2010s in United Kingdom history
The decade ended with a Parliamentary deadlock over the issue of Brexit that ultimately led to the resignation of Theresa May as prime minister.
Boris Johnson decided that leading a minority government was unviable, and Parliament arranged for an early general election (the first winter election since 1974), which produced the biggest Conservative majority since 1987. Notable trends during the 2010s included an increase in euroscepticism culminating in a vote by a small margin in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, four electoral victories for the Conservative Party and a concomitant decline in electoral performance for the Labour Party, and national debates concerning devolved administrations and independence movements, particularly in Scotland where the 2014 Scottish independence referendum saw 55.3% of voters support remaining part of the UK.
In these debates the prime minister was widely considered to have been outperformed by his opponents David Cameron of the Conservative Party and especially Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.
[2][3] At the election, Labour lost 91 seats in the House of Commons, but the Conservatives failed to achieve an overall majority, resulting in the first hung parliament since 1974.
[4] Brown remained temporarily as prime minister, while the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives entered into talks aimed at forming a coalition government.
The Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband, saw a small increase in its share of the vote to 30.4%, but incurred a net loss of seats to return 232 MPs.
[20] Cameron formally tendered his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II on that day, who subsequently appointed Theresa May as his successor.
The Conservatives were narrowly victorious and remained in power as a minority government, having secured a confidence and supply deal with the DUP.
The vote was triggered by the government failing to lay before Parliament any legal advice on the proposed withdrawal agreement on the terms of the UK's departure from the European Union, after a humble address for a return was unanimously agreed to by the House of Commons on 13 November 2018.
The government then agreed to publish the full legal advice for Brexit that was given to the prime minister by the Attorney General during negotiations with the European Union.Theresa May, after failing to pass her Brexit withdrawal agreement through parliament three times, announced her resignation as prime minister of the United Kingdom on 24 May 2019 amidst calls for her to be ousted.
[28][29] Before the resignation, Boris Johnson had already confirmed at a business event in Manchester days earlier that he would run for Conservative Party leader if May were to do so.
In his first speech as prime minister Johnson pledged that Britain would leave the European Union (EU) by 31 October 2019, "no ifs or buts".
[34] On 28 August 2019, Boris Johnson announced that he had asked The Queen to prorogue parliament from a date between 9–12 September until the opening of a new session on 14 October.
[35] Parliament was in any case due to have a three-week recess for the party conference season,[36] and Johnson's prorogation would add around four days to the parliamentary break.
[40] Others questioned this justification, and said that the prorogation was an improper attempt to evade parliamentary scrutiny of Johnson's Brexit plans in advance of the UK's planned departure from the European Union on 31 October 2019; opponents of prorogation included opposition MPs,[36] UK constitutional law scholars,[41] and Sir John Major, the former Conservative prime minister.
[45] The issue was brought before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 17 September 2019 in the cases R (Miller) v The Prime Minister and Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland.
[50][51] Bercow said he would ensure that the attempted prorogation would be expunged from the House of Commons Journal, the corrected formal record of parliamentary business, and replaced with a statement that Parliament was adjourned for the period of the absence.
[52][53] On 3 September 2019, Boris Johnson threatened to call a general election after opposition and rebel Conservative MPs successfully voted against the government to take control of the order of business with a view to preventing a no-deal exit.
[54] Despite government opposition, the bill to block a no-deal exit passed the Commons on 4 September 2019, causing Johnson to call for a general election on 15 October.
[55] However, this motion was unsuccessful as it failed to command the support of two-thirds of the House as required by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA).
[citation needed] On 4 October the Government assured the highest civil court in Scotland that Johnson would send a letter to the EU seeking an extension to Article 50 as required by the European Union (Withdrawal) (No.
[65] Later that evening, 10 Downing Street confirmed that Boris Johnson would send a letter to the EU requesting an extension, but would not sign it.
[67] On 22 October, the UK government brought the recently revised EU Withdrawal Bill to the House of Commons for debate.
Prior to the votes, Johnson had stated that if his timetable failed to generate the support needed to pass in parliament he would abandon attempts to get the deal approved and would seek a general election.
[79] For the Conservative Party, the election meant a shift from a fairly weak administration in the hung parliament of 2017 to 2019 to governing with a majority on a scale they had not known since the early 1990s, potentially, setting them up to remain in power for many years to come.
