HIGHLIGHTS – AND LOWLIGHTS – OF THE U.K. ELECTION.
72
The percentage of 18-25 year olds who voted Labour. Young once apathetic Britons rallied behind Jeremy Corbyn’s leftist battle cry and propelled the anti-May anthem “Liar, Liar” to the top of the pop charts with 2.6 million YouTube views. “I wanted to see Theresa May get a bit of a kicking,” said George Hames, 20, who voted for Labour. “The way Corbyn has been able to paint a contrast between himself and May: He’s given people something to vote for, not just pragmatically, but because they think it can change the world.” Rhammel Afflick, a representative for the British Youth Council, “One of the reasons why youth turnout was so high this time is that young people recognized how important the decision to leave the European Union really was. And young people finally also realized that they could really influence the outcome of the election.”
318 AND 262
With all the seats finally counted, the Tories had 318 seats (down from 330 and a lot less than the 400 plus seats that polling at the beginning of the election suggested they might win). Labour won 262 seats, up from 229.
ARLENE FOSTER
The Democratic Unionist Party leader in Northern Ireland, who was almost killed when the IRA bombed her school bus, emerged as the power behind the throne on Friday with her party potentially holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. May suggested that the Tories had done a deal with the DUP — 10 seats — to form a coalition government (326 is needed for a majority). However, the DUP said talks were still ongoing. Foster has been leader of the DUP since December 2015 and served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from January 2016. Those who know her say her tough, determined character was forged by the experiences of her childhood when, at the age of eight, her father, a parttime policeman, was shot and injured by the IRA on the family farm. When she was a teenager in 1988, a bomb exploded under her school bus as it was being driven by a part-time soldier in the Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment. When asked if May would be able to remain in her post, Foster told the BBC on Friday, “I think it will be difficult for her to survive.”
BREXIT
European Union leaders piled pressure on Britain to start Brexit negotiations, as they sought to take advantage of the UK’s political predicament. Even as the prime minister struggled to form a minority government, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, openly taunted Theresa May that the EU side was ready to “open negotiations tomorrow morning at half past nine”. Before the election, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, had said that talks should begin on June 19 — a date May had appeared to endorse on the campaign trail — but which EU sources conceded now looks increasingly unrealistic. One senior EU aide said May “no longer had any credibility” in Brussels. She also suffered a personal mauling in the continental press, with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine dubbing her the “wobbly woman” while Italy’s Corriere della Sera opined that May is “no Margaret Thatcher.” Die Welt, echoing May’s claim about a “hard Brexit” said, “Brexit means Brexit — so much for that.” Carl Bildt, a former Swedish foreign minister, wrote on Twitter, “Could be messy for the United Kingdom in the years ahead. One mess risks following another. Price to be paid for lack of true leadership.”
NEXT LEADER?
“The knives are sharpening, and the assassins are jostling for position,” wrote The Daily Telegraph on moves to oust Theresa May. Bookmakers made Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the man who championed Brexit, the 2-1 favourite to replace her. Another name being highlighted is Amber Rudd, a former investment banker who plays a key role in running Britain’s counter-terrorism efforts, police forces and immigration policies.