The 2008 English general elections were held on May 1st, 2008 as mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of England. The conservative Whigs, being the incumbent majority party in Parliament, won a comfortable victory to extend their majority acquired in 2005 over the liberal Labour Party. The final tally was, out of 601 seats in Parliament, 342 Whig seats to 259 Labour seats. Incumbent Prime Minister Jeremy Irons of the Whigs stood as his party leader against Labour leader Nick McDonald. Irons, however, would resign in October of that same year due to a scandal in favor of Deputy Prime Minister Hugh Grant.