MAY REELING AFTER POLL GAMBIT FAIL
Brit PM tries to regroup
LONDON — In a political drama both brutal and surreal, British Prime Minister Theresa May tried yesterday to carry on with the business of governing as usual, while her Conservative Party reeled from losing its parliamentary majority and her opponents demanded she resign.
An election that May called to strengthen her hand as Britain leaves the European Union ended with her political authority obliterated, her days in office likely numbered and the path to Brexit more muddied than ever.
Meanwhile, the supposed loser, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, savored a surprisingly strong result and basked in the adulation of an energized, youthful base.
British newspapers summed it up in a word: Mayhem.
The Conservatives built their election campaign around May’s ostensible strengths as a “strong and stable” leader, and the outcome is a personal slap in the face. But May soldiered on yesterday, re-appointing senior ministers to her Cabinet and holding talks with a small Northern Irish party about shoring up her minority government.
“I obviously wanted a different result last night,” a grim-faced May acknowledged, promising she would “reflect on what happened.”
With results in from all 650 House of Commons seats after Thursday’s vote, May’s bruised Conservatives had 318 — short of the 326 they needed for an outright majority and well down from the 330 seats they had before May’s roll of the electoral dice.
Labour had 262, up from 229, and the Scottish National Party 35, a loss of about 20 seats that complicates the party’s plans to push for independence.
Speaking outside 10 Downing St., May promised to form “a government that can provide certainty.”
She said the government would start Brexit negotiations with the EU as scheduled in 10 days.
“This government will guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks ... and deliver on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union,” she said after visiting Buckingham Palace to inform Queen Elizabeth II that she would try to form a new government.
May’s snap election call was the second time that a Conservative gamble on the issue of Britain’s relations with Europe backfired. Her predecessor, David Cameron, first asked British voters to decide in 2016 whether to leave the EU. When voters stunned him and Europe by voting to leave, he resigned, leaving May to deal with the mess.