The 1999 English general elections were held on May 2nd, 1999 as per the mandate of the Constitution of the Republic of England that an election be held every three years on the first Sunday of May. All 601 seats in the House of Commons were contested. Going into the election, the incumbent government had 360 seats against 241 for Labour. Labour had lost a net of two seats in by-elections in 1997 and 1998 after having initially had 243 seats in the __th Parliament immediately following the 1996 election.