A little more information on the UK House of Commons, the lower house of the national parliament.
It consists of 650 seats, each elected from single member districts (known variously as constituencies or ridings), each with about 95,000 residents. The term of office is a maximum of 5 years; however, elections are called when the ruling party thinks the time is right, or when the government collapses as the result of losing a “no confidence” vote.
At the present time, no political party holds an absolute majority of the seats in the Commons. The largest party is the Conservatives (also known as the Tories), with 303. They formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats (56 seats), so the current governing coalition consists of 359 members. If 35 members of the coalition defected to the UKIP or sat as independents, the government would lose a “no confidence” vote, Parliament would dissolve, and a new election for all 650 members would be called (usually within a few weeks of the dissolution of the House.
There are a total of 11 parties represented in the Commons, as well as 3 independents; Labour is the big opposition party at 257 members.
Clacton is a seaside area east of London in the county of Essex.
Thank you, I am starting to understand.