Why are British election dates not as rigid as American ones? US elections are on Nov 3 every four years. But in the U.K. there was one on 2010, then no election til 2015 and then one in 2017
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There’s a deep structural difference in the way parliaments (generally) work compared to how the US government works. Parliaments are intended to have governing majorities pretty much at all times. And in the UK, only the lower house (the House of Commons) really matters and their leadership is the executive. Imagine if the Senate basically could only delay bills for a year, all the Cabinet Secretaries were congressional representatives, and the President was 100% ceremonial (but gets a crown).
So, an election happens in the UK. The largest party usually has a majority, but if they don’t they can negotiate with other parties to try to get one. The winning leader becomes prime minister and other leaders become other executive ministers. This “forms a government” and the new ministers write a speech (read out by the monarch) laying out what the government intends to get done.
But support and agendas can change. There’s a maximum of five years between elections, but they can be triggered early:
1) The government can call a “vote of confidence” to demonstrate that they still have the majority, and the opposition can call a “vote of no confidence” to demonstrate that they’ve lost it. If a majority goes against the government, either the government gets replaced by someone who does have a majority of the House of Commons, or by an election if they can’t agree on someone. This can also happen by default when certain bills fail, usually the budget.
2) The government can explicitly trigger an election. Say popular support for something has grown since the last election but parliament is resisting. The prime minister can say, “I think the people want X, you don’t, so we’re having an election to prove I’m right,” on the idea that the voters will elect a majority for X.
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