UK Parliament
The UK Parliament is one of the oldest and most copied political institutions in the world. Parliament has been sitting in England in at least some form since the 13th century in the Palace of Westminster in London.
The UK has a bi-cameral Parliament – that means that there are two chambers of the legislative branch. In other words, two main groups of people are part of the law-making process. The UK Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
To learn more about the UK Parliament, navigate using the tabs.
The House of Commons is the major body of the Parliament and is made up of 650 MPs who are voted in during elections. Every Member of Parliament (MP) represents a constituency (an area somewhere in the country) and is said to have a seat. However, due to the design of the Commons, only around 430 MPs can be seated in the chamber at once, leading to many people squeezing in and standing during votes and debates on important topics.
Usually, the UK is thought of as having a two-party system. MPs tend to represent a particular political party, and for the last 100 years, the majority of seats have either been won by MPs representing the Labour Party or the Conservatives. The party that wins the most seats in a general election usually forms a government. The party’s MPs will sit on the government benches on one side of the chamber, facing the opposition parties on the other side of the chamber.
The House of Lords is the second chamber and has around 800 members which are unelected. The role of the Lords in modern Britain is to check the work of the government and also continue the work of the House in Commons in making laws.
The Lords used to be ‘wise men’ or senior members in society to advise Saxon Monarchs. Today, there are different types of members of the House of Lords;
- Hereditary Peers – These members hold their seats until death, resignation or exclusion. It used to be the case that when the peer died, their seat passed to a member of their family. Today, new hereditary peers are elected by members of the House.
- Life Peers – Today, most members of the House of Lords are Life Peers. These members are generally nominated by the Prime Minister and political parties and are often former politicians or experts in a particular field.
- Spiritual Peers – The Archbishops of Canterbury and York and 24 Bishops can speak and vote in the House of Lords.
There have long been calls to abolish the House of Lords due to its undemocratic nature with its members not being elected by the public.
Parliament scrutinizes the government, whereby it checks and challenges its work. Parliament makes and changes laws, debates key topics and checks and approves government spending.
These roles are carried out through the work of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and in Select Committees.
Perhaps the most famous example of Parliament at work in the UK is Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs). Each Wednesday when Parliament is sitting, the Prime Minister will answer questions from MPs from 12pm. The Leader of the Opposition will have the chance to challenge the Prime Minister on certain topics and exchanges can sometimes become quite heated – click here to view an example.
While PMQs may sometimes seem theatrical, MPs have other serious work to do in making laws.
Parliament doesn’t sit all year round – it has breaks similar to the school holidays. It is free for anyone to visit Parliament, and you can sit in the gallery and watch it carry out its work when it is sitting. You can also watch most proceedings from Parliament online here.
Political Parties
There are a number of political parties that currently exist in the UK. When voting at elections, voters will vote for a candidate, but they will usually represent a political party.
Political parties in the UK aim to represent members of the public and their views. Parties will develop policies and ideological positions and often play a part in forming governments or local councils.
Some members of the public choose to become a member of a political party, some of which will actively engage in party events and campaigning. Political parties often receive much of their financial income from their members.
There are too many political parties to list here, but to learn more about the main political parties in the UK, navigate using the tabs above.
The Conservatives were the party in Government in the UK between 2010 and 2024. Since Autumn 2022, the party has been led by Rishi Sunak. Mr Sunak has indicated he will stand down from the party in Autumn 2024 once a new leader has been elected.
Founded in 1834, the party is currently the Official Opposition in the House of Commons with 121 Members of Parliament. As of 2019, the party had 191,000 members. Conservative Prime Ministers led the country for 57 years of the 20th century, including most notably Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.
The party is at the centre-right on the political spectrum. Generally, the party favours free-market economics, limiting state regulation and pursuing privatisation. The members of the party have mixed views on Brexit, but officially supported implementing the UK’s departure from the EU after the EU referendum in 2016.
You can find out more about the Conservatives on their website.
Rishi Sunak
Former UK Prime Minister & Leader of the Conservatives
Photo Credit: Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street under licence (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Labour Party is the current party of Government in the UK, winning a landslide victory in the 2024 General Election. The party was previously the official opposition in the UK since 2010.
Founded in 1900, the party has around 580,000 members and currently has 404 seats in the House of Commons. Since April 2020, the party has been led by Sir Keir Starmer.
The party grew out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. Today, it sits in the centre-left of the political spectrum. The party is the main party in the current Welsh government and the third-largest party in the Scottish Parliament. Clement Attlee’s Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfare state from 1945 to 1951. Other notable Prime Ministers from the party include Harold Wilson and Tony Blair.
The party was split over the issue of Brexit. From the late-1980s, the party has favoured free-market policies.
You can find out more information about the Labour Party on their website.
Sir Keir Starmer
Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party
The Scottish National Party is a political party in Scotland. In the UK House of Commons, it holds 9 seats of the 59 Scottish constituencies. The party campaigns for Scottish Independence from the UK but as a member of the European Union.
The SNP is against the idea of Brexit and has made this very clear in Parliament ever since the vote to leave the European Union in 2016. Scotland voted by 62% to remain in the European Union. The party also supports votes for 16 and 17-year-olds, something that already exists for some Scottish elections.
Since May 2024, John Swinney has served as the Leader of the Scottish National Party.
You can find out more about the SNP on their website.
John Swinney
Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP)
Photo: Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party and were founded in 1988. The party, which currently has 72 MPs in the UK House of Commons, sit on the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum.
The party was part of a Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition government between 2010 and 2015. The coalition damaged the party’s electoral prospects and it suffered large losses at the 2015 general election. Under the leadership of Tim Farron, Sir Vince Cable and Jo Swinson, the party refocused itself towards opposing Brexit.
Ed Davey was elected as the new leader of the Lib Dems in 2020, after Jo Swinson resigned following losing her seat in the 2019 UK General Election, and made gains in numerous by-elections. The Lib Dems achieved a record number of seats in the 2024 General Election. The Lib Dems had a memorable campaign, with Ed Davey pictured partaking in activities from paddleboarding to bungee jumping on the campaign trail.
You can find out more information about the Liberal Democrats on their website.
Ed Davey – Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Photo: Richard Townshend, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Green Party’s primary focus is to lead the fight against the climate crisis. Currently led by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, the party was founded in 1990. It has two members of the House of Lords and four members of Parliament. The party’s ideology involves a mixture of environmentalism and left-wing and centre-left economic policies.
You can find more information on the Green Party on their website.
Previously known as the Brexit Party, the party was initially founded in January 2019 to ensure the UK left the European Union. The party is currently led by Nigel Farage and in 2024, the party won 5 seats in the House of Commons.
The party stood candidates in many constituencies in the 2019 general election, but no candidates were elected as MPs. Before the UK left the European Union, the party had 23 members of the European Parliament.
The party claims that it wants to ‘change British politics for good’, although it is uncertain what role the party could play in frontline politics in the future. Other than the UK’s departure from the European Union, the party campaigned for issues in the 2019 UK General Election including related to the environment and making changes and adding guidelines to the Supreme Court.
You can find more information about the party on their website.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a political party in Northern Ireland. The party has 5 MPs in the UK Parliament. Gavin Robinson has served as interim leader of the party since March 2024.
After the 2017 UK General Election, the party was involved in a confidence and supply agreement with the Conservatives after the party (then run by Theresa May) fell short of an overall majority in the House of Commons.
You can find out more information about the DUP on their website.
Gavin Robinson
Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
Photo: David Woolfall, CC BY 3.0,
Sinn Féin is a political party in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The party is in the centre-left to left-wing of the political spectrum.
The party has 7 MPs in the UK Parliament but these members never sit in the Commons. The party aims to create a ‘United Ireland’.
You can find out more information about Sinn Féin on their website.
Mary Lou McDonald
Preisdent of Sinn Féin
Photo Credit: Oireachtas
Plaid Cymru is a political party in Wales. It currently holds 4 seats in the UK’s House of Commons.
The party had around 10,000 members in 2022. The party sits between the centre-left and the left-wing on the political spectrum. The party seeks to promote the constitutional advancement of Wales and secure the country’s independence from the UK, while remaining a member of the European Union.
You can find out more information about Plaid Cymru on their website.
Rhun ap Iorwerth
Leader of Plaid Cymru
Photo: Senedd Cymru (CC BY 4.0)
