A defiant Theresa May
Conservative leader needs minor party support to form government
vows to remain prime minister and lead the UK out of the European Union.
LONDON — A defiant Theresa May vowed Friday to stay on as prime minister and continue to lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union after her disastrous election gamble resulted in loss of her party’s majority in Parliament.
The ruling Conservative Party failed to secure an overall majority in parliamentary elections and the country’s ability to navigate its way successfully through complex Brexit negotiations has now been thrown into question.
With results in from all 650 House of Commons seats after Thursday’s vote, May’s party had won the largest vote share, with 318 seats, but it was short of the 326 needed to hold the majority in Parliament.
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 a majority and 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.
Despite calls for her to step down — including from opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party fared better than expected — May appeared determined to stay in her position and try to form a government with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which won 10 seats. (Unionist parties oppose Northern Ireland independence from the U.K.)
To that end, May met with Queen Elizabeth II on Friday to seek approval for her plan, then faced the country outside No. 10 Downing St., the prime minister’s official residence, with her husband by her side.
“I will now form a government,” she said. “A government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country.”
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she would work with May to see how she could bring about stability, but the fact that they were called upon to help prop up the minority government was an uneasy fit for some.
The DUP is socially conservative, anti same-sex marriage and abortion, and also has strong links to loyalist paramilitaries in Ireland. It was formed as a protest party under hardcore unionist the Rev. Ian Paisley and one of its members of Parliament was endorsed by three such organizations during this election campaign. Another MP is a climate-change denier.
Sounding defiant and talking little about Thursday night’s defeat, May said she would continue to deliver on last June’s referendum result and lead the country through crucial negotiations to end Britain’s decades-old membership in the European Union. Talks are scheduled to begin in just 10 days’ time.
But how exactly she plans to forge ahead with Brexit was unclear given that she had called the election in the hope of strengthening her party’s majority from the 2015 election, where the Conservatives won 331 seats, and obtaining a clear mandate from the British public as she embarked on negotiations.
Instead, her gamble spectacularly backfired, and she not only erased the meager majority her party had, but left herself with no majority and a hung Parliament.
“It was a god-awful Conservative campaign, nothing more, nothing less,” said Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London.
May had entered the election campaign riding high and looked almost certain of success. She had a commanding lead in the polls while the opposition Labour Party was seemingly in disarray, led by a divisive leader under Corbyn.
She was reluctant to be drawn into the specifics on her Brexit strategy and her tough talk that “no deal was better than a bad deal” rang alarm bells. The Labour Party meanwhile also pledged to honor the referendum results, which in many ways made the issue over whether Brexit would happen a moot point.
Instead, Labour sought to make the election about social welfare. It focused on the faltering National Health Service, pledging to cut waiting times and dramatically increase funding. Corbyn also vowed to scrap university tuition fees, raise the minimum wage and provide free childcare to infants.