About 47.6 million people were registered as entitled to vote in the United Kingdom’s general election on 12 December 2019 and about 32.1 million did so. I used Haskell to view the outcome with cartograms in which each of the 650 constituencies is represented by a regular hexagon of the same size.
Turnout percentage
I calculate turnout percentage as the ratio of votes cast (valid or invalid) to the size of the electorate. It ranged from 49.5% (Kingston upon Hull East) to 80.4% (East Dunbartonshire). The constituency of the Speaker seeking re-election, Chorley, had a turnout percentage of 53.4%. Seven constituencies, all in England, had a lower turnout percentage than Chorley’s.
Invalid votes percentage
Of the 32.1 million votes cast, 117,919 (0.37%) were held to be invalid. I calculate invalid votes percentage as the ratio of invalid votes cast to the size of the electorate. The Speaker’s constituency (Chorley) had by far the highest percentage (1.69%). Chorley excluded, it ranged from 0.11% (Glenrothes) to 0.75% (Leeds North East). The percentage for Leeds North East was 39% higher than the next highest percentage (for South Derbyshire – 0.54%). The hexmap below excludes Chorley.
Winners
Conservative candidates won in 365 of the 650 constituencies and Sinn Féin candidates (who choose not to take up their seats in the House of Commons) won in 7 constituencies, giving the Conservatives a working majority of 87. The only ‘non-party’ candidate elected was the Speaker.
In respect of seats gained and lost, in Scotland, the SNP made gains from the Conservatives and Labour and exchanged one seat with the Liberal Democrats. In England and Wales, with a few exceptions, the Conservatives made gains from Labour (54 seats). The exceptions were, in England, the Conservatives lost two seats to the Liberal Democrats (Richmond Park and St Albans) but won three seats from them (Carshalton and Wallington, Eastbourne and North Norfolk) and Labour gained one seat from the Conservatives (Putney).
| Gains | Losses |
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The House of Commons Library publishes statistics by constituency, including information about, or estimates of, the percentage of (valid) voters who chose “Leave the EU” in the 23 June 2016 referendum. With three exceptions, all Conservative gains were in ‘leave majority’ constituencies. The exceptions were Stroud (estimated 49.5% leave, Conservative vote share 47.9%), the former Speaker’s constituency of Buckingham (estimated 48.9% leave, vote share 58.4%) and Kensington (estimated 31.2% leave, vote share 38.3%).
| Remain majority | Leave majority |
|---|---|
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Runners up
Conservative candidates were runners up in 216 constituencies. In Scotland, SNP candidates won in 48 of the 59 constituencies and were runners up in the remaining 11 constituencies. Runners up included Ashfield Independents (Ashfield), Birkenhead Social Justice Party (Birkenhead – Mr Frank Field), People Before Profit Alliance (Belfast West) and four independent candidates (Chorley, Beaconsfield – Mr Dominic Grieve, East Devon – Ms Claire Wright, and South West Hertfordshire – Mr David Gauke). Following convention the only ‘party’ candidate in the Chorley constituency was a Green candidate.
Vote share
I calculate vote share as votes received as a percentage of valid votes cast. Outside of four constituencies in Northern Ireland, the Conservative vote share ranged from 7.8% (Liverpool, Riverside) to 76.7% (Castle Point). A Conservative candidate gained a seat from Labour with a vote share of 35.5%(Ynys Mon) and another did not win with a share of 45.3% (Westmorland and Lonsdale).
The Labour vote share ranged from 3.7% (North East Fife) to 84.7% (Liverpool, Walton). A Labour candidate held a seat with a vote share of 34.6% (Sheffield, Hallam) and another lost a seat to a Conservative with a share of 46.0% (Bury North).
The Liberal Democrats fielded candidates in 611 constituencies. The party’s vote share ranged from 1.7% (Birmingham, Hodge Hill) to 56.1% (Twickenham).
The Green Party fielded candidates in 497 constituencies. The party’s vote share ranged from 0.2% (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, 50 votes) to 57.2% (Brighton, Pavilion – the only seat won by the party). The second highest vote share was 24.9% (Bristol West). Save for those two constituencies and three others (Dulwich and West Norwood, Bury St Edmunds and Isle Of Wight), the vote share was less than 10%.
The Brexit Party fielded candidates in 275 constituencies. The party’s vote share ranged from 0.6% (Battersea) to 30.4% (Barnsley Central), where its candidate was the runner up to the Labour candidate. The party’s candidate was runner up to the Labour candidate in two other constituencies – Barnsley East (vote share of 29.2%) and Blaenau Gwent (20.6%). The chart below shows how the party’s vote share was distributed.
In 61 constituencies, the vote for the Brexit Party was greater than the winning candidate’s majority. In 39 cases, the winning candidate was a member of the Labour Party or Plaid Cmru (one case) and the runner up was a Conservative (except in two cases where the Brexit Party was the runner up). In 20 cases, the winning candidate was a Conservative and the runner up was a member of the Labour Party or the Liberal Democrats (one case). In one case, a Liberal Democrat was a runner up to a Labour Party candidate and in another an SNP candidate was a runner up to a Liberal Democrat.