The leaders of Britain’s leading political parties each made bids for the keys to 10 Downing Street, after Thursday’s election failed to produce a majority winner.
Conservative leader David Cameron, ahead but shy of a majority, seized the initiative with a “comprehensive offer” to the ideologically dissimilar but possibly willing Liberal Democrats.
“We have to accept that we fell short of an overall majority,” said Cameron, 43, as results showed his party 20 seats short in the House of Commons.
“Britain needs strong, stable decisive government and it is in the national interest that we get that on a secure basis. … I want to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats,” he said.
But Cameron promised only a “committee of inquiry” to look into the Liberal Democrats’ major goal, reform of Britain’s electoral system so that the number of seats gained is based on the percentage of vote a party achieves. They say that is fairer than the current system, in which a party can win a parliamentary majority by getting only a third of votes.
In Thursday’s election, the Conservatives won 36 percent of votes cast, Labour 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats 23 percent.
Final results in Thursday’s election gave the Conservatives 306 seats it the 650 seat House of Commons. Labour won 258 seats, the Liberal Democrats 57, and smaller parties 28. Voting in one constituency was postponed until later this month because of the death of a candidate.
“The country has spoken – but we don’t know what they’ve said,” former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown said, summing up confusion.
The uncertainty sent markets slumping.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he is prepared to speak to any other party about forming an alliance.
“We find ourselves in a position unknown to this generation of political leaders,” Brown said outside 10 Downing Street this morning. “What we have seen are no ordinary election results. People have been talking for some time inside and outside of government about the possibility of a hung Parliament. That possibility has now become very real and very pressing.
“The question for all the political parties now is whether a parliamentary majority can be established that reflects what you, the electorate, have told us,” Brown said.
As sitting prime minister, Brown would traditionally be given the first chance to put together a government. His left-of-center Labour Party is seen as a more natural coalition fit with the Liberal Democrats, the third-place party now thrust into the role of potential kingmaker.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg did not immediately respond in public to his opponents’ overtures, but said earlier that the party that had gained the most seats and the most votes the Conservatives should have the first right to try to govern.
“I think it is now for the Conservative Party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest,” he said.
The Conservatives also held out the tantalizing prospect of Liberal Democrat seats in a Tory government. Senior Conservative lawmaker William Hague said Cabinet posts for Liberal Democrats were not “off the table.”
“I understand and completely respect the position of Mr. Clegg in stating he wishes first to make contact with the leader of the Conservative Party,” Brown said today. “Mr. Cameron and Mr. Clegg should clearly be entitled to take as much time as they feel necessary. For 인터넷 포커 게임 my party, I should make clear that I would be willing to see any of the party leaders.”
Brown reached out to the Liberal Democrats, saying he backed the third party’s call for electoral reform, and characterized their respective parties’ support as a public call for such reform: “The electorate have sent us a very strong message that must be heard,” Brown said.
“There needs to be immediate legislation on this to begin to restore the public trust in politics and to improve Parliament’s standing and reputation,” Brown said. He proposed a public referendum on the matter.
Despite winning the largest number of House of Commons seats in Thursday’s election, Cameron’s Conservatives fell short of a majority that only a few months ago was considered inevitable. Labour could still govern with the help of the Liberal Democrats, which surprisingly failed to capitalize on Clegg’s stellar TV debate performances. Still the decider, Clegg’s support is sure to be contingent on a promise of electoral reform, the Liberal Democrats’ main demand.
That may be an insurmountable sticking point for the Conservatives. Many of the party’s old guard distrust the Liberal Democrats’ pro-European leanings and fiercely oppose its call for proportional representation, which would make it hard for any single party to hold power alone – effectively shutting out the Conservatives indefinitely.
“The Tories would fight it (electoral reform) tooth and nail,” said Bill Jones, professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University. “It’s like asking a turkey to vote for Christmas.”
Labour is much more amenable to demands for electoral reform, but even a deal with the Liberal Democrats would leave them a few seats short of a majority, meaning they would have to turn to Scottish and Welsh nationalists for further support.
Scottish national party leader Alex Salmond, whose party won six seats, said he had already been invited to talks with Brown.
“Fate seems to have dealt us a mighty hand between ourselves and (Welsh nationalists) Plaid Cymru,” Salmond told the BBC.
Days, and possibly weeks, of political horse-trading could lie ahead – a prospect that gave the financial markets jitters.
“A decision would have to be made very quickly,” said Victoria Honeyman, a lecturer in politics at the University of Leeds,
She predicted that some sort of statement would have to be made before Monday when the markets reopen.
“There’s a limit to how long can that this go on,” she said. “The pound will start to crash.”
“It’s vital that this political vacuum is filled as quickly as possible,” said Miles Templeman, director general of business group the Institute of Directors. “The country simply can’t afford an extended period of political horse-trading which delays much-needed action to tackle the deficit.”
Observers both inside and out of the country were following developments with interest.
“It’s a bit fascinating to watch,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday. “We look forward to working with whoever is the prime minister.”
Cameron and Clegg held telephone talks Friday, kicking off a furious round of negotiations. Face-to-face talks between party figures were expected later in the day, the BBC reported.
Although Britain has no written constitution, senior civil servants have been careful to lay out the rules in the event of a hung Parliament and avoid even more market-rattling uncertainty.
Mandarins from the prime minister’s office, the civil service and Buckingham Palace will make sure all parties are kept informed as politicians meet and wrangle. Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state, will ultimately have the job of inviting someone to become Britain’s new prime minister but she plays no role in deciding who that will be.
The parties hope to make a deal before the financial markets reopen Monday, but talks could drag on until May 25, the date set for the queen to read out the new government’s plans for the upcoming term of Parliament.
Such a long period of political wrangling and confusion in one of the world’s largest economies could unsettle global markets already reeling from the Greek debt crisis and fears of wider debt contagion in Europe. Britain’s budget deficit is set to eclipse even that of Greece next year, and whoever winds up in power faces the daunting challenge of introducing big spending cuts to slash the country’s huge deficit.
The FTSE 100 share index ended 2.6 percent lower Friday amid the uncertainty, while the British pound traded as low as $1.4449 by late morning. It rallied to $1.4720 by late afternoon, still down sharply from $1.51 Thursday morning.
Turnout for the election the closest-fought in a generation was 65.2 percent, higher than the 61 percent in Britain’s 2005 election.
Some polling stations were overwhelmed by those interested in casting ballots, and anger flared as hundreds of people were blocked from voting when polls closed. Electoral Commission chief Jenny Watson acknowledged that Britain’s paper voting system had been unable to cope with a surge of voters.
It was an election that confounded political certainties: What appears a Conservative victory is a defeat for reforming leader Cameron. The Liberal Democrats’ poor showing still leaves them kingmakers. And the battered Brown could stay prime minister despite Labour’s worst showing in decades.
“I have a feeling Gordon Brown will have to be dragged from No. 10 with his fingernails in the door posts,” said Victoria Honeyman, a lecturer in politics at the University of Leeds.
For Cameron, a bicycle-riding graduate of Eton and Oxford who staked his leadership on returning the Conservatives to power after 13 years, the result is less than a triumph. The Tories fell short of a majority that only a few months ago was considered inevitable, and Cameron’s right-wing opponents within the party may prevent him offering concessions to the Europhile, civil libertarian Liberal Democrats.
Tim Montgomerie, who runs grass roots website Conservative Home, said many activists would be disappointed with Cameron’s campaign. Some traditionalists have complained Cameron failed to address core party issues like immigration, instead focussing on a confusing message about building a “Big Society.” A large number of Cameron’s favored younger candidates failed to capture seats.
“As he enters his talks with Nick Clegg, David Cameron has got to realize that he’s not just building a coalition outside the party he’s got to build a coalition inside the party, too,” Montgomerie said.
The biggest disappointment may belong to Clegg, whose party surprisingly failed to capitalize on his stellar TV debate performances and mid-election polls showing him rivaling Labour for second place. The party ended up with six fewer seats than before the election.
Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University, said Clegg’s support had turned out to be soft.
“People thought, ‘he looks like a nice young man, he seems to be talking a lot of sense and he is quite handsome,”‘ Jones said. “It was like a passing love affair the electorate had with Clegg. But it ended.”
Turnout for the election – the closest-fought in a generation – was 65.2 percent, higher than the 61 percent seen in Britain’s 2005 election.
Some polling stations around the country were overwhelmed by those interested in casting ballots, and hundreds of people were blocked from voting due to problems with Britain’s old-fashioned paper ballot system.
Anger flared when voters in London, Sheffield, Newcastle and elsewhere complained that they had been blocked from voting as stations closed – and the head of Britain’s Electoral Commission said some legal challenges to results because of blocked votes were likely.
Electoral Commission chief Jenny Watson acknowledged that Britain’s paper voting system had been unable to cope with a surge of voters.
Former British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was the biggest Labour lawmaker to lose her seat after being caught attempting to bill the public for porn movies watched by her husband.
But Labour won the northern England seat of Rochdale – where Brown made the biggest gaffe of the campaign, caught on an open microphone referring to an elderly voter as a “bigoted woman” after she buttonholed him on immigration. Brown later visited her home to apologize.
In the southern England resort town of Brighton, Britain’s first-ever Green Party lawmaker, Caroline Lucas, was elected.
The Conservatives were ousted by Labour under Tony Blair in 1997 after 18 years in power. Three leaders and three successive election defeats later, the party selected Cameron, a fresh-faced, bicycle-riding graduate of Eton and Oxford who promised to modernize its fusty, right-wing image.
Under Brown, who took over from Blair three years ago, Britain’s once high-flying economy, rooted in world-leading financial services, has run into hard times. In addition, at least 1.3 million people have been laid off and tens of thousands have lost their homes in a crushing recession.
(Below: Graffiti in Parliament Square across from Britain’s Houses of Parliament Friday.)
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