General election aftermath what next for the Conservatives UKIP and Northern Ireland

Experts from the Department of Politics and International Relations have written opinion pieces for Think: Leicester where they discuss the performances of political parties in the general election and what challenges they face going forward.

Senior Lecturer Dr Richard Whitaker has written a piece on the position of the UK Independence Party post-election and the difficulties the party now faces. In the article he suggests that tensions have been apparent within the party since the election with regard to leadership, financial resources and turning votes into seats.

• Read the article 'Electoral success and internal tensions: UKIP in the aftermath of the 2015 general election' here

Dr Philip Lynch, Senior Lecturer in Politics, has written an article discussing how Prime Minister David Cameron ranks as a Conservative leader - and what he may be remembered for in the future. In the article he questions whether Cameron’s modernisation project finally delivered on its early promise, and examines the challenges the Conservative Party faces in office.

• Read the article 'The Conservatives: a victory for modernisation?' here

Lecturer Stephen Hopkins has written an article discussing how the general election impacted Northern Ireland and how the 10 Unionists in Westminster have an important role to play. During the article he explores how voting behaviour in Northern Ireland continues to be overwhelmingly dominated by the competition between and within the respective Protestant unionist and Catholic Irish nationalist ethno-national blocs and that votes for the Conservatives in Northern Ireland was a mere 1.3%. 

• Read the article 'The Westminster Election in Northern Ireland 2015' here

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