British Prime Minister Theresa May
Theresa May, the United Kingdom’s Conservative prime minister, called an election she didn’t need to call. With a small majority in Parliament, she could have continued on as prime minister for three more years without having to go before voters. But lured in by massive polling leads, buoyed her opponent’s supposed unpopularity, and frustrated by Tory rebels, she rolled the dice—and lost.
| Party |
Seats |
Vote Percentage
|
| Conservatives |
318 |
42%
|
| Labour |
261 |
40% |
| Lib Dems |
12 |
7% |
| SNP |
35 |
3% |
| Green |
1 |
2% |
| UKIP |
0 |
2% |
Technically May won, in that her party won the most seats and the most votes. And the Tories will continue to govern thanks to the support of the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland. May might even be able to stay on as prime minister, for a while at least. But her dreams of an increased Tory majority to enable to her to handle Brexit as she wishes, and to pass other controversial policy proposals, is dead. And she will never contest another election.
The Labour party, on the other hand, won by losing, increasing both their seat counts and vote share in England, Scotland, and Wales. Much of the credit has to go to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who insisted on running an aggressive but positive campaign focused on left-wing economic issues and was proven correct, as Labour’s vote total increased by more in this election (compared to the last one, in 2015) than in any pair of elections since 1945.
Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party (SNP) had an even worse night than the Tories, losing 21 of their 56 seats, even including the constituency held by their party’s leader in the House of Commons, Angus Robertson. The wave of separatist spirit that swept over Scotland two years ago has receeded, and may have washed away any chance of a second independence referendum with it. All three unionist parties (Tory, Labour, LD) gained seats in Scotland at the SNP’s expense, with the Tories the biggest beneficiary on the strength of the popular Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson.
The Liberal Democrats had an odd night, losing five of their nine seats, but gaining eight new ones. Their vote share went down 1 percent, but they seem to have successfully returned to their old strategy of contesting individual seats based on the strength of their candidates.
Finally, and with good riddance, the anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) utterly collapsed. After winning almost 13 percent of the vote in 2015, UKIP became a victim of its own success once its raison d’être, Brexit, finally passed. With both Labour and the Tories committed to exiting the European Union, voters returned to Britain’s traditional parties.
We’ll have much more analysis in our upcoming International Elections Digest this Sunday.
