UK General Election 2015

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Teenager found dead at hotel after taking ecstasy

A drugs warning has been issued following the death of a teenager who had taken ecstasy.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, centre, poses for a group photo with newly elected Conservative MPs at the Houses of Parliament in central London. Photo: Getty Images

Cameron makes it Ladies' Day with cabinet reshuffle

It was very much Ladies' Day at Downing Street yesterday as British Prime Minister David Cameron completed his cabinet reshuffle.

Nigel Farage to stay on as leader of Ukip

Nigel Farage is to stay on as leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip) after the party's ruling board rejected his resignation.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband was widely seen as having steered the party leftwards from former prime minister Tony Blair’s centrist 'New Labour'

Labour grandees scathing of Miliband

The Labour Party must return to the political centre ground and acknowledge the aspirations of millions of voters it ignored in its election campaign, senior figures warned yesterday, as the party's crushing defeat hit home.

David Cameron and his wife Samantha leave the VE Day 70th Anniversary service at Westminster Abbey in London

Tories' honeymoon over as Eurosceptics turn up heat

David Cameron's brief honeymoon after his shock election victory has already ended after Eurosceptic Conservative MPs demanded he win major concessions when he renegotiates the terms of Britain's EU membership.

Mr Cameron delivers his victory speech outside No. 10

Scottish and English nationalists on collision course

The self-declared Conservative and Unionist Party won the General Election in England by harnessing English nationalism, and the Scottish Nationalists did the same in Scotland by harnessing Scottish nationalism. The two nations, by the rhetoric of their election campaigns, have thus set themselves on a collision course.

North's election results puncture SF myth of United Ireland's inevitability

I've lost count of the number of Northern Ireland media commentators who regularly and spontaneously burst into laughter at the mere mention of Peter Robinson's "graduated unionist response" promised over the parading stand off over the Ardoyne shops in North Belfast.

UK pollsters got it wrong because no one wants to admit they're voting for Tories

The British Polling Council is about to carry out an enquiry as to how the pollsters could have so wrongly forecast the outcome of the British general election: there was David Cameron writing his resignation speech in preparation for a hung parliament and a constitutional crisis (and Samantha Cameron allegedly packing up the kitchenware to move from No 10) when came the stunning surprise: the vote produced a Tory majority government, and the lowest Labour support since 1983!

Sinn Fein left reeling from loss of 'Bobby Sands' seat'

Sinn Fein have been dealt a significant blow after the party lost a seat once held by IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in the British general election.

WINNER AND LOSERS: Labour’s Ed Miliband, the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg and the Conservatives’ David Cameron

English preferred steady George Osborne to flaky Russell Brand

For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, the Conservatives, whom the poll of polls had predicted would win 34pc of the vote and struggle to cobble together a shaky coalition, won 36.9pc and hence 331 seats out of 650, giving them a majority of 12. (Actually, it's better for them than that, because the four Sinn Fein MPs obligingly refuse to take their seats.)

THROUGH THE DOOR AGAIN: Workers applaud as David Cameron and his wife Samantha return to Number 10 Downing Street after the Conservatives’ victory in the UK general election

After David Cameron's electoral success, the real fight begins

No British government has won anything approaching half of the popular vote in more than half a century. The best Tony Blair managed was 43pc, and that was only when the Tories had become toxic. Margaret Thatcher in her prime never bettered Blair, even when Labour was unelectable.

Shinners rumbled on austerity message

Sinn Fein likes to boast that it is Ireland's only all-island party, but that was never true. The Workers' Party straddles the border.

Nigel Farage the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) speaks to the media backdropped by a poster unveiled for his party's immigration campaign launch for the British general election, in St Margaret's Bay, near Dover

UKIP win council seat where former party leader Nigel Farage lost

Ukip gained a shock council poll victory today at Thanet, Kent - where former party leader Nigel Farage earlier failed to win a Westminster seat.

Campaign marred by dirty tricks, slurs and a lack of good manners

The recent poll is being slated as one of the nastiest in memory, with allegations of dirty tricks, slurs and a lack of courtesy in victory.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams takes a 'selfie' with Mary Lou McDonald and the party's Belfast candidates as counting in the general election gets underway at the kings Hall in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 7, 2015. See PA story ELECTION Main. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Nationalist vote falls but reasons for Sinn Féin slump run much deeper

Has Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland vote finally peaked? Is the party's irresistible rise finally being resisted?

Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew. Photo: PA

Unionists win extra seats but won't be king-makers

Unionism is returning to Westminster with more seats, but less influence than they had hoped for.

UUP candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Tom Elliott celebrates after his General Election victory in the Omagh Leisure centre. Photo: PA

Unionism did well but the North is still facing years of austerity

This is a day for holding hands up. We commentators didn't forecast how well the unionist pact would work, especially for the UUP.

Nick Clegg with his wife Miriam after quitting as party leader

Clegg calls it quits but Farage refuses to rule out another run

A dejected Nick Clegg threw in the towel as leader of the Liberal Democrats, describing the results as "dark hour" for his party, and "the most crushing blow to the Liberal Democrats since our party was founded".

Winner takes all: The Twitter feed of David Cameron and his wife Samantha after learning of his victory early yesterday.

The night when everything changed forever. . .

LOOK. I'm really sorry. I know this is going to seem like an unusual question. After all, this is a newspaper. We're the ones who are supposed to tell you the news, not the other way round.

Yvette Cooper is tipped to be a possible Labour leader

Who's in running to take over as Labour leader?

After a disastrous night for Labour across the UK, Ed Miliband announced his resignation as leader of the party. But who are his possible replacements?

A deflated Ed Miliband with his wife Justine yesterday

Nearly man, who just wasn't nearly good enough in end

If only politics wasn't so brutally binary. What if there was room for a few shades of light and grey. In a more unforgiving world, it might have been Ed Miliband striding confidently up Downing Street, his wife by his side.

Mr Cameron has, it seems, Nick Clegg to thank for the prospect of another five years in power

Not for the first time, an election the pollsters will be voting to forget

There was a precedent. The last time the polls suggested an election was close - in 1992 - the Conservatives emerged with an eight-point lead and an overall majority. This time, the Conservatives are seven points ahead and David Cameron has just managed to win a majority.

WINNER TAKES ALL: Outgoing Labour leader Ed Miliband, outgoing Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and re-elected British Prime Minister David Cameron attend a ceremony at the Cenotaph in London to mark VE Day just hours after the Conservative Party defied all the polls and won an overall majority in the UK elections

So tell me again, how did David Cameron defy all odds to win?

David Cameron won the UK general election and returned to Downing Street with an outright majority after Labour was virtually wiped out by the SNP in Scotland and the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed.

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How Europe became the pivotal issue

Stunning news on Thursday night as scientists discovered that the world doesn't revolve around Russell Brand.

Certainly the UK prime minister will have problems within the Conservative parliamentary party over Britain’s relations with the European Union

Enjoy today, because the EU time-bomb is ticking

David Cameron better enjoy today. The EU debates to come will leave him scarred.

'Horsewoman of the Ajockalypse' savours her party's Highland fling

The SNP was celebrating the most important moment in its history after an "electoral tsunami" swept Scotland, wiping out the Labour Party's previously dominant presence there at a single stroke.

David Cameron, Ed Miliband, and Nick Clegg during a Service of Remembrance to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day, at the Cenotaph, in Whitehall, London. Photo: PA

Backlash of a whole nation forgotten by political classes in London

The wipeout of the Westminster parties in Scotland is a dramatic demonstration of how spectacularly their leaders have misunderstood the mood of the Scottish people by failing to see past their own political agenda.

Enda Kenny has reiterated Ireland's neutrality

Cameron's return to power brings many challenges for Kenny

Like it or lump it, political events on the larger of Europe's western islands set a tone for political events here.

British reality TV “sensation” Joey Essex appeared with almost all parties in some teeth-clenchingly embarrassing photo-opportunity with party leaders

An election that was mired in the banality of sameness

This UK general election was described by many political observers as the dullest campaign to date. Frozen in a sedulous fear of social media and opinion polls which indicated minimal margins of difference, the media strategists of virtually all political parties revelled in the security of sameness.

Prime London prices may rise by a fifth after the election, brokers said.

Tory win to push up London by 20pc

Markets hailed the Conservative party's win in the UK general election largely because of the certainty it brought, rather than because it was the Tories which won.

December 2016