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Gordon Brown and Labor Party suffered a major defeat to David Cameron and the Tories. A poor result for Labor not witnessed for 80 years. Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats won big during the three election debates and expectations were high, however these were not converted into actual votes in yesterday’s British parliamentary election. Most likely what occurred, a large number of voters (≈ 30%) were undecided as they walked into the voting booth and pulled the lever for the opposition Tory Party. A strategic choice to hand the mandate to Cameron over incumbent Brown. A popular vote of 23% for the Liberal Democrats translated into a disappointing 8% representation by seats in the Lower House. [District representation in UK elections] I don’t agree with ChrisCook @ET who argues that no mandate was given by the electorate – Time for Change. Brown lost big, therefore Labor should not hang onto power.
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BBC Election 2010 National results
More info and links to come …
Not since the defeat of the conservative incumbent Edward Heath in 1974, has a UK election ended in a constitutional dead-lock. Just like Heath, the election result gives Gordon Brown an opportunity to try to form a coalition to obtain a majority of seats in parliament. However, the immense defeat of Labor as seen in the popular vote results would be a mockery of the clear signal: the British voters wants Brown out.
Seats Net Popular Vote %
Conservative 306 +97 10,706,5647 36.1
Labour 258 -91 8,4604,358 29.0
Liberal Democrat 57 -5 6,6827,938 23.0
Dem. Unionist 8 -1 168,216 0.6
Scottish National 6 0 491,386 1.7
This results in a position of power for the third party, the Liberal Democrats in the forthcoming negotiations for the country’s leadership.
Excellent coverage and discussion @ET – UK Election Results Thread 2
(The Guardian) – Nick Clegg will begin the process of consultation with his party tomorrow as he considers rival offers from the two main parties over the possibility of propping up a government in a hung parliament.
Tomorrow he will begin the critical canvassing of his new MPs and ruling executive, from whom he must receive the support of at least three-quarters before he does anything that might jeopardise the party’s independence.
At the Local Government Association in Westminster’s Smith Square at noon, Clegg will welcome all his MPs to the Commons and take views and advice on the first offer that his party has received from the Tory leader, David Cameron.
After that meeting, at 5pm Clegg will meet the Lib Dem federal executive.
Today Clegg held meetings with David Laws, Ros Scott, Danny Alexander, Lord McNally, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne. Face-to-face talks then took place between teams from both sides: for the Lib Dems, Alexander, Laws and Huhne took part, and for the Conservatives, George Osborne, Oliver Letwin and William Hague.
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(Scotsman) – The Tories closed with 306 seats, 20 short of a majority. Labour ended with 258 seats, with the Lib Dems on 57, having failed to capitalise on their poll surge during the campaign. In Scotland, Labour won 41 seats, the Lib Dems 11, the SNP 6 and the Tories just one. For the first time in 36 years, the country awoke after election day to discover that they had failed to return a clear result.
The first decisive move of the day came just before 10am when Mr Clegg spoke to reporters outside Lib Dem headquarters in London. As Labour ministers were openly talking up the prospect of a Lib Dem-Labour deal, Mr Clegg dramatically knocked it back, saying he was duty-bound to talk to the biggest party first.
“It is now for the Conservative Party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest,” he said.
That game-changing intervention altered the political calculus immediately and, within hours, Mr Brown emerged from Downing Street to acknowledge he was now at the mercy of events, saying he “completely respected” Mr Clegg’s decision to speak to Mr Cameron first.
Gordon Brown the caretaker PM
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
The people have spoken, Gordon Brown was handed a defeat with a message for change. The only option is minority rule for the Conservatives, to be kept in power by a deal with the Liberal Democrats of Nick Clegg.
(Scotsman) – The deal which looks increasingly likely is a “confidence and supply” arrangement under which the Lib Dems would agree to abstain from crucial votes in the Commons, thereby preventing the Conservative government from falling.
The Lib Dems would demand that such an agreement has a fixed time-scale, perhaps of about two years, so that there can be no chance of Cameron attempting to seek a fresh election.
In unprecedented scenes in London yesterday, 1,000 people took to the streets to demand electoral reform. They marched to the building where Clegg was holding talks with colleagues, and handed in a petition urging him not to sell out to the Tories.
Responding to the protest, Clegg said: “It’s in the interests of everybody in Britain for us to use this opportunity to usher in a new politics after the discredited politics of the past. The fact that you are here because you care so much about political reform is absolutely wonderful.”
A deal without proportional representation, which would give the Lib Dems more seats to reflect their share of the vote, would be a major disappointment for activists, who believe they have their best chance for 35 years to deliver a fairer electoral system.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
(Times Online) Apr. 25, 2010 – If the Tories come close to the 326 seats needed for an overall majority, Cameron would hope for a deal giving him a minority government with selective support from the Lib Dems. The parties’ agendas are so far apart on issues such as Trident and tax reform that few on either side believe a formal coalition could last for long.
Instead, a “confidence and supply agreement” would mean that Clegg would agree to support Cameron’s first budget in return for policy concessions in the Tories’ Queen’s speech.
When it comes to Labour, the barrier to any deal with the Lib Dems is not policy but personality. Clegg has made it clear that he does not want to go into a formal partnership with Brown.
The Lib Dem leader was bruised by his brief experience trying to seek cross-party consensus with the prime minister over MPs’ expenses. Brown ignored Clegg’s ideas and tried to ram through his own doomed reforms. Clegg is in no mood to repeat his error and Labour is divided over how to respond to the challenge.
Case for electoral reform has grown stronger
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."