Wednesday, May 31, 2017



Backfired

When Theresa May called a snap election in violation of the promise of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, the aim was to strengthen her party's majority. Now, it looks like that move has backfired:

Britain could be on course for a hung parliament in nine days’ time, according to a new projection that suggests the Conservatives could fall 16 seats short of an overall majority.

The seat-by-seat prediction by YouGov for The Times suggests that the Conservatives are on course to win 310 seats at the election – short of an absolute majority of 326 seats needed to form a Government.

[...]

It also claims Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party could be in line to gain 29 seats on the last election with 257, with the Liberal Democrats on 10 and the SNP down four seats on 50.


This doesn't mean the Tories will be out - they may be able to cobble together a majority with the Northern Ireland parties. It also doesn't mean Labour will be in - they've stupidly ruled out any deal with the SNP, despite that being the only way they can now gain power. But it is going to mean that the Conservatives' hard Brexit approach is going to have to change and instead they are going to have to seek consensus with other parties. Assuming of course that this projection is remotely accurate.