Can someone please explain to me what will happen if there is a hung parliament?

[TheoriginalLEM]

What if no one gets a majority?

Do they all get together in a huddle and decide who is going to team up with who to form a majority govt? Strikes me that Nick (sell your soul to the devil) Clegg is in a pretty powerful position?

Or have i misunderstood?

[Tiredemma]

More powerful in 2010- Clegg actually had talks with the Labour party but part of the 'deal' would be that Gordon Brown not be PM.

have a google- lots of interesting stuff about a hung parliament - especially the immediate few days after the 2010 GE

[MinesAPintOfTea]

Exactly what happened last time. The key people in all the parties will try and negotiate to form a stable government. If there's really no agreement then a new election will be called.

DC will remain PM until replaced.

[TheoriginalLEM]

It kind of negates the election though doesn't it?

[MinesAPintOfTea]

Not really. We decide who will represent us as a nation. If no one party represents the nation well enough then a mixed bag of compromise might be a better representation

[Frostox]

So I've found those silly 'build a majority' things really helpful in (better) understanding what needs to happen next - try this one!

www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2015/may/07/election-2015-interactive-coalition-builder#?lab+snp+green

Essentially they need 326 seats for a majority that can't just be ousted by a vote of no confidence. So playing with that, I made a wee majority with labour, SNP and a green to mean that even if all Tories, lib dems, DUP & UKIP voted against them they couldn't outvote them. I think! And I think that it can either be a formal coalition like the Tories and LDs did, or just a looser agreement.

As I understand it, it's traditionally the party with the most seats that gets the first chance to build a majority like that. Or the incumbent, I'm not actually sure.

[RedToothBrush]

We lock all 650 MPs in a room, and see who survives.

Alternatively we could have a Constitutional Crisis and you can read all about how that might happen here

[TheoriginalLEM]

oooh, i did that frostox, so does that mean that the labour party wont be able to form a majority with the lib dems as things stand at present? Interesting as he has said he wont go in with SNP

[Sixweekstowait]

There are very clear rules that DC signed up to in 2010 and is now apparently wanting to renege on Watch for Gus O'Donnel taking to the airwaves shortly