China Daily Global Edition (USA)
May’s UK election gambit may fall short
LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May spectacularly lost her electoral gamble, according to an exit poll that suggested her Conservatives would fall short of a majority in parliament, throwing her Brexit plans into disarray.
The exit poll predicted the Conservatives would win 314 seats in the 650-member parliament and the leftist opposition Labour Party 266 — a “hung Parliament” with no clear winner.
May unexpectedly called the snap election seven weeks ago to increase the slim majority she had inherited from predecessor David Cameron and strengthen her hand before launching into arduous divorce talks with the European Union, set to start in just over a week.
Instead, if the exit poll showing strong gains for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is anywhere near accurate, she risks losing power in what would be an ignominious end to her 11 months at Number 10 Downing Street.
Even if the exit poll has underestimated the number of Conservative seats, as it did in 2015, and the party ends up with a slim majority, May will be so weakened that she may not be able to keep the job.
“MAYHEM” screamed the headline in the tabloid Sun newspaper.
“Britain on a knife edge,” said the Daily Mail.
The BBC reported that 76 seats appeared too close to call. As the first results came in, it appeared that anti-EU party UKIP had lost a large chunk of its vote share, which was split evenly between the Conservatives and Labour. Pundits had expected the UKIP vote to go strongly to the Conservatives.
Until the final results become clear, it is hard to predict which party might end up leading the next government and steering Britain into the Brexit talks.
Political deadlock could derail negotiations with the other 27 EU countries ahead of Britain’s exit from the bloc, due in March 2019, before they even begin in earnest.
Brexit talks were scheduled to start on June 19, but could now be delayed, a source of uncertainty for investors.