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What if the outcome of the 2005 UK election had been a hung parliament? The election was relatively close in the popular vote with Labour winning with just 35% and by a margin of under 3%, however the Tories were unable to effectively seize on Blair and Labour's unpopularity and Tony Blair returned to office with a reduced majority. I heard in an article recently that the Tory campaign in 2005 was one of the worst in recent history, except of course for the more recent Tory campaign. That is backed up from what I've read in Back from the Brink on the Tories during the Blair-Brown years, and 2005 was far worse than they should have done given Blair's unpopularity. How could Labour have lost their majority in 2005-with the Tories led by Michael Howard and no PoD until after the 2001 election? Here's a wikibox I made for this scenario.

The Sinn Fein MPs mean Labour still has a de-facto majority but the result is a disaster for Labour and Blair. Likely Blair would be forced to resign, I highlighted this with the PM Gordon Brown. It could be even worse for Blair than for May as while May was only expected to win around 400 seats, Labour had over 400 seats and there is an easy alternative in Brown to Blair. What would be the effects of this scenario? Would the LibDems emerge as kingmakers in the parliament? Or would an election occur soon afterwards and before the end of the parliament, perhaps in 2006 as in the infobox? How would the Tories be effected by such a result? What would be the effects on UK politics? What if?
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