The UK General Election of 2017
Brexit and the Return to Two-Party Politics
2018 Volume 34 Issue 1 Pages 22-39
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2018 Volume 34 Issue 1 Pages 22-39
While the UK general election of 2017 resulted in a hung parliament, the most notable feature of the election was the return to two-party politics. It means the transformation of British politics towards a new two-party politics based on age and the rising importance of division on the social liberal-conservative dimension. What kind of factors account for an unintended defeat of the Conservatives as well as the Labour’s increased support under Corbyn? What was the impact of Brexit on the 2017 general election? Since the European integration is a political issue that is driven primary by the social liberal-conservative division and cut across the classic economic left-right division, it has been one of the key drivers of party system fragmentation in Britain. The main argument of this article is, however, that the Brexit reversed the trend towards party system fragmentation by leading to the collapse of the UKIP and decline of the SNP support.
