When second best is still a no-brainer : why Labour should shoot for a majority coalition in May 2015

Yong, Ben; Bale, Tim

Abstract

The chances of Labour winning the 2015 general election with a comfortable overall majority are vanishingly small. It could, however, emerge as the largest party or finish just a handful of seats behind the Conservatives. Either scenario would give it at least a chance—and a bigger chance than many realise, we argue—of forming a government. In that event, Labour may be faced with a choice between getting together with another party (or parties) to form a majority coalition or else forming a minority government (either on its own or with one or more partners), which could assemble different majorities for different pieces of legislation or try to negotiate a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement. Given the precedents from the UK and overseas, we argue that, faced with this dilemma, Labour should do all it can to form a majority coalition. We also argue that Labour can learn some useful lessons from the Cameron–Clegg coalition

Citation

Yong, B., & Bale, T. (2015). When second best is still a no-brainer : why Labour should shoot for a majority coalition in May 2015. The Political quarterly, 86(1), 133-140. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.12143

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Mar 26, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 26, 2015
• Journal: Political quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0032-3179
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-923X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 86
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 133-140
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923x.12143
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/371628
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.12143/abstract
• Additional Information: This is a copy of an article which has been published in Political quarterly, 2015, v.86, no.1 at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.12143/abstract.