LONDON – No British political party has been able to secure an outright majority in the House of Commons and there will now be a frantic period of negotiations between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to decide the shape of the next government.
The general election has led to the first hung parliament since 1974, with the Conservatives bagging 306 seats to become the biggest party in the 650-member House, but could not win an overall majority – 326 seats – and face power-sharing talks after falling short of an overall majority, final vote results showed Friday.
Although the Conservatives have won the most seats, the largest party does not automatically have the right to try to form an administration.
The Labour party won 258 seats and the Liberal Democrats 57, after the last result from all constituencies contested in elections on Thursday was announced.
By winning 57 seats, the Liberal Democrats have made it impossible for the Conservatives to win the 326 seats they need to govern alone.
Northern IrelandÂ’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) won eight; the Scottish National Party (SNP) six; Sinn Fein five; the Welsh Plaid Cymru three; Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) three in Northern Ireland, with one each for Greens and the Alliance Party, the latter in Belfast. One seat has been won by another candidate.
One seat has yet to be decided: an election will be held for the constituency of Thirsk and Malton in northeast England on May 27, after one of the candidates fighting it died during the election campaign.
Under Britain’s election rules, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has the right to attempt to form a coalition first, but he accepted Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s decision to talk with Cameron first. Cameron and Clegg would be “entitled to take as much time as they feel necessary,” Brown said, while offering to talk to the Lib Dems if they failed.
“Clearly should the discussions between Cameron and Clegg come to nothing then I would of course be prepared to discuss with Clegg the areas where there may be some measure of agreement between our two parties,” he said.
Until Brown and Cameron’s statements, the centre-left prime minister’s key allies said Labour, which has ruled since 1997, would try to cling to power through a deal with the centrist Lib Dems. But Clegg said the Conservatives, as the largest party in the new parliament, had the “first right to seek to govern”.
In a statement in Westminster, Conservative’s leader David Cameron held out a “big, open and comprehensive offer” to the Liberal Democrats to work together in government.
He acknowledged that there would have to be reform of the electoral system and he proposed the creation of an all-party committee of inquiry to look at the issue. It was not immediately clear whether CameronÂ’s offer would involve a formal coalition with Liberal Democrats ministers in a cabinet.
As a major carrot to attract Lib Dems support, Cameron offered an all-party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform to look at the possibility of changing WestminsterÂ’s first-past-the-post voting system. But he stopped short of promising the immediate legislation on a referendum on voting reform offered by Prime Minister Gordon Brown less than an hour earlier.
Cameron stressed that it was essential that the parties were able to offer leadership to the country: “Britain voted for change yesterday, but it also voted for a new politics, it did not vote for party political bickering, grandstanding and point-scoring.
“Our country’s problems are too serious, they are too urgent for that. So we must all rise to this occasion, we must show leadership.”
Cameron outlined the areas of policy agreement between the Conservatives and Lib Dems, which he said offered “a strong basis for a strong government”.
At the same time he stressed that – unlike the Lib Dems – the Tories remained “completely convinced” that the new government would have to start cutting BritainÂ’s record 163 billion pounds deficit this year. “This has been more than confirmed by recent events in other European countries, recent instability in the markets and recent conversations that we have had both with the Treasury and the Bank of England,” he said.
AFP adds: Britain could yet face fresh election within months, despite the start of talks between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on a possible power-sharing deal in a hung parliament, experts warned.
David CameronÂ’s centre-right Tories and Nick CleggÂ’s centrist Liberal Democrats could struggle to find common ground since they strongly disagree on issues including Europe, defence and immigration, analysts said.
If the two parties fail to reach agreement, the Liberal Democrats could still make a pact with Prime Minister Gordon BrownÂ’s Labour party, which lost its overall majority in ThursdayÂ’s general election.
“Either way there’s going to be an election again soon, probably before the end of the year,” Victoria Honeyman, a politics lecturer at Leeds University, told AFP.
Monitoring Desk adds: Following a chaotic general election result, political horse-trading aimed at cobbling together BritainÂ’s first coalition government for decades has begun, reported Christian Science Monitor.
The political landscape is a mess after no one party emerged with enough seats to form a majority in Parliament. The ball, however, appears to be in the court of David Cameron, the British Conservative leader whose party won the most votes but fell short of the majority that only a few months ago was considered to be within his grasp.
Nick Clegg, whose centrist Liberal Democrats failed to shatter the Labour and Tory duopoly on power, said that the Conservatives had the first right to seek to govern after winning the biggest mandate in terms of votes and seats.
Before potentially approaching Mr CleggÂ’s party for support, however, the Tories may seek woo Northern IrelandÂ’s Democratic Unionist Party.
Meanwhile, donÂ’t write off Gordon Brown, who has returned to Downing Street from his home constituency in Scotland. His party defied predictions that were made as late as last week that it was headed for an electoral wipeout.