Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call a mid-term election may have backfired, with an exit poll after Thursday’s voting predicting a hung parliament. The ruling Conservative party will fall short of a simple majority in the 650-member House of House of Commons, the forecast says.
Exit polls in the past have gone wrong, but the one conducted by the BBC, ITV and Sky predicted 314 seats for the Conservatives --- the majority mark is 326 --- and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour on 266. The Scottish National Party was predicted to bag 34 -- 22 less than its 2015 tally.
The Conservative party was still predicted to emerge as the single largest party but there were speculations that May’s high-risk gamble to hold the election for a large mandate to push her version of Brexit may have fallen flat.
A clear trend is expected to be known by Friday afternoon -- by when most of the results will be known.
Party leaders and pundits received the exit poll results with some caution, with Conservative rejecting it outright.
{{/usCountry}}Party leaders and pundits received the exit poll results with some caution, with Conservative rejecting it outright.
{{/usCountry}}Defence secretary Michael Fallon insisted that the real result that matters is the actual results and not the exit poll. Senior Labour leader John McDonnell agreed, even though the exit poll showed a higher tally for his party.
The pound fell sharply after the exit poll, because there was an expectation that May’s Conservative party would win a clear majority in the House of Commons. The pound fell by around a cent and half to $1.2792 against the dollar.