British Conservatives Celebrate Apparent Victory, Cameron Holds Power
UPDATE: President Obama today called Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom to offer his congratulations following the outcome of the general election in the United Kingdom, according to a White House press release. President Obama reiterated his strong commitment to the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom and told the Prime Minister that he looks forward to building on their already close relationship to continue to address a range of shared interests and the challenges we face around the world. The two leaders look forward to meeting with each other and their colleagues at the G-7 summit this June in Germany.
LONDON, May 7 (UPI) — Britain’s Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, celebrated late Thursday and into Friday morning as it appeared they have notched an historic victory in what some say is one of the most important elections in British history.
With some votes left to be counted, experts said exit polling indicated that the Conservative Party will continue to hold power over the opposing Labor Party, which had hoped to gain a significant swing in Parliament. Exit poll numbers were taken from about 22,000 voters at nearly 150 polling stations, the Guardian reported.
If the projections hold, Conservatives — also called Tories — will gain several seats in the government. Prior to Thursday’s vote, the party held 302.
Before the vote, the BBC forecast Tories would end up with 316 seats, but early Friday adjusted that expectation to 325 seats — meaning the party could still win an outright majority, which requires 326.
“Above all, I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom, implementing as fast as we can devolution both for Wales and Scotland,” Cameron said. “I want my party and a government I would like to lead to reclaim the mantle of one nation, one United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government.”
The Tories’ gains have shocked most analysts — many of whom expected the two parties to be closer to a tie, at about 273 seats each in the 650-member Parliament.
“It’s an astonishing result,” former British minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown said earlier Thursday. “The authority that this result would give David Cameron and the Tories would be huge, and the body blow to Labor equally big.”
The Scottish National Party is also celebrating a big victory Friday as the numbers indicate a rout of the Labor Party in Scotland, one of its traditional strongholds.
The SNP’s victories, along with the defeats of Labors and Liberal Democrats, may represent the biggest election surprise since the end of World War II, the Guardian reported and leave Scotland as largely a one-party state.
