UK: Formation of Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government - timeline
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- May 2010. A general election results in a hung parliament with the Conservative Party winning the largest number of votes and seats, but short of an overall majority. The Conservatives form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats - Conservative leader David Cameron replaces Labour's Gordon Brown as prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg enters the cabinet as deputy prime minister.
- December 2007. Clegg is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in succession to Sir Menzies Campbell.
- June 2007. Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, replaces Tony Blair as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party.
- December 2005. Cameron is elected as leader of the Conservative Party.
- May 2005. In a general election, the opposition Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats make gains, but not enough to deprive the Labour Party led by Prime Minister Blair of a comfortable majority and an unprecedented third term in office.
- June 2001. The ruling Labour Party sweeps to a predicted victory in general elections, winning a second successive overall majority only slightly smaller than the commanding margin achieved in May 1997.
- May 1997. The Labour Party wins an emphatic victory in a general election, thereby ending 18 years of Conservative Party government.
- July 1994. Blair, a leading moderniser, is elected leader of the main opposition Labour Party as successor to John Smith who had recently died.
- April 1992. In a general election, the Conservative Party, led by John Major, wins a fourth consecutive term of office, the first such instance since the early 19th century.
- November 1990. Major replaces Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party after Deputy Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Howe resigns over the UK's European policy.
- March 1988. The Liberal Democrats is created by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
- June 1987. A general election results in the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party.
- October 1983. Neil Kinnock replaces Michael Foot as leader of the Labour Party.
- June 1983. In a general election, the Conservative Party is returned with a greatly increased majority over all other parties.
- June 1981. The SDP and the Liberal Party announce a political and electoral alliance.
- March 1981. Four senior Labour right-wingers—Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers (the so-called "Gang of Four")—formally launch the SDP.
- November 1980. Michael Foot replaces James Callaghan as leader of the Labour Party.
- May 1979. The Conservatives under Thatcher defeat Callaghan's incumbent Labour government in the first of four consecutive general election victories for the Conservative Party.
- May 1978. Liberal leader David Steel announces that the Lib-Lab Pact will be concluded at the end of the current parliamentary session in July 1978.
- March 1977. The Labour Party, now with no overall parliamentary majority, signs a parliamentary agreement with the Liberal Party (the Lib-Lab Pact) whereby the two parties agree to co-operate at the parliamentary level to work together "in the pursuit of economic recovery".
- April 1976. Harold Wilson resigns as prime minister and Labour leader and is replaced by Callaghan.
- February 1975. Thatcher replaces Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.
- October 1974. Labour Prime Minister Wilson, having taken power in a hung parliament in February 1974, returns to the polls and wins a small majority of three.
- March 1974. Following the recent inconclusive general election, the Liberals reject the Conservative's coalition terms allowing Wilson to return to power as leader of a minority Labour government.
- February 1974. A general election fails to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons, instead producing a hung parliament.
- February 1974. With a three-day working week in operation as a result of industrial action in the coalmining industry, Prime Minister Heath calls an early general election.
- June 1970. Labour, in power for nearly six years, is defeated in a general election in which the Conservatives, led by Heath, obtain an overall majority of 31 seats.
- April 1969. The Representation of the People Act (1969) is enacted reducing the minimum age of voting from 21 to 18.
- March 1966. Prime Minister Wilson calls an early general election and succeeds in increasing Labour's overall majority to 97.
- July 1965. Sir Alec Douglas-Home resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and is succeeded by Heath.
- October 1964. A general election results in the defeat of the Conservatives, after 13 years in office, and the return of the country's fifth Labour government, led by Wilson, with an overall majority of only four votes, the smallest parliamentary majority of modern times.
- October 1963. After being diagnosed incorrectly with inoperable prostate cancer, Harold Macmillan relinquishes the premiership to Douglas-Home.
- October 1959. A general election results in the return to power of the Conservative Party which succeeds in winning three consecutive elections with higher majorities at each election.
- January 1957. Anthony Eden, damaged by his handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis, resigns as Conservative prime minister and is replaced by Macmillan.
- May 1955. A general election results in the return to power of the Conservative Party with an overall majority of 59—it is the first for 90 years in which a government has increased its majority at the polls.
- April 1955. Winston Churchill, in failing health, resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Eden.
- October 1951. Labour calls an early general election but fails to increase its narrow majority—the Conservatives, under Churchill, forms the next government with the help of the National Liberals.
- February 1950. The most closely contested general election for more than a century results in the Labour Party securing a narrow overall majority in the new House of Commons.
- July 1948. The Representation of the People Act (1948) is enacted abolishing plural voting, university constituencies and the few remaining two-member constituencies.
- July 1948. The National Health Service (NHS) is inaugurated.
- July 1945. The first general election since 1935 results in the defeat of Churchill's National Government and the return of Clement Atlee's Labour Party to power with a commanding overall majority.
- May 1945. Victory in Europe Day (VE-Day) is celebrated following the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
- May 1940. Neville Chamberlain resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Churchill at the head of an all-party war cabinet.
- September 1939. Following the British declaration of war against Germany, Prime Minister Chamberlain forms a War Cabinet which sees the return of Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.
- September 1938. Prime Minister Chamberlain pronounces "peace for our time" after the European powers and Germany sign the Munich Pact effectively conceding the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.
- May 1937. Two weeks after the coronation of King George VI, Chamberlain replaces Baldwin as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party—the Fourth National Government includes 15 conservatives, four Liberal Nationals and two National Liberal members.
- December 1936. In the immediate aftermath of the Abdication Crisis, Baldwin announces that will remain as prime minister until shortly after the coronation of King Edward's successor, George VI.
- November 1935. A general election results in a large, though reduced, majority for Baldwin's Conservative-dominated National Government - the National Labour votes collapses, while Labour under Attlee makes large gains.
- June 1935. MacDonald, now in failing health, resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Stanley Baldwin
- October 1931. MacDonald, now leader of National Labour, wins a general election and forms a Second National Government, but its balance is now strongly towards Baldwin's Conservative Party.
- August 1931. The Labour Party splits following the formation of the First National Government, supporters of the MacDonald government being regarded as traitors to socialism.
- August 1931. A financial crisis causes a split within the Labour government and the creation of a `government of national salvation' (the First National Government) led by Labour's MacDonald and including Conservative and Liberal members.
