On May 11, filing closed for candidates running for House of Commons in the United Kingdom. The number of seats is 650. This story has a list of all the candidates. The number of nominees for each of the most important parties is: Conservative 637, Labour 631, Liberal Democrat 629, Green 468, UKIP 377, Scottish National 59, Plaid Cymru 40.
The Green Party and UKIP withdrew some of their candidates in swing seats, so as to help one of the larger parties win in those districts.
The OMRLP, Yorkshire Party, Pirate, UUP, DUP, SDLP, APNI, BNP, and Sinn Fein each have more than 10 candidates.
Just to explain some of the maths
There are 650 seats in Parliament.
18 of which are in Northern Ireland. Traditionally the major parties do not stand there (in favour of their ‘sister’ parties) but in the past few election the Tories have stood in some seats there.
SNP and Plaid only stand in Scotland and Wales respectivly. So 59 and 40 respectivly. Though there is nothing stopping them standing anywhere else – and they did receive offers!
And traditionally the major parties do not stand in the Speakers seat if they are standing for re-election but the Greens and UKIP are this year. (note our Speaker isn’t the same as yours in the US)
So Labour are standing in the maximum number of seats possible in Great Britain – 631 (650-18-1). So are the Tories but they are standing in a few in NI (though less than in 2015)
Lib Dem, Green and UKIP are not putting up a full slate. Though the Greens and UKIP didn’t in 2015 either. The Greens are putting up 105 less this time and UKIP 247 less.
The Lib Dems are not standing in my seat in Brighton Pavilion for example (no idea about the other one they aren’t) but they are in Kemptown next door even though Labour are best placed to beat the Tories and UKIP aren’t standing. In Hove the Lib Dems and the Greens are standing despite Labour only having a majority of 1,236 over the Tories.
One seat of note is Stockton South (and not just because it is my home town) where UKIP are standing. The Tory there was the one who introduced the early version of the referendum bill as a private members measure (with obviousl government support). Perhaps they don’t think he’s sufficiently Euro sceptic!
SDLP and APNI might better be considered step-sisters. Residents of Northern Ireland are forbidden to be members of Labour, and thus may not vote for the party leader.
Jim that is 100% wrong.
There is no bar on people in Northern Ireland joining the Labour Party though it was the rule for a long time but it changed about 15 years ago.
Prior to that people asking about joining the party were advised to join the SDLP.
Almost 800 (out of ~3,000) members voted in the last leadership election.
I had not realized the ban had been removed. It occurred in 2003 after the party was sued, and they were given legal advice that the ban was not defensible. Labour is not a registered party in Northern Ireland, and they have not permitted candidates to run in the area. Leaders of the NI Labour organization (non-registered) say that SDLP is not really a sister party of Labour “UK” because of their disparate political positions.