Some 32 million people voted in Thursday’s election, with turnout of 69 per cent the highest since 1997.
The development is an embarrassing turn for the British Prime Minister, who called the vote three years earlier than required, in a bid to give her a strong position in Brexit negotiations.
The election had been classified as a “Brexit election” and the result is being seen as giving hope to the 48 per cent who had voted to remain in the European Union in the June 2016 referendum and a rejection of May’s so-called “hard Brexit” stance. But May soldiered on Friday, re-appointing senior ministers to her Cabinet and holding talks with a small Northern Irish party about shoring up her minority government. Conservatives continue to be the largest party in the UK.
May attempted to portray Brexit as essentially a done deal.
Former Conservative minister Anna Soubry added that the premier “is in a very hard place. she now has to obviously consider her position”. Her Conservative Party had a comfortable lead in the polls at that time.
With Brexit talks due to start in just 10 days’ time, Brussels appeared to be braced for them to be pushed back.
Kai Ryssdal: I think we ought to start probably, with a definition of terms here, as to what happens now with Brexit. “Do your best to avoid a “no deal” as result of ‘no negotiations'”.
May faced pressure to quit from opposition parties after a troubled campaign overshadowed by two terror attacks, but said Britain “needs a period of stability“. “Whoever takes over has to understand campaigning is important”, he told AFP in London. A surprise resurgence by the Labour Party gave the main opposition party 261 seats, followed by the pro-independence Scottish National Party on 34.
To reach a majority, a party has to secure 326 seats – while the Conservatives have secure 310 seats, the Labour party is behind at 258 seats.
With this election result, she will not be able to achieve any of her objectives. “Just look across the channel at Britain”.
But in one of the most sensational nights in British electoral history, a resurgent Labour Party denied her an outright win, throwing the country into political turmoil. Many analysts said it was unlikely May could remain leader for long now that her authority has been eroded.
European Union leaders expressed fears that Mrs May’s shock loss of her majority would delay the Brexit talks, due to begin on June 19, and so raise the risk of negotiations failing. In fact, without seriously analyzing the results, the media have all but joined Labour politicians in calling for British Prime Minister Teresa May to resign.
The second best, viewed as nearly as unlikely, was a hung parliament. By a happy accident, someone leaked the manifesto of the Labour party. May’s populist “red Tory” program controls the right; Corbyn’s vision of big government rules the left. Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving a concert in Manchester, and five people died during a vehicle and knife attack near Parliament on March 22.
Liberal Democrats gained four seats to amass 12 MPs, but lost its former leader and ex-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in perhaps the highest-profile casualty in a night of stunning results.
But despite agreeing to talk with the Tories, the DUP stopped short of agreeing to enter a formal coalition – meaning the pact is far from “strong and stable”.
“There will be no deals, no coalitions and no confidence and supply arrangements”, he said.
“There’s a possibility of voting the Queen’s Speech down and we’re going to push that all the way”.
The party is now more secular and attracts a wider demographic than when it was founded, shifting from fundamentalist outsider to political pragmatists.
“We will work with others, if it is at all possible, to keep the Tories out of government”.
“We must in my view seek to deliver an open Brexit, not a closed one, which puts our countrys economic growth first”, Davidson said.