The Liberals won, and Mackenzie remained prime minister until the 1878 election when Macdonald's Conservatives returned to power with a majority government.

Disraeli's term as Prime Minister would therefore be fairly short, unless the Conservatives won the general election.

In the February 1974 general election the Conservative government of Edward Heath won a plurality of votes cast, but the Labour Party gained a plurality of seats due to the Ulster Unionist MPs refusing to support the Conservatives after the Northern Ireland Sunningdale Agreement.

When the Labour government fell in 1979, the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher won a victory which served to push the Liberals back into the margins.

The 2010 general election resulted in a hung parliament ( Britain's first for 36 years ), following which the Conservatives ( led by David Cameron ), which had won the largest number of seats, formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to gain a parliamentary majority, ending 13 years of Labour government.

In the 1957 election, the Liberals won 200, 000 more votes nationwide than the Progressive Conservatives ( 40. 75 % Liberals to 38. 81 % PC ).

It came as a shock to many when the Conservatives won a majority, but the perceived triumphalism of a Labour party rally in Sheffield ( together with Kinnock's performance on the podium ) may have helped

However, the party's MPs, mostly representing seats won from the Scottish Conservatives, were less keen to have the SNP viewed as a centre-left alternative to Labour, for fear of losing their seats back to the Conservatives.

The polarization did take place and while the Liberals remained active under Lloyd George, they won few seats and were a minor factor until they joined a coalition with the Conservatives in 2010.

Labour won the 1923 election, but in 1924 Baldwin and the Conservatives returned with a large majority.

In 2009, the Conservatives won 26 seats in the European Parliament, which increased to 27 in 2011 due to defection by a UK Independence Party MEP, reducing back down to 26 when a Conservative moved to UKIP.

The Conservatives won 49, the newly-formed Progressive Party won 58 ( but declined to form the official Opposition ), and the remaining ten seats went to fringe parties and Independents ; most of these ten supported the Progressives.

King called an election in 1925, in which the Conservatives won the most seats, but not a majority in the House of Commons.

* May 4 – Counting in the previous day's British general election shows that the Conservatives have won and Margaret Thatcher becomes the country's first female prime minister, ending the rule of James Callaghan's Labour government.

Although the Tories had won the most votes, Labour finished five seats ahead of the Conservatives.

During the election campaign, Thatcher, when questioned, again repeated her vow that there would be no position for Powell in her cabinet if the Conservatives won the forthcoming general election.

His " National Liberal " coalition won a massive landslide, winning 525 of the 707 contests ; however, the Conservatives had control within the Coalition of more than two-thirds of its seats.

At the 2005 general election, the Conservatives won a majority of 7, 471 and 44. 4 % of the vote in the Canterbury constituency.

He remained in the Whip's Office after the Conservatives won the 1951 general election, rising rapidly to Joint Deputy Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip and, in December 1955, Government Chief Whip under Anthony Eden.

It was a tough election, but Labour won a narrow majority, gaining 56 seats ( a total of 317 to the Conservatives 309 ).

Soon afterwards, Labour won 363 seats compared to 252 seats against the Conservatives, giving the Labour government a large majority of 97.

The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher ran a campaign on the slogan " Labour isn't working " and won the election.

Labour fought the 1973 election on a strongly socialist platform and won with 57 seats to 33 for the Conservatives.

However, the Conservatives were still a minority in the House of Commons, and the passage of the Reform Bill required the calling of new election once the new voting register had been compiled.

This brought an end to the Russell Whig government and set the stage for a general election in July 1852 which eventually brought the Conservatives to power in a minority government under the Earl of Derby.

Some ministers wanted St. Laurent to stay on and offer to form a minority government, following the logic that the popular vote had supported them and even though their Parliamentary minority was smaller than the Conservatives, the Liberals ' more recent governmental experience would make them a more effective minority.

In the election of 1979, Trudeau's Liberal government was defeated by the Progressive Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, who formed a minority government.

A poll at the time suggested that 74 % of the UK population agreed with the Powell's opinions and his supporters claim that this large public following that Powell attracted may have helped the Conservatives to win the 1970 general election, and perhaps cost them the February 1974 general election, at which Powell turned his back on the Conservatives by endorsing a vote for Labour, who returned as a minority government in early March following a hung parliament.

However, it was a minority government, and was liable to fall if the Conservatives and Liberals combined against it.

In 2001, Bondevik once again became Prime Minister in 2001, this time as head of a minority coalition of the Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Liberals.

Despite Chamberlain's organisational skills and immense popularity, many Conservatives still mistrusted his Radicalism, and Chamberlain was aware of the difficulties that would be presented by being part of a Liberal Unionist minority leading a Conservative majority.

Though not facing a majority, the inability of the Liberal parties ( themselves unable to form a single faction until 1934 ), the Conservatives and Agrarians to form a majority government pressed for a minority government led by Hansson, expecting support from the Farmers ' League through an agriculture policy favoring the interests of the League ( kohandeln ), although stopping short of inviting it into the cabinet.

Layton intensified his attacks on the Liberal scandals, pledging to use his minority clout to keep the Conservatives in check.

* February 28-General election in the U. K. results in no majority for any party ; Labour will form a minority government until October despite having received fewer votes nationally than the Conservatives.

The Liberals were in opposition to the ruling Conservatives for most of the first 20 years after Canadian Confederation, except for 18 months of Liberal minority government in 1878-1879.

In the 2003 election, Hamm's Progressive Conservatives were reduced to a minority government.

The Progressive Conservatives won a minority government under the leadership of Joe Clark, but lost a parliamentary motion of non-confidence later in the year.

In the 2010 General Election, the Conservatives won the most seats and votes, but only a minority of seats in parliament.

As a result, the Liberals won 48 seats, while the Progressive Conservatives 52 which was enough for a minority government.

Harper's new Conservatives emerged from the election with a larger parliamentary caucus of 99 MPs while the Liberals were reduced to a minority government of 135 MPs, requiring the Liberals to obtain support from at least twenty-three opposition MPs in order to guarantee the passage of Liberal government legislation.

The results made the Conservatives the largest party in the 308-member House of Commons, enabling them to form a minority government.

During the late 1920s and especially during the 1929-31 Parliament, in which Labour had no majority but were allowed to continue in office by the Liberals, Simon was seen as the leader of the minority of Liberal MPs who disliked Lloyd George's inclination to support Labour rather than the Conservatives.

The Conservatives took advantage of Liberal infighting to win a minority government in the 1943 provincial election, reducing the Liberals to third-party status.

With the 1975 provincial election, the governing Conservatives were reduced to a minority government for the first time in thirty years.

However, the Liberal Party split on the issue of Irish Home Rule, leading to another general election in 1886 in which the Conservatives were the largest party and were enabled to form a minority government by the fragment of Liberalism opposed to Home Rule, the Liberal Unionist Party.