Editing Michael Howard (section)

====2005 general election====
At the 2005 general election, Howard's Conservative Party suffered a third consecutive defeat, although the Conservatives gained 33 seats (including five from the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]) and Labour's majority shrank from 167 to 66. The Conservatives were left with 198 seats to Labour's 355. The Conservative share of the national vote increased by 0.6% from 2001 and 1.6% from 1997. The party ended with 32.4% of the total votes cast, which was within 3% of Labour on 35.2%.

The day after the election, Howard stated in a speech in the newly gained Conservative seat in [[Putney (UK Parliament constituency)|Putney]] that he would not lead the party into the next general election as, already aged 63, he would be "too old" by that stage, and that he would stand down "sooner rather than later", following a revision of the Conservative leadership electoral process. Despite Labour winning a third term in government, Howard described the election as "the beginning of a recovery" for the Conservative Party following Labour's landslide victories in 1997 and 2001.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4521941.stm | work=BBC News | title=Howard will stand down as leader | date=6 May 2005 | access-date=19 December 2011 | archive-date=16 May 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090516034013/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4521941.stm | url-status=live }}</ref>

Howard's own constituency of Folkestone and Hythe had been heavily targeted by the Liberal Democrats as the most sought after prize of their failed "decapitation" strategy of seeking to gain seats from prominent Conservatives. Yet Howard almost doubled his majority to 11,680, while the Liberal Democrats saw their vote fall.