<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> 2017 election </Li> <Li> MPs </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> 2017 election </Li> <Li> MPs </Li> </Ul> <P> The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons . The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first - past - the - post system . None of the parties achieved the 326 seats needed for an overall majority . The Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, won the largest number of votes and seats, but still fell 20 seats short . This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons . This was only the second general election since the Second World War to return a hung parliament, the first being the February 1974 election . Unlike in 1974, the potential for a hung parliament had this time been widely considered and predicted, and both the country and politicians were better prepared for the constitutional process that would follow such a result . The coalition government that was subsequently formed was the first coalition in British history to eventuate directly from an election outcome . The hung parliament came about in spite of the Conservatives managing both a higher vote total and higher share of the vote than the previous Labour government had done in 2005, when it secured a comfortable majority . </P> <P> Coalition talks began immediately between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, and lasted for five days . There was an aborted attempt to put together a Labour / Liberal Democrat coalition (although other smaller parties would have been required to make up the ten seats they lacked for a majority). To facilitate this, Gordon Brown announced on the evening of Monday 10 May that he would resign as Leader of the Labour Party . Realising that a deal with the Conservatives was within reach, the next day on Tuesday 11 May, Brown announced his resignation as Prime Minister, marking the end of 13 years of Labour government . This was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II, who then invited David Cameron to form a government in her name and become Prime Minister . Just after midnight on 12 May, the Liberal Democrats emerged from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been "approved overwhelmingly", sealing a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats . </P>

Who was in power in the uk in 2010
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