Hung parliament sparks calls for May’s removal
AFTER a long night of counting, the verdict was official – it was impossible for the Conservatives to achieve a majority, resulting in Britain having a hung parliament.
“It is definitely a hung parliament,” the BBC declared just before 6am local time.
It was an outcome exit polls had shockingly forecast several hours earlier.
The result is Prime Minister Theresa May’s worst nightmare. She has been met with calls for her to stand down amid the Tories’ election disaster, with Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn saying “it’s enough for her to go”.
With 646 seats out of 650 counted, the Conservatives had 315 seats and the opposition Labour Party 261.
Mrs May was holed up with her aides, her leadership under enormous pressure as the post-mortem began on how the Tories got it so wrong.
At the declaration of her constituency, Mrs May was asked by a reporter “are you going to resign?” before it was announced she had retained her seat of Maidenhead. But Mrs May insisted “the full picture had not emerged”.
“At this time, more than
anything else, this country needs a period of stability,” she said.
“And if, as the indications have shown, and this is correct, that the Conservative party has won the most seats, and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do, so that we can all go forward as one country together.
“My resolve is what it has always been.”
After being re-elected in
Islington, Mr Corbyn said: “The Prime Minister called the election because she wanted a mandate.
“Well the mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough for her to go actually.
“What’s happened is, people have said they’ve had quite enough of austerity politics, they’ve had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools, our
education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society.”
Mrs May called the snap election on April 18, ostensibly to clear obstructions ahead of the start of formal Brexit negotiations. At the time the Tories were leading Labour by 20 points.
During the campaign, Ms May warned that if she lost only a few seats it could open the way for Mr Corbyn to take office in a coalition with the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats.