U.K. Mayday
BRITAIN WAS THROWN into political chaos Thursday after Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party failed to win a majority of seats, setting the country’s government on the road to a hung Parliament.
The election, a referendum on last year’s Brexit vote and the country’s terrorist strategy in the wake of recent attacks in London and Manchester, was considered a blow to the woman who just days ago said, “Enough is enough.”
In Britain’s parliamentary system, if a party wins 326 seats in the House of Commons, its leader becomes prime minister and can form a government.
According to exit poll estimates, May’s Conservatives will get 314 seats and the Labor Party 266.
The results mean a loss of 17 seats for the Conservatives, and a gain of 34 seats for Labor.
The absence of a majority would require the formation of a coalition government.
May called for a snap election three years early in the hope of increasing her majority.
But that appeared to backfire as rival groups picked up votes she was hoping to use as a stronger mandate for upcoming negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Brexit negotiations are scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. May was personally against Britain’s exit from the European Union, but she benefited from the fallout after her predecessor, David Cameron, resigned in the wake of the June 2016 referendum.
Official election results are expected early Friday morning.
The British pound took a hit and tumbled 1.6%, to $1.27, after exit polls projected Conservatives won’t get a majority.
The tentative results had political sharks circling.
Labor Party candidate Jeremy Corbyn said that the results are evidence May, 60, should step down.
“The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate,” he said, according to The Guardian.
“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.”
Under her six-year tenure as home secretary before becoming prime minister, the number of police across the United Kingdom was reduced by 20,000, a point emphasized in recent weeks as Britain reeled from terror attacks in London and Manchester.
This week, May promised that if she wins she will crack down on extremism — even at the expense of human rights.
May was criticized for a lackluster campaigning style — she refused to debate Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party — and for a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their care. She was also forced to deal with another campaign problem — President Trump. After the President’s Twitter rant against London Mayor Sadiq Khan, May felt pressure to distance herself from Trump.
There were fleeting moments of levity on Thursday thanks to an array of fringe candidates.
In each constituency, all the candidates line up on stage while the results are announced.
May easily won her Maidenhead constituency, but looked grim as her local victory was announced and she shared a stage with a man dressed as Elmo, Howling (Laud) Hope of the Monster Raving Loony Party and Lord Buckethead, a towering figure in black with a pail on his head.
“The country needs a period of stability and whatever the results are the Conservative Party will ensure we fulfil our duty in ensuring that stability so that we can all, as one country, go forward together,” a somber-sounding May said.