One thing that's been noted about this election is the unusual disparity in ranges of numbers of votes required to secure seats between parties. To some extent this is because the SNP had a "roaring" good election and won 56 out of 59 seats that they contested (giving them very little chance to "waste" votes). On the other side UKIP contested an awful lot of seats for very little effect; but here I present this figures in a very slightly easier to read form. Maybe later I'll produce an infographic.
For reasons the Speaker, if seeking reelection as Speaker, is traditionally regarded as neutral and not contested (in fact both UKIP and Green did contest his seat); so I'm taking my base unit as the number of votes required to elect one John Bercow - 34,617. For each of the parties who won at least one seat, how many Bercows did it take to elect each MP on average? These figures have been slightly rounded for presentation
| Party | Bercows |
|---|---|
| Speaker | 1 |
| Conservative | 1 |
| DUP | ⅔ |
| Green Party | 33⅖ |
| Labour | 1⅙ |
| Liberal Democrat | 8¾ |
| Plaid Cymru | 1¾ |
| SDLP | 1 |
| SNP | ¾ |
| Sinn Fein | 1¼ |
| UKIP | 112⅛ |
| UUP | 1⅔ |
In addition the Alliance Party got 1¾ Bercows and no seat, and the TUSC got just over 1 Bercow and no seat. Other candidates between them got 6¼ Bercows without any seats.
Labour's 2005 victory rates 0.75 Bercows per MP, though over 1.75 Martins (who was Speaker in 2005). However, this may be related to a) low turnout in Glasgow North-East and b) the fact that the Speaker was opposed by the SNP (whose constitution requires them to fight every Scottish seat, apparently).