2022 UK political crisis
The 2022 UK political crisis was a political crisis in the United Kingdom. Caused by the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron on June 6th 2022 amidst mounting scandals implicating the ruling Conservative government, it saw the ascension of a brief new Conservative government, which lasted for approximately thirty-eight days before being replaced by a coalition government consisting of the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the Hanoverian Union Party.
On May 25th 2022, a report by British civil servant, Sue Gray, dubbed the "Sue Gray report" was published, severely implicating high-ranking members of the Conservative government led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Prior to this, the Prime Minister and his cabinet members have been urged to resign by a number of MPs as a result of the political scandal, known officially as Partygate, in which members of both the government and the Conservative Party were revealed to have breached various health safety protocols through a series of parties and gatherings held during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Then, beginning in early 2022, a number of MPs were reported to have begun submitting letters of no confidence, hoping to eventually force a vote of no confidence against the prime minister, whom would henceforth require support from a majority of MPs to survive a hypothetical no-confidence vote. Meanwhile, on May 28th, Markus Thierse, the leader of the Hanoverian Union Party, which had been a junior coalition partner of the Conservative Party announced his party's withdrawal from the coalition, thereby bringing the government's total seats in the House of Commons down from 418 to 391 seats. Prior to this, on June 23rd, two by-elections took place, with the Conservatives losing to both their Labour and Liberal Democrats rivals respectively.
On that same day, not long after the publishing of the report, Cameron announced that he would be officially stepping down as prime minister, thereby ending his nearly twelve-year-long time in office. Soon, a leadership contest within the Conservative Party was triggered, which saw approximately thirteen members of the Conservative Party competing for the soon-to-be vacant leadership spot. On June 6th 2022, the election finally concluded, with the former Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin securing the leadership spot. Consequently, Cameron himself promptly resigned, with McLoughlin being sworn in as the new prime minister soon afterwards.
However, just three days into the McLoughlin administration, a general election was called, and Parliament was therefore effectively dissolved. Then, on July 14th 2022, the election finally took place, with the Conservative Party losing a large amount of seats, and therefore, its majority in the House of Commons, while the rival Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats respectively, with whom they formed a "centre-left coalition" won numerous seats for themselves, although, at first, the new combined amount of total seats held by both parties failed to reach the required threshold needed to form a majority government. However, this soon changed with the inclusion of the Hanoverian Union Party, whose total number of seats in the House of Commons gave the new tripartite coalition just five seats above the required threshold of 341 seats required to form a majority government in parliament. Consequently, a day after the election, Patrick McLoughlin, whose tenure as prime minister lasted for only thirty-eight days, the shortest in British history, resigned and was succeeded by Labour leader, Keir Starmer as prime minister, while Liberal Democrats leader, Ed Davey was made the new deputy prime minister, becoming the second to do so from his own party after Nick Clegg, whom was deputy prime minister under David Cameron from 2010 to 2015.