Cameron–Clegg coalition
Government of the United Kingdom
The Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg when Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government, following the resignation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, after the general election on 6 May. It was the UK's first coalition government since the Churchill war ministry ended in 1945.
The coalition was led by Cameron as prime minister with Clegg as deputy prime minister and composed of members of both Cameron's centre-right Conservative Party and Clegg's centrist Liberal Democrats. The Cabinet was made up of sixteen Conservatives and five Liberal Democrats, with eight other Conservatives and one other Liberal Democrat attending cabinet but not members. The coalition was succeeded by the single-party, second Cameron ministry following the 2015 election.
History
The previous Parliament had been dissolved on 12 April 2010 in advance of the general election on 6 May. The general election resulted in a hung parliament, with no single party having an overall majority in the House of Commons, for the first time in 36 years. The Conservatives emerged having the most seats, but 20 short of an overall majority.
In the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement of 11 May 2010, the two parties formed a coalition government. The new Parliament met on 18 May for the swearing-in of peers in the House of Lords and newly elected and returning members of parliament in the House of Commons, and the election for the speakership of the House of Commons.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cameron–Clegg coalition” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.