reject a more proportional system of electing their representatives, so we can forget any change in the near future.

The first past the post system tends to favour the larger parties, such as the Conservatives and Labour, or regional parties, such as the Scottish Nationalists.

In a nutshell, the electoral system works best for parties whose support is concentrated in particular areas, such as, in simple terms, ‘working class’ areas for Labour or ‘rural areas’ for the Conservatives. Parties whose support is thinly spread out throughout the country, such as Ukip, and until recently, the Liberal Democrats, tend to lose out through this system.

This election certainly has major implications for the future direction of Britain’s political parties. The Labour Party, which only increased its share of the national vote by 1.5 per cent, ended up with only one seat in Scotland after it lost 40 of its seats, including those of key party figures, to the Scottish National Party. Furthermore, Labour made only very marginal gains in England and Wales, and will enter the House of Commons with 26 less seats than it had in the outgoing Parliament.

I hope Mr Cameron is not remembered for the breakup of the UK

Labour certainly needs to conduct a soul-searching exercise. Why was the party virtually eliminated from Scotland? And in England, did Ed Miliband appeal too much to the party’s core voters instead of reaching out to potential centrist voters?

Was Labour perhaps too critical of certain aspects of the outgoing government’s economic policies? And were voters put off by Labour’s tax and spend policies?

Scotland, however, remains the biggest challenge for Labour. It must really come to terms with its massive defeat by the SNP and try to reverse this trend against it, otherwise it will never win another election in the UK.

The huge swing against the Liberal Democrats is one of the most dramatic aspects of this election. The party’s strength in the House of Commons has been reduced from 57 seats to eight – with many ministers losing their seats – and its share of the popular vote is now eight per cent compared to 23 per cent five years ago. It was the Liberal Democrats, and not the Conservatives, who were punished for some of the unpopular austerity measures of the outgoing coalition government, and many traditional Liberal Democrat supporters never forgave the party for joining the Tories in government.

Furthermore, a lot of voters were very disappointed when Nick Clegg went back on his 2010 pledge not to agree to increased university tuition fees, and this unfortunately overshadowed all the positive things he accomplished while in office.

The Liberal Democrats also need to go through a soul-searching exercise and determine just what future direction they ought to take. Their much reduced presence on the political landscape is, in my opinion, a huge loss for Britain, as they often adopt a moderate, centrist approach and are unashamedly pro-European. I hope they will continue to explain to the British people just how crucial the UK’s membership of the EU is, and the negative consequences that would follow an exit from the bloc by Britain.

Mr Cameron now has mandate to govern for the next five years, but his small 12-seat majority means he will have to tread very carefully. Such a majority can easily be wiped out by by-elections or backbench revolts so the Prime Minister will have to make an extra effort to keep his party together and to adopt a moderate and conciliatory course.

Mr Cameron’s main challenges are to keep Britain a united country – he has to put forward his proposals for further devolution for Scotland and Wales – which are especially relevant in view of the vast gains made by the Scottish Nationalists, to negotiate a good deal with the EU on certain changes to the UK’s accession treaty which will then be put to an ‘In/Out’ referendum, and to keep Britain on the road to economic recovery.

Mr Cameron’s pledge to hold a referendum on the UK’s EU membership is without doubt risky and there could be a high level of uncertainly among business circles in the two years leading to the vote. Furthermore, it is not clear just how many concessions Mr Cameron will get from his fellow EU leaders, which means there will be a very real possibility of Britain voting to leave the bloc. Such a scenario would be absolutely disastrous for Britain, both politically and economically.

A vote against EU membership could even lead to the disintegration of the UK, with Scotland and Wales opting for independence and applying to join the bloc. I hope Mr Cameron is not remembered for the breakup of the UK, and that he fights hard to keep Britain in the EU. A lot is at stake over the next five years.

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