On Thursday, United Kingdom voters will elect all 650 members of the all-important House of Commons for the first time since last summer’s “Brexit” referendum vote to leave the European Union. In April, Prime Minister Theresa May called early elections three years ahead of schedule, and her Conservative Party is looking to expand the modest majority it won in 2015. Just like the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.K. elects one member per district, and whichever candidate wins the most votes prevails.
As the main opposition party, the center-left Labour Party under leftist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn is aiming to oust May. Labour has narrowed the gap considerably in polls since April, but still trails in nearly all of them, often decisively so. Meanwhile, the pro-independence center-left Scottish National Party is defending its near sweep of Scotland from 2015, while the centrist Liberal Democrats and right-wing populist UK Independence Party are struggling for relevance elsewhere. See David Beard’s Daily Kos Elections guide for more background on the election campaign in the U.K.
Polls close today at 5 PM ET, and exit polls will be published shortly afterward. Unlike in the U.S., every seat (called constituencies) will wait until all its votes are counted before announcing the results. The Press Association has a timeline estimating when each constituency will declare its results, while the New Statesman has put together a guide on which key races to watch and how to interpret them (note that the U.K. runs five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time).
Results: BBC | The Guardian
Friday, Jun 9, 2017 · 12:35:56 AM +00:00
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David Beard
The number to watch out for is 312 — that’s likely the number of seats the Tories need to be able to hold onto power. With that they can add on 10 NI Unionist votes, with the absence of Sinn Fein allowing 322 to be a function majority. Short of that, a Tory government becomes really tricky.
Friday, Jun 9, 2017 · 1:28:55 AM +00:00
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David Beard
The exit poll has now been updated with a small bump to the Conservatives: Tories 322, Labour 261, SNP 32, LD 13. This would allow the Tories to continue to govern with the support of the DUP from Northern Ireland.