Historically, elections in the UK have been dominated by the Labour and Conservative parties. In the seven general elections that took place between 1950 and 1970 these two parties polled an average vote share of over 93%, winning all but a tiny handful of seats in the process. Since then the steady rise of ‘minor’ parties, the creation of regional assemblies and the introduction of alternative electoral systems have seen an end to traditional two-party dominance and the creation of a prospering multi-party system in the UK.
Between 1970 and 2005 the share of the national vote secured by Labour and the Conservatives declined from over 90% to under 70%. Until very recently, this erosion was largely down to the rise of the Liberal Democrats, and it was only the UK’s majoritarian electoral system of first-past-thepost that prevented the Liberal Democrats from making the electoral breakthrough that their vote share warranted.
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