May says she will fight on
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May will ask Queen Elizabeth today for permission to form a government after an election debacle in which her Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority.
British voters dealt her a devastating blow in the snap election she had called to strengthen her hand in Brexit talks. With no clear winner emerging from it, a wounded May signalled she would fight on.
Her Labour rival, Jeremy Corbyn, once written off by his opponents as a nohoper, said she should step down and he wanted to form a minority government.
In the aftermath of one of the most sensational nights in British electoral history, politicians and commentators called May’s decision to hold the election a colossal mistake and derided her performance on the campaign trail.
She appeared determined to tough it out, however.
‘‘Theresa May has no intention of announcing her resignation later today,’’ BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg told BBC radio.
With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had won 318 seats. Though the biggest single winner, they failed to reach the 326 mark they would need to command a parliamentary majority. Labour had won 261 seats.
With complex talks on Britain’s divorce from the European Union due to start in 10 days, it was unclear who would form the next government and what the direction of Brexit would be.
‘‘If . . . the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do,’’ a grimfaced May said after winning her own parliamentary seat of Maidenhead, near London.
Sky News reported that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was considering supporting the Conservatives under a ‘‘confidence and supply’’ agreement in Parliament. Its 10 seats could help the Conservatives hit the 326 seats needed for a majority.
However, the DUP said last night it would not comment on the report.
‘‘We have not made any comment and won’t until later on today,’’ a spokeswoman told Reuters.
After winning his own seat in north London, Corbyn said May’s attempt to win a bigger mandate had backfired.
‘‘The mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence,’’ he said. ‘‘I would have thought that’s enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country.’’
Asked whether Brexit negotiations should be delayed, Corbyn told Sky News: ‘‘They’re going to have to go ahead because Article 50 has been invoked. The government in office in 11 days’ time will have to conduct those Brexit negotiations.’’
‘‘Our position is very clear: we want a jobsfirst Brexit. Therefore, the most important thing is the trade deal with Europe.’’
Corbyn said Labour was ready to lead a minority government.
Chief among its potential allies would be the Scottish National Party (SNP), which suffered major setbacks but still won a majority of Scottish seats.
May called the snap election seven weeks ago, when polls predicted she would massively increase the slim majority she had inherited from predecessor David Cameron.
She spent the campaign denouncing Corbyn as the weak leader of a spendthrift party that would crash Britain’s economy and flounder in Brexit talks, while she would provide ‘‘strong and stable leadership’’ to clinch a good deal for Britain.
But her campaign unravelled after a policy Uturn on care for the elderly, while Corbyn’s oldschool socialist platform and more impassioned campaigning style won wider support than anyone had foreseen.
In the late stages of the campaign, Britain was hit by two Islamist militant attacks that killed 30 people in Manchester and London, temporarily shifting the focus on to security issues.
That did not help May, who in her previous role as interior minister for six years had overseen cuts in the number of police officers. She sought to deflect pressure on to Corbyn, arguing he had a weak record on security matters.
The smaller parties are more closely aligned with Labour than with the Conservatives, which makes the prospect of Corbyn becoming prime minister no longer fanciful.
That would make the course of Brexit even harder to predict. During his three decades on Labour’s leftist fringe, Corbyn consistently opposed European integration and denounced the EU as a corporate, capitalist body.
As party leader, Corbyn unenthusiastically campaigned for Britain to remain in the bloc, but has said Labour would deliver Brexit if in power, albeit with very different priorities from those stated by May.
‘‘What tonight is about is the rejection of Theresa May’s version of extreme Brexit,’’ Keir Starmer, Labour’s policy chief on Brexit, said, adding his party wanted to retain the benefits of the European single market and customs union.
Analysis suggested Labour had benefited from a strong turnout among young voters.
The campaign had played out differently in Scotland, the main faultline being the SNP’s drive for a second referendum on independence from Britain, having lost a plebiscite in 2014.
SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it had been a disappointing night for her party, which lost seats to the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said Sturgeon should take the prospect of a new independence referendum off the table. — Reuters
❛ I think Theresa May has won own goal of
the season❜
— former England striker and Match
Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker