UK election deals May a crushing blow, blurring Brexit talks

By Reuters/Costas Pitas, Kylie MacLellan   June 9, 2017 | 02:18 pm GMT+7
UK election deals May a crushing blow, blurring Brexit talks
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labor Party, leaves his home on the morning after Britain's election in London, Britain June 9, 2017. Photo by Reuters/Neil Hall

Brexit talks are more uncertain than ever. 


With no clear winner emerging from Thursday's parliamentary election, a wounded May signaled she would fight on, despite losing her majority in the House of Commons. Her Labor rival Jeremy Corbyn said she should step down.

With 643 out of 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had won 313 seats and were therefore no longer able to reach the 326-mark they would need to command a parliamentary majority. Labor had won 260 seats.







From the E.U.'s perspective, the upset in London meant a possible delay in the start of the talks and an increased risk that negotiations would fail.

"We need a government that can act," E.U. Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "With a weak negotiating partner, there's a danger that the negotiations will turn out badly for both sides."






"May is toast"

"Whatever happens, Theresa May is toast," said Nigel Farage, former leader of the anti-E.U. party UKIP.

Sterling fell by more than two cents against the U.S. dollar, hitting an eight-week low of $1.2690, but by 06:09 GMT it had recovered to $1.2721.






With the smaller parties more closely aligned with Labor than with the Conservatives, the prospect of Corbyn becoming prime minister no longer seems fanciful.

That would make the course of Brexit even harder to predict. During his three decades on Labor’s leftist fringe, Corbyn consistently opposed European integration and denounced the EU as a corporate, capitalist body.


"What tonight is about is the rejection of Theresa May's version of extreme Brexit," said Keir Starmer, Labor’s policy chief on Brexit, saying his party wanted to retain the benefits of the European single market and customs union.

Larry the Downing Street cat sits outside Number 10, in London, Britain, June 9, 2017. Photo by Reuters/Stefan Wermuth


Potential alliances

On a nerve-racking night for the Conservatives, interior minister Amber Rudd held on to her seat by a whisker, while several junior ministers were swept away. In one of many striking moments, the party lost the seat of Canterbury for the first time in a century.

The Conservatives could potentially turn for support to Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a natural ally, projected to win 10 seats.

But Labor had potential allies too, not least the Scottish National Party (SNP) who suffered major setbacks but still won a majority of Scottish seats.

The pro-E.U., centre-left Liberal Democrats were having a mixed night. Their former leader, Nick Clegg, who was deputy prime minister from 2010 to 2015, lost his seat. But former business minister Vince Cable won his back, and party leader Tim Farron held on.

In domestic policy, Labor proposes raising taxes for the richest 5 percent of Britons, scrapping university tuition fees, investing 250 billion pounds ($315 billion) in infrastructure plans and re-nationalizing the railways and postal service.

Analysis suggested that Labor had benefited from a strong turnout among young voters. UKIP saw a collapse in its support, shedding votes evenly to the two major parties instead of overwhelmingly to the Conservatives, as pundits had expected.

“UKIP voters wanted Brexit but they also want change," Farage said.

"They are fundamentally anti-establishment in their attitudes and the vicar’s daughter (May) is very pro-establishment. And I think she came across in the campaign as not only as wooden and robotic but actually pretty insincere."

In Scotland, the pro-independence SNP were in retreat despite winning most seats. Having won all but three of Scotland's 59 seats in the British parliament in 2015, their share of the vote fell sharply and they lost seats to the Conservatives, Labor and the Liberal Democrats.

The campaign had played out differently in Scotland than elsewhere, the main faultline being the SNP's drive for a second referendum on independence from Britain, having lost a previous plebiscite in 2014.

SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it had been a disappointing night for her party, while Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said Sturgeon should take the prospect of a new independence referendum off the table.

Tags: UK election
go to top