Is the two-party political system dead? In last week’s elections, for the first time ever, five parties each won more than 10% of the vote. Experts say we are entering uncharted waters.
‘Insurgent’ parties reshape UK map
Green light: Green Party leader Zak Polanski celebrates a breakthrough moment for his party as they secure a significant portion of the vote, signalling a major shift in England's political landscape. Glossary
Duopoly - A situation where two large groups or parties have complete control over something.
Reform UK - Officially Reform UK, a political party set up in 2018 as the Brexit Party. Its most prominent figure is Nigel Farage.
Labour - Britain's main left-of-centre political party.
Liberal Party - An historical British political party that was one of the two main parties before being largely replaced by the Labour Party.
Conservative party - A British political party. Members are known as Tories.
Nationalists - The Nationalists were loyal to the Chinese ruler Chiang Kai-Shek. After being defeated by the communists in the civil war, Chiang remained ruler of Taiwan until his death in 1975.
Green Party - A centre-left party largely focused on environmental politics. It formed part of a coalition government with the Social Democrats between 1998 and 2005.
Senedd - The name for the Welsh Parliament, located in Cardiff, where MSs (Members of the Senedd) meet to make laws for Wales.
Scotland - A country that is part of the United Kingdom. It covers the northern part of the island of Great Britain.
Liberal Democrats - Also known as the Lib Dems, a liberal political party in the UK.
Electoral Reform - Making changes to the way people vote or how those votes are counted to make the system fairer.
First Past the Post - A voting system in which the winner is simply whoever comes first in each area. As such, the winning party almost never has a majority of the vote, and sometimes might even win a smaller share of the vote than its opponent.
Undemocratic - Something that does not follow the principles of democracy or does not represent the will of the people.
Proportional representation - A voting system in which the winning party gets a proportion of parliamentary seats equal to its proportion of the vote.
Coalesce - When different elements or groups come together to form one single mass or whole.