The 2019 result will soon be known with the Tories and Labour desperate to claim a majority and push through their policies.
But exactly how many seats do the main parties require to win the keys to 10 Downing Street?
There are 650 MPs in The House of Commons so you only need 326 for a majority… right?
Wrong!
At the 2017 general election Sinn Fein won seven seats in Northern Ireland but the Irish Republican party’s MPs refuse to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen so they don’t take their seats.
If Sinn Fein win the same number of seats in this election then that means there are 643 MPs in the House of Commons and you only need 322 for a majority… right?
Wrong!
There is another factor that impinges on a party’s hopes of having a workable majority.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has recently taken over from former Tory MP John Bercow and if he is re-elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Chorley he will refrain from voting in the House of Commons except in a few rare circumstances.
By convention the speaker’s three deputies also do not vote. So that means that – assuming Sinn Fein win seven seats again – there are effectively 639 MPs at play.
And that means that a party need 320 MPs too create a working majority.
At the last election the Conservatives under Theresa May won 317 seats and had to rely on the support of the DUP to form a Government.
Another hung parliament could be in the offing.
Since 1945 there have only been three hung parliaments after an election in the UK.
The first was in February 1974, the next was May 2010, with June 2017 being the last.
We will if December 2019 joins that list.
