Early vote may have backfired for British leader
LONDON — The British prime minister, Theresa May, called an early general election with the single aim of increasing her majority in Parliament. Early results after the vote Thursday suggest she has failed.
As counting continued into Friday morning, the Conservatives were on course to have the most members in the 650-seat UK Parliament. But their overall majority was in doubt. Mrs. May’s future leadership of the party — and of the country — looked equally shaky.
A party needs 326 seats to form a government. The Conservatives were projected to get 318. If that were the case, said Andrew Rawnsley, political editor of the Observer newspaper, Mrs. May’s authority wouldbe “utterly shredded.”
The opposition Labour Party seems to have done better than expected. It had trailed the Tories by as many as 20 points in opinion polls at the start of the campaign. But initial results suggested Labour would hold on to its most vulnerable seats. The party was even making unexpected gains.
Labour’s success appeared to be based in part on increased turnout, particularly among
young people attracted to the party by its far-left leader, Jeremy Corbyn. “He’s harnessed an enormous protest movement,” said Lord Hain, a former Labour cabinet minister.
Mr. Corbyn had argued for an end to the Conservative’s economic austerity program. He promised to increase spending on the health service and to abolish college tuition fees. Lord Hain said Mr. Corbyn was talking about things people in Britain really care about and, “They saw him as someone speaking to their values.”
The Conservatives were widely criticized for running a poor campaign. Mrs. May wanted to focus on Brexit. But her repeated claim to be the best leader to negotiate Britain’s departure from the European Union was undermined by policy missteps and an often wooden, unnatural manner when interacting with voters.
Mrs. May announced the election three years ahead of schedule in the hope of strengthening her hand in the coming Brexit negotiations with European leaders. She argued that with a bigger majority, she would be able to speak with more authority on behalf of the British people.
It appears to have been a catastrophic miscalculation and one that could have a big impact on the Brexit talks. With no clear idea of who will lead the next British government, the tone and substance of those crucial negotiations, due to start later this month, are now in doubt.
It is not just the Conservatives who were reeling from the election results. The Scottish National Party has also lost seats.
It was starting from a record high, having won 56 out of the 59 constituencies north of the border during the last election in 2015. Among those defeated Thursday was the party’s leader at Westminster, Angus Robertson. Both Labour and the Conservatives picked up seats in Scotland. The SNP’s call for another vote on independence may have scared some voters into going back to those parties because they favor union with England.
Final results will become clear Friday. Even if they fail to get an overall majority, the Conservatives could try to continue as a minority government. A clearly shaken Mrs. May said that was her party’s intention. She said the country now needs stability more than ever and having won the most seats “it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability.”
Mrs. May made no reference to her own plans. Members of her own party are reported to be angry about the results and directing their fury at her. Mr. Corbyn has called on her to resign. He could now try to put together a minority coalition with the Liberal Democrats and the SNP. The Liberal Democrats had a relatively successful election. Former Business Secretary Vince Cable re-took the seat he had lost to the Conservatives in 2015. Afterwards, he said it was not yet clear who had won the election overall but it was clear who had lost. “That’s the Prime Minister, and she should accept the consequences,” he said.
Claire Bolderson is a British journalist and documentary maker with more than 25 years of experience at the BBC. She wrote this for the Block News Alliance, which consists of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio.