JEREMY Corbyn would have been the next Prime Minister if it wasn’t for Scottish votes, says a major UK news outlet.

According to an article by the London Evening Standard, the Labour leader was thwarted in his attempt to become Prime Minister by the strong performance of the Conservative Party in Scotland.

May secured a return to Number 10 despite a dire election night which saw her party’s presence in Westminster drop from 331 seats to 318, with the number of Labour MPs increasing by 32 seats to 262.

This result means the Conservatives failed to win a majority and are now looking to broker a controversial deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party in order to gain enough seats.

READ MORE: Sturgeon would explore ‘progressive alliance’ with Labour

Published earlier today by the London Evening Standard, a newspaper edited by former Tory chancellor George Osborne, the article argues that without the 14 seats secured by the Conservative Party in Scotland, Theresa May would not have been in a strong enough position to form a government at all.

In the 2015 General Election the Scottish National Party won an incredible 56 out of 59 available seats in Scotland, but a reversal of fortunes on Thursday night saw that whittled down to 35 with the Conservative Party benefitting the most.

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond and the party’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson were among the high profile casualties as the party dropped from 50 per cent of the popular vote to 37 per cent.

If not for the extra seats won by Scottish Tories, the Labour Party could have formed a coalition and would now be in control of Westminster, according to the Evening Standard:

“Without the 14 seats won by the Scottish Conservatives, Mrs May’s party would have been languishing on just 305 seats.

“Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, who are likely to have mopped up the votes between them, would have outnumbered the Tories and are likely to have defeated the PM in a Queen’s Speech vote, paving the way for a coalition led by Mr Corbyn.”

However, just three weeks ago Corbyn had insisted that in the event of a hung parliament he would not do a deal with the SNP to gain power at Westminster.

Speaking on 29 May, Mr Corbyn said: “There will be no deals. There will be no alliance. We’re fighting this election to win.

READ MORE: Corbyn rules out deal with SNP

“Only Labour or the Tories can win this election and voting Labour is the only way to remove Theresa May from office and build a Scotland for the many, not the few.”

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon had previously claimed that she would be in favour of a ‘progressive alliance’ with Labour. </s> The Conservative party has made significant gains and Labour has suffered in the local elections for England and Wales, with Ukip facing a near total wipeout in the councils vote.

With just five weeks to go before a general election, Jeremy Corbyn’s party blamed “unique circumstances” for what it predicted would be a challenging set of results in local contests.

The numbers so far are ominous for Labour at the general election, with the Conservatives benefiting from the huge decline in support for Ukip. By 6am, the Conservatives had gained more than 100 seats in England, while Labour had lost 45.

Theresa May’s party gained control of at least four councils - Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, and the Isle of Wight - swung from no overall control to the Conservatives, and the party also became the largest on Cumbria council in the north-west.

In Wales, Tory gains were more modest at 25 seats and independents took another 41, while Labour lost 67 but remained by far the most dominant party. The Tories gained one council, Monmouthshire, while Labour lost control of Blaneau Gwent and Bridgend.

Many results are yet to be declared, including Scottish councils and mayorals, but there is likely to be some cheer for Labour when the party wins new metro mayors in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and potentially the tightly fought battle in the West Midlands. The first mayoralty to be announced was the West of England metro areas including Bristol, Bath, northeast Somerset and south Gloucestershire,

which went to the Conservative candidate Tim Bowles.

After polls closed, Corbyn’s team played down expectations of their party’s performance, accepting that Labour could be set to lose hundreds of council seats.

Labour said that when these council seats were last contested, there was a strong performance for the party, then led by Ed Miliband.

“These elections are a challenging set of contests held in unique circumstances,” a Labour spokesman said. “They’re individual contests being fought in very differing situations, from local council-level, issue-driven campaigns up to large mayoral fights with some well-known politicians.

“Nonetheless, Labour has been making the case up and down the country that Labour representatives, both locally and nationally, will stand up for the many whilst the Conservative party stands up only for the few. That’s what we’ll be doing all the way through to 8 June and we are confident that will start to resonate as we get closer to that date.”

In total, 35 English council elections – most of them county councils – and every seat in Scotland and Wales were up for grabs.

Turnout generally had been “slow but steady,” John Turner, chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, told the Local Government Chronicle.

As the counts began in Wales, the shadow Welsh secretary, Christina Rees, thanked Welsh Labour candidates and hinted at a difficult night ahead, saying: “It always inspires me that even when times seem tough for Labour, they never fail to rise to the challenge with a passion and energy that no other party can match.”

Strategists from all the major parties will be scrutinising the results closely for signs that May’s relentless message of providing “strong and stable leadership” has persuaded habitual Labour voters to defect to the Conservatives.

The local elections will also provide the first real test of the hypothesis that Ukip’s vote is collapsing in the Tories’ favour, as May pledges to deliver Brexit.

Labour sources suggested the overall picture was complex and only the national vote share would be an indication of what may be to come in the general election.

But losses in traditionally Labour areas where the local MP has a small majority will inevitably raise fears that the party is on course for a heavy defeat next month.

Anthony Wells of pollsters YouGov pointed out that the Labour party was just three percentage points behind Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives in the 1983 local elections, but trailed by 16 points in the general election that followed just a month

later.

Wells said: “Don’t just assume that the projected overall shares of the vote at this week’s votes are going to be repeated in next month’s election. People vote differently for different reasons at different sorts of election.”

That picture – of voters backing Labour locally but peeling away in a general election – was acknowledged by Susan Woodward, the leader of the Labour group on Staffordshire county council, where elections were held on Thursday.

Woodward said she felt positive, but admitted that some voters had promised to back the party in local elections but not on 8 June. “I’m hoping that having good, strong community leaders overrides any national swings – that is what I’m hoping for me and my Labour colleagues,” she said.

“If people are saying, ‘I will vote Labour in locals but not in general’ – and we’ve had a sprinkling of those – the leadership have to listen and redouble their efforts. They need to show they are focusing on Labour voters’ priorities rather than their own

priorities.” </s> Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has reiterated that there will be "no deal" with the SNP after the general election, accusing Nicola Sturgeon of "failing abysmally" to tackle poverty and inequality in government.

On a campaign trip to Scotland, the Labour leader delivered a sustained attack on the SNP government saying it was a "disgrace" and has failed to devote as much time to tackling inequality than it has to pursuing independence.

Corbyn took no questions from the media during the campaign trip to Dunfermline in Fife, and also avoided journalists earlier in the day in a trip to the Scottish Trade Union Congress in Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland.

Speaking to a crowd of local activists, Corbyn criticised the SNP for pursuing what he called an "unwanted and unnecessary" independence referendum and claimed that independence would "threaten your pensions".

"I ask people do they want to vote for the SNP who want to fight for another unwanted and unnecessary independence referendum but who have failed abysmally in the fight against poverty and inequality?

"An SNP who have failed in government in all policy areas as they systematically forget the day job and obsess about the constitution instead of making life better for college students, school pupils, the low paid, or the elderly languishing in hospital.

"Or do they want a Labour party who will retain Scotland in the UK but in a UK that is a far fairer, a more just and equal version than what the Tories offer."

Corbyn spoke after the Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, and both received lengthy standing ovations from the crowd of activists. The reaction to Corbyn's speech peaked with his opposition to a second independence referendum.

The Labour leader accused both the SNP and the Conservatives of being obsessed with "power struggles" against Westminster and Brussels respectively, and that only his party was interested in delivering "social justice".

"Many Scots rightly expect the Scottish Parliament to protect them from the vicious Tories. It is a disgrace that the SNP have not fought for these people and against poverty and inequality in the same way they have fought for independence," said Corbyn.

"The truth is that the Tories and SNP are obsessed with fighting against Brussels and Westminster and winning back political power but neither of them want to take economic power back from multi-nationals and big business."

At his earlier speech in Aviemore, Corbyn vowed to repeal the Conservatives' "vicious" Trade Union Act if he becomes prime minister, said all corporations would have to publish their tax returns, and that he would protect the triple-lock on pensions.

Corbyn went on to underline his refusal to enter any kind of deal with the SNP after the election, with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale going on say there would be "no alliance, no pact and no deals" with Sturgeon's party.

"There will be no deals with the SNP or anyone else," said Corbyn. "Why vote for a poor imitation that has overseen an increase in child poverty and the biggest increase since devolution of those people classified as poor despite being at work, when you can have the real thing in the progressive Labour party?

"This is not a referendum – it’s a general election and only Labour can form another government and offer an alternative that will transform the lives of Scots." </s> Polls are open across Britain today in local elections forecast to lead to devastating defeats for Labour.

Contests are being held in all Scottish and Welsh councils, more than 30 English councils and for six new regional mayors.

The results tomorrow will set the tone for the run into the general election on June 8 and Labour is braced for bruising defeats.

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to lose scores of seats to the Tories in results that will be seized upon as proof of how far he trails Theresa May.

And in Scotland the SNP is poised to complete its rout of Scottish Labour, potentially seizing the citadel of Glasgow, which Labour has run for decades.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon was pictured voting in the city today and her party is expected to pick up seats across Scotland and will hope to stabilise a difficult start to the general election campaign.

One bright spot for Labour is expected in Manchester where Andy Burnham should complete a straightforward victory in the race to be mayor.

But there is a too-close-to-call race in the West Midlands, where Tory Andy Street could pull off a surprise victory in Labour-dominated territory.

The patchwork of results will not directly reflect voters intentions on June 8 but will be pored over for evidence of what might happen.

A recent poll by Rob Hayward, a Conservative peer and pollster, suggested Labour is likely to lose control of Glasgow council – which it has held for 30 years - in its former heartland.

Elections expert Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said it would be 'very very surprising if Labour retains control of any council in Scotland'.

Nearly 5,000 seats are being contested in 88 councils across the country. According to one analysis, Labour could lose 75 seats in England and more than 100 in Wales.

There are also important mayoral elections in six new devolved super-regions.

Elections are also being held for new 'super-mayors' in six devolved English regions.

Labour's Steve Rotherham should also win in Liverpool, in a region with seven of its safest parliamentary seats.

The Tories will hope to take Cambridgeshire and the West of England mayoralty, which covers Bath, Bristol, North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The victorious candidates will take powers over policing, planning policy and control significant funds from central government.

The mayoralties were created by George Osborne as part of his attempts to devolve powers to English regions and strengthen local government.

In recent weeks, senior Labour figures have played up the importance of the local elections , and challenged Labour's poll ratings.

Last week a senior source said polls were often wrong, as recent elections had shown and shouldn't be trusted.

The source also said the locals were 'very important' for Mr Corbyn and an 'interesting measure of how well things are going'.

'On the cycle these are seats which are not in the metropolitan areas where Labour is traditionally strong,' he told the BBC's Daily Politics.

'Therefore one would expect given that we did relatively well the last time these seats were up for grabs that we would see a decline in their numbers.'

Normally at this point in the electoral cycle, the governing party would expect to lose council elections, which are traditionally a protest vote against whoever is in No10.

But an analysis by Professors Colin Rawlings and Michael Thrasher, directors of the Elections Centre at Plymouth University, suggests the Tories will pick up 115 seats in England county council and unitary authority elections, while Labour will lose 75. Lib Dem gains could also reach three figures.

In Wales, the poll put Labour losses at 130, and Tory gains 90. Labour could lose control of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport councils.

They also warned Ukip faces the 'near annihilation' of its 2013 intake of councillors, with 100 or more losses.

Party analysts are watching closely the results in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire for signs of whether Theresa May can take seats from Labour in the Midlands.

At the weekend Mr Burnham warned there would be 'serious consequences' unless Labour reconnected with the North of England. He said there was 'too much Hampstead and not enough Hull' in today's Labour Party.

Conservative Party Chairman Patrick McLoughlin said: 'Every vote cast in the elections today really matters.

'There is a clear choice – the competence of strong Conservative councils and elected mayors who will keep local taxes down with quality local services, versus the disarray of the rest.

'Conservative councils and mayors deliver more for less, improving local services and standing up for local people.' </s> Theresa May’s Conservatives gained more than 550 council seats and swept to shock victories in mayoralty contests in the West Midlands and Tees Valley in results that placed her party on track to secure a thumping majority in the general election.



The prime minister insisted she was not taking “anything for granted” but the Tories enjoyed a stunning day that was matched by a dramatic decline for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, which lost more than 300 seats.

The Guardian view on the 2017 local elections: a clear and present warning | Editorial Read more

The results forced Labour to hand over control of a series of English councils including Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Northumberland, while in Scotland the party lost its grip on Glasgow for the first time in 40 years. Paul Nuttall’s Ukip was crushed as every single councillor facing election suffered defeat.



The results were turned into a projected national vote share of 38% for the Tories, 27% for Labour and 18% for the Lib Dems, with Ukip plunging to just 5%. Although that prediction is narrower than the polls, it projects that May would win a solid majority in June’s general election.



Despite the scale of the Conservative victory, May told reporters that she still believed Labour could win the general election. Speaking after a visit to a factory in Brentford, west London, where the Tories are hoping to overturn a Labour majority of just 465, the prime minister said: “The reality is that, despite the evident will of the British people, we have bureaucrats in Europe who are questioning our resolve to get the right deal. Only a general election vote for the Conservatives will strengthen my hand to get the best deal on Brexit.”

Her party is also preparing to launch its flagship health policies over the weekend, with the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, scheduled to appear on television on Sunday.

Corbyn issued a statement acknowledging some of the problems Labour faced: “The results were mixed. We lost seats but we are closing the gap on the Conservatives.” He insisted that Labour could still win the general election, though admitted it was an “challenge on an historic scale”.



He said he was “utterly determined” to use every hour of the next four weeks to get his message across. “We’ve now got five weeks to get a message out there.”

Labour’s consolation was two convincing victories in the north-west in which Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram were elected as metro mayors for Manchester and Liverpool.



In Scotland, the SNP made modest gains, although there was also a surge for the Conservatives. The Lib Dems lost dozens of seats in England but saw a boost in their overall vote share.



Labour had a mixed night in Wales losing some important councils, including Blaenau Gwent and Bridgend, where the prime minister recently visited to boost the chances of a Tory candidate becoming MP. But Labour held seven councils including Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

May’s claim that the EU was meddling in British affairs, which propelled her on to the front page of every national newspaper on Thursday morning as voters headed to the polls, was believed to have contributed to her party’s success against Ukip.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Nuttall’s Ukip lost every council seat it was defending. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

The results suggest Nuttall’s party could be wiped out after it won one new seat but lost every one it was defending, including being crushed in Brexit-supporting areas such as Essex and Lincolnshire, where the leader is fighting to become an MP.

Nuttall claimed that, if his party’s hammering was down to a Tory advance driven by May’s determination to leave the EU, then it was a price he was “prepared to pay”.

The former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives, said it was “over” for a party that once soared to overall victory in European elections in 2014 and secured 4m votes in a general election under the stewardship of Nigel Farage.

What is a metro mayor? A metro mayor is the chair of a combined authority – made up of several local authorities – that has agreed on a devolution deal with central government.



Unlike city mayors, who head a single city council or local authority, metro mayors have powers to make decisions across the whole city region.



While city mayors are responsible for public service delivery (such as schools, recreational facilities and fire services), metro mayors will be responsible for setting out a strategy for economic growth in their region, and have certain powers over issues such as housing, transport and skills.



The exact function of the metro mayors will depend on the details of the devolution deal reached with central government. Greater Manchester, for example, will have more powers over criminal justice, and health and social care.



Metro mayors will work with the leaders of their local authorities to create a strategy for the wider area. They will also be able to lobby local MPs on policy matters that relate to their area.



They will chair a combined authority cabinet, made up of the leaders from each local authority, who can reject the metro mayor’s strategy with a two-thirds majority vote.



The role of the metro mayor can also be merged with that of the police and crime commissioner, but the two positions can be kept separate.

Political analysts have argued that Ukip had become a “gateway drug” for voters in Labour heartlands to shift to the Tories, which could be hugely damaging for Corbyn’s party. Commentators highlighted dozens of Labour seats where the Ukip vote is larger than the party’s majority.

One of the biggest blows for Labour was to watch the former John Lewis boss Andy Street narrowly win the West Midlands mayoralty for the Conservatives, in a sign that May could be making inroads into traditional Labour strongholds. He claimed to have won by reaching out to new voters with a “moderate, tolerant, inclusive” local plan but added that the question of leadership had been a huge boost for the Tories.

Many Labour candidates said they were planning to run local campaigns without a focus on Corbyn, claiming he had been toxic on the doorstep. Stephen Kinnock, who is contesting the seat of Aberavon, said the results amounted to a “disastrous picture” and Corbyn’s leadership had come up as an issue on the doorstep.

Theresa May closing in on 100-seat majority, local elections suggest Read more

Siôn Simon, Labour’s losing candidate in the West Midlands, said: “We can’t duck the reality of what we heard in the places we won on the streets of cities and towns like Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Sandwell.

“Traditional working-class voters, who we were born to serve, quite simply want to hear a clearer, stronger message about traditional values like patriotism, hard work and a defence of decency, law and order.”

Alan Rhodes, who was the Labour leader of Nottinghamshire county council but is now leader of the opposition group, admitted that his party was “in a difficult place at the moment”. He made clear that he believed the national polls had resulted in his group losing control.

“This doesn’t reflect on our four years in office locally. It is more reflective of the national malaise that the party finds itself in. I’m proud of what we’ve delivered and achieved in our four-year term – Labour councillors should be proud of that,” he said. </s> LONDON (AP) — An exit poll suggested Thursday that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble in calling an early election has backfired spectacularly, with her Conservative Party in danger of losing its majority in Parliament.

An opposition Labour Party that had been written off by many pollsters surged in the final weeks of a campaign that was marred by deadly attacks in Manchester and London. If accurate, the result will confound those who said Labour’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was electorally toxic.

The survey predicted the Conservatives will get 314 seats and the Labour Party 266. It projected 34 for the Scottish National Party and 14 for the Liberal Democrats.

Based on interviews with voters leaving polling stations across the country, the poll is conducted for a consortium of U.K. broadcasters and regarded as a reliable, though not exact, indicator of the likely result.

If confirmed, the result will be humiliating for May, who called a snap election in the hope of increasing her majority and strengthening Britain’s hand in exit talks with the European Union. If she has failed, she could face pressure to resign.

“If the poll is anything like accurate, this is completely catastrophic for the Conservatives and for Theresa May,” former Treasury chief George Osborne told ITV.

A party needs to win 326 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons to form a majority government. The Conservatives held 330 seats in the last Parliament, compared with 229 for Labour, 54 for the Scottish National Party and nine for the Liberal Democrats.

During the last election, in 2015, the Conservatives did better than the exit poll predicted, and senior Conservatives said Thursday that they would take a wait-and-see approach.

“It’s still very, very early in the evening,” said Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire. “It’s too early in the night to be drawing conclusions.”

The forecast is much better than expected for the opposition Labour Party, which had been expected to lose seats.

It could also be bad news for the Scottish National Party, which is predicted to lose 20 of its 54 seats — though the pollsters caution that there is a lot of uncertainty around the Scottish forecast.

A big loss could complicate the SNP’s plans to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.

The poll was released after polls closed at 10 p.m. (2100GMT), ending an unsettled national election held in the shadow of three deadly attacks in as many months.

Results will come in overnight for all 650 seats in the House of Commons.

May called the election three years ahead of schedule, at a time when her party was well ahead in the polls. But attacks that killed 30 people in Manchester and London twice brought the campaign to a halt, sent a wave of anxiety through Britain and forced May to defend the government’s record on fighting terrorism.

Eight people were killed near London Bridge on Saturday when three men drove a van into pedestrians then stabbed revelers in an area filled with bars and restaurants. Two weeks earlier, a suicide bomber killed 22 people as they were leaving a concert in Manchester, and five people died during a vehicle and knife attack near Parliament on March 22.

Rachel Sheard, who cast her vote near the site of the London Bridge attack, said the election had not gone as expected — and that it certainly wasn’t about Brexit.

“I don’t think that’s in the hearts and minds of Londoners at the minute, (not) nearly as much as security is,” said Sheard, 22. “It was very scary on Saturday.”

When May called the election seven weeks ago, she was seeking to capitalize on opinion polls showing that her Conservatives had a wide lead over Labour. She became prime minister through a Conservative Party leadership contest when Cameron resigned after voters backed leaving the European Union.The time seemed right to seek her own mandate from the British people. She argued that increasing the Conservative majority in Parliament would strengthen Britain’s hand in EU exit talks.

But things did not go to plan.

Brexit failed to emerge as a major issue in the campaign, as both the Conservatives and Labour said they would respect voters’ wishes and go through with the divorce.

May, who went into the election with a reputation for quiet competence, was criticized for a lackluster campaigning style and for a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their care, a proposal her opponents dubbed the “dementia tax.” As the polls suggested a tightening race, pollsters spoke less often of a landslide and raised the possibility that May’s majority would be eroded.

In her final message to voters, May tried to put the focus back on Brexit.

“I can only build that better country and get the right deal in Brussels with the support of the British people,” she said. “So whoever you have voted for in the past, if that is the future you want then vote Conservative today and we can all go forward together.”

Corbyn, an old school left-winger widely written off at the start of the campaign, has drawn thousands of people to upbeat rallies and energized young voters with his plans to boost spending on health and education after years of Conservative austerity.

Corbyn told supporters at his final rally that Labour’s campaign had “changed the debate and given people hope. Hope that it doesn’t have to be like this; that inequality can be tackled; that austerity can be ended; that you can stand up to the elites and the cynics. This is the new center ground.”

Security dominated the late stages of the campaign, after the attacks in Manchester and London. May said this week that she would consider rewriting human rights legislation if it gets in the way of tackling extremism.

Corbyn, meanwhile, accused Conservatives of undermining Britain’s security by cutting the number of police on the streets.

While security was on many voters’ minds, it was far from the only issue.

“It’s important, but it’s only one issue amongst several,” said 68-year-old Mike Peacroft. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s at the top. Obviously at my end of the (age) spectrum I’m more interested in things like pensions and so forth, NHS health care — plus schooling, those are really my main concerns.” </s> LONDON — Britain’s voters have delivered a stunning blow to Prime Minister Theresa May, wiping out her parliamentary majority in an election that was supposed to strengthen her grip on power.

With most results declared, May’s party won the most seats — but not enough to govern without the support of minority parties.

It was devastating result for May, who had called the election three years earlier than required by law, convinced by opinion polls that placed her far ahead of opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

It plunges Britain into a period of renewed political chaos, with Brexit talks likely to be delayed and May’s personal authority shredded. There was already talk in Conservative circles that she might have to resign, less than a year after taking over from David Cameron, who resigned following the Brexit referendum.

George Osborne, the former finance minister who stepped down at the election, told ITV that the results were “catastrophic” for his party. Anna Soubry, a Conservative MP, said May would have to consider her position.

The result appeared certain to plunge the UK into another period of political uncertainty, with formal Brexit talks due to start in 10 days’ time. The pound fell on currency markets in the wake of the results.

After the result was declared in her constituency of Maidenhead, May gave a faltering speech. “At this time more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability,” she said, suggesting she would attempt to form a government even if her party loses its majority.

Corbyn said the early results showed May had lost her mandate and called for her to resign.

“People have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics,” he said, repeating his campaign promises to push for better funding for health and education.

There were upsets elsewhere in the UK: In Scotland. the Scottish National Party was on course for significant losses. The former leader, Alex Salmond, lost his seat, as the Conservative Party made some rare gains in Scotland.

The anti-Brexit Liberal Democrat Party did not make its hoped-for inroads. Former leader Nick Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister, lost his Sheffield Hallam seat. Tim Farron, the current leader, retained his seat with only a narrow majority.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, one of May’s closest allies, barely held onto her seat of Hastings and Rye, after a recount put her just over 300 votes ahead of the Labour candidate.

Commentators agreed the results were bad for the prime minister. “This is a major disaster for her personal authority over the country and the Conservative Party, particularly because she made this election all about her ‘strong and stable’ leadership,” Jane Merrick wrote for CNN. “She made the election a referendum on Theresa May and she has lost.”

One of many key questions for the coming days will be what approach is taken to the Brexit negotiations, even if May stays as prime minister.

She had promised a “hard Brexit” if Britain did not like the terms of the divorce negotiated with the EU. She vowed to take the country out of the EU’s single market and customs union, essentially a free-trade zone, radically changing Britain’s relationship with one of its biggest trading partners.

May experienced a gradual slide during the campaign period, in which a wide gap between the Conservatives and Labour narrowed.

Predictions of Conservative success became more modest as the party’s campaign faltered following a series of missteps.

May was criticized for making a number of U-turns on social welfare and she came under fire for a controversial proposal on who should pay for the cost of care for the elderly, a policy that became known as the “dementia tax.”

Her opponents also took issue with her refusal to take part in a televised debate with other party leaders.

The Prime Minister called what she thought would be a Brexit-focused election, but the issue was quickly overshadowed by security as two deadly terror attacks, in Manchester and London, struck during the campaign period.

The attacks only put May under more scrutiny for national security decisions she made during her tenure as Home Secretary, a role she held for six years in the government of her predecessor, David Cameron.

The attacks triggered a heated debate on whether the police are well-enough resourced to deal with terror threats. Police numbers across the UK were cut by 20,000 under May’s watch as Home Secretary. </s> Britain’s Labour Party on Friday beat UKIP to win a by-election in the Brexit bastion of Stoke-on-Trent but suffered a “historic” defeat by the ruling Conservatives in a separate local vote.

Labour clung on to its Stoke-on-Trent seat with Gareth Snell taking 7,853 votes to 5,233 for Paul Nuttall, leader of the U.K. Independence Party.

The win in Stoke was welcomed as “a clear victory” on Twitter by embattled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose party is deeply divided and languishing in the polls.

The ruling party gained further ground against the Labour Party on Friday, taking the rural Cumbrian seat of Copeland.

Conservative Trudy Harrison hailed a “truly historic event” after winning the by-election with 13,748 votes to 11,601 for Labour’s Gillian Troughton.

The win was the first time a governing party has taken a seat from a rival since 1982.

Labour had held the Copeland constituency since it was formed in 1983, but its majority has been dropping and MP Jamie Reed won by a majority of just 2,564 at the 2015 general election.

Reed announced his resignation in December to take a job in the nuclear industry.

Many jobs in Copeland depend on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility, and Corbyn’s strong anti-nuclear stance may have hurt Labour in the vote.

The party’s unsuccessful campaign focused on threatened cuts to the local hospital, echoing Corbyn’s repeated attacks on May for not giving sufficient funds to the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

“Labour’s victory in Stoke is a decisive rejection of UKIP’s politics of division. But our message was not enough to win through in Copeland,” Corbyn wrote on Twitter.

In Stoke, newly elected Snell told the BBC that Corbyn was “very much an asset” on the campaign trail.

The seat has been held by Labour since its creation in 1950, but the party’s standing in the city had been shaken by Brexit.

Stoke in the West Midlands recorded the strongest vote to leave the European Union of any of Britain’s 30 major cities in last June’s referendum, at 69.4 percent — even though its Labour MP, Tristram Hunt, opposed Brexit.

Hunt stepped down last month to become the director of the V&A museum in London, citing in his resignation letter his “frustration” at Labour’s direction under Corbyn.

Nationwide most Labour voters supported Brexit while most of their MPs wanted to stay in the EU, a gap which UKIP unsuccessfully sought to capitalize on.

Ahead of the vote Snell told AFP he would back his constituents and support kick-starting divorce talks with Brussels.

In his acceptance speech, the new Labour MP said Stoke should not be defined by its view of the European Union.

“A city dubbed by some as the capital of Brexit, has once again proved to the world that we are so much more than that.”

“This city will not allow itself to be defined by last year’s referendum … nor will we be divided by race, by faith or creed,” he added.

New UKIP leader Nuttall had jumped at the chance to take the seat, in which the party came second in the 2015 election with 23 percent of the vote to Labour’s 39 percent.

The anti-establishment party had hoped to build on the widespread sense of public alienation from mainstream politics — and prove it has a future after securing its founding aim of leaving the EU.

Nuttall insisted the defeat did not mark the end of UKIP.

“There’s a lot more to come from us,” he said. “We are not going anywhere, I’m not going anywhere.”

His campaign was damaged by controversy over the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster, after he admitted that claims on his website that he had close friends among the 96 victims were wrong.

Nuttall condemned the controversy as a “coordinated, cruel and almost evil smear campaign,” but there is no doubt it damaged his chances.

Apathy runs deep in Stoke where turnout was 38.16 percent, compared to 51.35 percent in Copeland.

The Conservative candidate Jack Brereton was left in third place in Stoke, with 5,154 votes. </s> Theresa May's Conservative party lost its majority in the British Parliament, ceding big gains to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party, according to an exit poll Thursday night.

Conservatives remain the largest party in Parliament, but the British pound dropped sharply immediately after the poll results were released.

With no overall majority, the Conservatives would not be able to overrule the combined weight of other parties. That throws the Brexit situation into disarray and this is the state of sterling.

 

The pound has hit a low of 1.2704 against dollar lowest level since April 18th when the sterling traded as low as 1.2513 against the dollar.

The Conservatives would have 314 seats, Labour 266, Liberal Democrats 14, Scottish National Party 34 and other 22.

On April 18, May surprised onlookers by calling Thursday's snap election stating that "division risks the ability to make a success of Brexit."

At that the Conservative ruling government was polling as much as 22 points clear of the main opposition Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn. However, as the campaign progressed the polls narrowed sharply.

Polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. London time Thursday and closed at 10:00 p.m. The main flurry of results expected from 2.00 a.m. London time on Friday and there are 650 constituencies due to announce.

The Conservative campaign has attempted to focus on the withdrawal from the EU, repeating a mantra that only it can offer a "strong and stable" government as negotiations with Brussels heat up. This strategy has worked to an extent with polls on leadership consistently backing May over Corbyn as a more trusted leader.

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn has said he will honor Brexit but at the same time attempt to retain the benefits of the single market - a trading bloc for members of the European Union.
Significant gains are made by the opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn, while the Scottish National Party's dominance of Scottish seats is reduced.