A hung parliament has been confirmed with British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party failing to reach the halfway mark of 326 seats to form government in Britain. May's party, which has lost the majority, will now need support from other parties to reach the halfway mark of 326 in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Also Read: Meet Preet Gill & Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the two Sikhs who made India proud in UK elections
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, had called on May to resign after early poll results showed his party in the lead. However, the Conservative Party then took a lead over the Labour Party close behind.
Here are all the LIVE updates:
2:14 pm IST: European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted saying that the Brexit negotiations should happen asap.
We don't know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end. Do your best to avoid a "no deal" as result of "no negotiations". #GE2017
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) June 9, 2017
1.55 pm IST: European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michael Barnier tweeted:
#Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready; timetable and EU positions are clear. Let's put our minds together on striking a deal
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) June 9, 2017
1.45 pm IST: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe tells Reuters that he's surprised by the outcome of the elections.
"The British have spoken, they have voted, and have given the Conservative party a majority, albeit a simple majority, which is something of a surprise... I don't think we should read these results as calling into question the stance on Brexit which was clearly expressed by the British people," he said.
Also Read: May's fall in June: UK prime minister's poll gamble backfires; results will put Brexit in jeopardy
1.40 pm IST: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster indicates that she expects May to stand down. Senior Conservatives had earlier confirmed that May does not intend to resign as the prime minister of the country/
"It will be difficult for her to survive given that she was presumed at the start of the campaign, which seems an awfully long time ago, to come back with maybe a hundred, maybe more, in terms of her majority... Now we're in the position we find ourselves in tonight so it will be an incredibly difficult evening for her," she told BBC Radio Ulster.
1.15 pm IST: Jeremy Corbyn declared victory for his party after addressing staff at the Labour Party headquarters. He has said that the Labour Party is "ready to serve this country" and has also repeated his call for May to resign. He said that it was pretty clear that his party won the election on a "strong and hopeful" policies.
"We put forward our policies – strong and hopeful policies – and have gained an amazing response from the public. I think it's pretty clear who won this election," he told the BBC.
Corbyn added that the Brexit negotiations will have to go ahead and that he wants a "job first" Brexit. He also once again called on May to resign saying:
"She fought the election on the basis that it was her campaign; it was her decision to call the election, it was her name out there; she was saying she was doing it to bring about strong and stable government. Well this morning, it doesn't look like a strong government, it doesn't look like a stable government, it doesn't look like a government that has any program whatsoever," he said.
Corbyn added:
"My party has had a huge increase in its vote, gained seats all over the country, in every region of this country and in Scotland and Wales. I think everyone in the Labour party, and everyone who supported the Labour party yesterday – young people, old people, everyone in between – I think they should be very proud of what we have achieved."
1.14 pm IST: UKIP leader Nigel Farage tells BBC, "UKIP yesterday seemed to be irrelevant to the whole process, and yet today, we face a prospect where if this starts to get watered down, if we don't get the Brexit the people voted for, then UKIP could be more relevant than it's ever been."
UKIP won less than two percent votes on Friday.
Also Read: UK Elections 2017: All you need to know
1.03 pm IST: The Conservative Party is in talks with Northern Ireland's DUP, which has won 10 seats, to try and reach an agreement to form a coalition government.
12.58 pm IST: Martin Schulz, leader of Germany's Social Democrats, has said that he has called Jeremy Corbyn and has arranged to meet him in the near future. Schulz is hoping to defeat Chancellor Angela Merkel in the elections in September.
12.55 pm IST: Siegfried Muresan, member of the European Parliament, tweets, "Until yesterday, Theresa May campaigned. Today she needs to start working. She needs to tell the British people the truth: #Brexit weakens UK."
12.50 pm IST:
The Labour Party will put itself forward to lead a minority government and will not form a coalition with any other party, finance spokesperson John McDonnel tells BBC Radio.
Calling Theresa May a "lame duck prime minister," McDonnel said: "We'll put ourselves forward to serve the country and form a minority government and the reason for that is I don't think the Conservative Party is stable, I don't think the prime minister is stable
He added: "I can't see them holding together. If they do seek to do a coalition with the DUP, well, pardon the expression but someone used it during the campaign, but it is a coalition of chaos as far as I can see. So I can't see a stable government coming from that."
12.30 pm IST: Conservatives retain St Ives seat defeating the Liberal Democrats by 312 votes.
12.15 pm IST: German deputy foreign minister says 'time is ticking' and Brexit talks need to begin asap.
"We need to get started on the negotiations as soon as possible because time is ticking... Regardless of the question of who will form a government in Britain, time is ticking... We have less than two years to negotiate the exit ... so we should not waste any time now," Roth, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners, told German broadcaster ZDF.
12.09 pm IST: Theresa May does not intend to resign and that she is working to form government based on being the largest party in the country, BBC political editor Laura Keunssberg reported.
Break - PM has no intention of resigning - working to form a govt based on being largest party in seats and votes
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 9, 2017
12.05 pm IST: Former Finnish premier Alexander Stubb tweets:
Looks like we might need a time-out in the #Brexit negotiations. Time for everyone to regroup.
— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) June 9, 2017
11.55 am IST: Labour Party's Ian Austin has retained his Dudley North seat beating Conservative Party's Les Jones with a majority of just 22 votes. Austin got 18,090 votes while Jones got 18,068 votes.
11.45 am IST: Conservative Party's Zac Goldsmith wins the Richmond Park seat defeating Lib Dems' Sarah Olney by 45 votes. Goldsmith won 28,588 votes while Olney won 28,543 votes.
11.30 am IST: Seats won so far:
- Conservative Party: 312 seats
- Labour Party: 260 seats
- Scottish National Party: 35 seats
- Liberal Democrats: 12 seats
- Democratic Unionist Party: 10 seats
11.10 am IST: Corbyn is likely to go to the Labour Party's Southside headquarters to thank and congratulate party workers, the Guardian reports.
11.08 am IST: The Scottish National Party's Stephen Gethins wins the North East Fife seat in Scotland, beating the Liberal Democrats by just two votes. She is the party's spokesperson in Europe.
11:05 am IST: May now has the right to make the first attempt at forming a coalition government. However, it seems to be a difficult task considering her tough take on Brexit.
May and her ministers will remain in charge until a new government is formed. They will have full legal powers to act on behalf of the country. However, it is expected that they would avoid taking major decisions by convention.
10.50 am IST: Former Labour Party MP Ed Miliband tweeted:
We know Theresa May can't now negotiate Brexit for Britain because she told us losing majority would destroy her authority---and it has.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) June 9, 2017
10.40 am IST: The Green Party has returned to the House of Commons with its sole MP Caroline Lucas winning in Brighton Pavilion with 30,139 votes.
10.31 am IST: A hung parliament has now been confirmed with the Conservatives emerging as the largest party. It cannot win a majority now, the Guardian reported. The Tories have won 307 seats while the Labour Party has won 257 seats until now.
10.20 am IST: Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party has said it is willing to negotiate with PM May to help her form government in the country.
10.09 am IST: A total of 192 women MPs have won in the elections this time, UK's Press Association reports. There are 191 women in the outgoing parliament.
10 am IST: The Conservative party is currently leading with 299 seats
9.46 am IST: The Liberal Democrats win Oxford West and Abingdon
9.40 am IST: Britain gets its first female Sikh and first turban-wearing MPs with Indian-origin Labour Party candidates winning more seats than their rival candidates from the Conservative Party.
Labour Party candidate Preet Kaur Gill won in Birmingham Edgbaston with 24,124 votes, defeating Conservative Party's Caroline Squire by 6,917 votes. Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi won in Slough with 34,170 votes to become Labour's first turban-wearing MP.
9.35 am IST: Labour Party's Bambos Charalambous wins Enfield Southgate with 24,989 votes
9.26 am IST: Amber Rudd of the Conservative Party wins in Hastings and Rye after a recount.
9.15 am IST: The Conservatives have lost to the Labour Party in Brighton Kemptown. The seat earlier belonged to Britain's Economic Secretary to the Treasury Simon Kirby
9.12 am IST: The Tories have won Banff and Buchan with a huge 20 percent swing from the SNP to the Conservatives, the Guardian reported.
9.06 am IST: In Northern Ireland, the final results suggest that Sinn Féin has won back the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency from the Ulster Unionists. The overall outcome says that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has won 10 seats while Sinn Féin has won seven seats having still boycotted Westminster.
9.05 am IST: Harriet Harman wins Camberwell and Peckham for the Labour Party with 44,665 votes.
9.03 am IST: Former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond loses his Gordon seat to the Tories. Speaking after his defeat, Salmond said that his parliamentary career had been "the privilege of my life. I'm grateful for these times. For the activists in the SNP who have made the many electoral successes possible."
He added that the public "had not seen the last of him." He also said that "the SNP has lost many fine parliamentarians this evening and that is a grievous blow to the SNP.
With the defeat of Salmond, Sturgeon is likely to face extreme pressure to drop her demand for a second independence referendum in Scotland before UK leaves the EU.
9.02 am IST: The latest BBC forecast suggests that the Tories are likely to win 318 seats, eight short of a majority. The Labour Party is likely to win 267 seats, the SNP 32 and Lib Dems 11 seats.
Corbyn may find it difficult to form government because even if the SNP and the Lib Dems support him, the Labour Party's total would go p to 310, which is still 16 short of a majority needed in the 650-seat parliament.
9.01 am IST: The Conservatives have retained their seat in South Thanet. Craig Mackinlay, who was charged in connection with his expenses in the 2015 election, has won the constituency.
8.55 am IST: Increasing its lead over Corbyn's Labour Party, the Conservative Party has now won 249 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. The Labour Party is trailing with 228 seats.
8.52 am IST: Scottish National Party's leader Nicola Sturgeon has called the election results "disappointing". She had earlier said that the election was a "disaster" for May.
8.45 am IST: The Conservative Party is now leading with 225 seats with the Labour party trailing behind with 222 seats.
8.37 am IST: Conservative Party leader and Britain's Housing Minister Gavin Barwell loses his seat to Labour Party's Sarah Jones, who won in Croydon Central with 29,873 votes as opposed to Barwell's 24,221 votes.
8.30 am IST: A party needs to win 326 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons to form government in the country. In the 2015 elections, the Conservative Party had won 330 seats while the Labour Party had won 229 seats.
8.20 am IST: Seats won so far:
- Labour Party: 193 seats
- Conservative Party: 183 seats
- Scottish National Party: 29 seats
- Democratic Unionist Party: 10 seats
- Liberal Democrats: 9 seats
8.10 am IST: Awkward..!!
Worst high 5 of all time...? pic.twitter.com/XyIE5oYt7H
— Dan Hewitt (@danhewittsky) June 9, 2017
8 am IST: Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron retains his seat at Westmorland and Lonsdale.
7.56 am IST: "At this time, more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability. And if, as the indications have shown, and this is correct, that the Conservative party has won the most seats, and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do," May says in Maidenhead.
7.53 am IST: May has retained her seat in the Maidenhead constituency. But her party is still trailing the Labour Party by 14 seats as the UK seems to be heading towards a hung parliament. "If the Conservative party has won the most seats and most votes, it will be incumbent on it to ensure stability," she says.
7.45 am IST: Corbyn urges PM May "to go" after poor election results for the Conservative Party. He also said that the Labour Party has "changed the face of British politics" as the early results indicated that the UK was heading towards a hung parliament.
"The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate. Well the mandate she's got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough for her to go actually," Corbyn says.
7.40 am IST: "Politics has changed, and politics isn't going back to the box it was in before. People have had quite enough of austerity," Corbyn says in Islington North.
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