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Political Parties:
UK has a parliamentary system as explained above. This system is built on the concept of "first past the post" which describes the British electoral system where the Political party who wins the majority of votes in the elections takes the lead even if they surpass the other parties with one vote. On Election Day, voters receive a ballot paper with a list of candidates. As only one MP will represent the area, each party has only one candidate to choose from. Voters put a cross next to their favourite candidate. But if they think their favourite has a low chance of winning, they may put a cross next to one they like with a better chance of winning.

• how are first Past the Post votes counted?
  During a General Election, 650 constituencies across the country each hold separate contests. To become an MP, a candidate needs the largest number of votes in their area. This means every MP has a different level of local support. In many areas, the majority of people will not have voted for their MP. Even if millions of voters support the same party, if they are thinly spread out they may only get the largest number of votes in a couple of these contests. Tens of thousands of voters supporting the same party and living in the same area will end up with more MPs. This means the number of MPs a party has in parliament rarely matches their popularity with the public. Features and effects:
  This tends to generate two large parties, as small parties without a geographical base find it hard to win seats.With a geographical base, parties that are small UK-wide can still do very well. This tends to mean that Westminster's electoral system benefits nationalist parties. For instance, half of Scottish voters voted for the SNP in 2015, but the SNP won 95 percent of Scotland's seats. Westminster's First Past the Post voting system usually allows parties to form a government on their own. But, these governments may only have the support of 35 percent (Labour 2005), a record low, or 37 percent (Conservative 2015) of the country. Westminster's voting system creates two sorts of areas. "Safe seats', with such a low chance of changing hands that there is no point in campaigning, and 'swing seats', that could change hands. As parties want to get as many MPs as possible, parties prioritise voters who might change their minds who live in swing seats. Parties design their manifestos to appeal to voters in swing seats, and spend the majoríty of their funds campaigning in them. But, policies designed to appeal to voters in these seats may not help voters in the rest of the country. Voters who live in safe seats can feel ignored by politicians.