British Politics For Dummies, 2nd Edition

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There are lots of political parties in the UK but the big three are the Labour Party (the main left-wing party), the Liberal Democrats (the main centre party) and the Conservatives (the main right-wing party).

This system of government, known as the Westminster system, has been adopted by other countries, especially those that were formerly parts of the British Empire. This resulted in the merger between the Conservatives and Joseph Chamberlain's Liberal Unionist Party, composed of former Liberals who opposed Irish home rule.

The additional member's system used when electing members of parliament is a combination of the first-past-the-post system and the party-list system. The MEPs were elected representatives of the party until 11pm on 31 January 2020 when the UK left the European Union and the position of British MEPs was subsequently abolished. Polling generally indicates that at present (August 2021) Labour has lost significant portions of its vote share to the Green party and the Liberal Democrats. The Brexit Party was founded in January 2019, with leader Nigel Farage (former retired UKIP leader).

The Conservative Party is the only party in the history of the United Kingdom to have been governed by a female Prime Minister. England is therefore governed according to the balance of parties across the whole of the United Kingdom. Support for nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales led to proposals for devolution in the 1970s, though only in the 1990s did devolution happen.This means that the ruling party needs to have more Members of Parliament than all the other parties put together.