UK set for hung Parliament with Tories largest party

[JessieHogg]

With more than 500 general election results in out of 650, the BBC is predicting a hung Parliament with the Tories as the largest party.

Labour cannot now win a majority, but it is not clear which party will be in a position to form a government.

Tory leader David Cameron said it was "clear that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern".

But Gordon Brown is set to start coalition talks with the Lib Dems, Downing Street sources have indicated.

The BBC projection suggests David Cameron's Conservatives will have 306 seats. If there are 10 Unionists elected in Northern Ireland then Mr Cameron might be able to command 316 - probably still slightly too few for him to be sure of winning a Queen's Speech.

But Labour and the Lib Dems together would have 317 seats, according to the BBC figures, which even with three SDLP MPs would still leave them at 320 - again probably just a few votes short.

[Expounder]

If any one has failed in this general election it's David Cameron. 13 Years of Labour government, an unpopular supposedly universally detested Prime Minister, Ashcroft's millions concentrated into brainwashing voters in marginals, with the exception of the Daily Mirror, a universally hostile press including Murdoch's Sun personally attacking Gordon Brown and rubbishing the Labour government policies on all fronts, TV pundits scarcely hiding their subtle dislike for Labour, the expenses scandal involving three Labour MPs being charged, along with Gordon Browns bigot-gate gaff and the Tories blowing a 20% one time lead in the polls, Cameron lost it.


If Gordon Brown's job is on the line at least Labour have a more than able replacement to step in immediately David Cameron's job is also under threat. Maybe not immediately, but when the dust settles, he will be blamed by the Tory elite for the shambles of a dogs dinner of a policy "The Big Society". The election results show that the three leaders debates turned out to be not a policy debating forum but a beauty contest which Clegg won on the beauty bit but turned to dust when put to the vote, with the voters also scratching their heads about Cameron's big society.

The Tories are now in a hung parliament of their own making with the commons now in total disarray and unable to function until something is cobbled together.

With the Lib Dems in shell shock with less seats than they last had in the commons their members will be demanding that Clegg makes the best of a disastrous situation and use this possible last opportunity to get some kind of P.R. reform from any deal they make. This will not be forthcoming from the Tories because it would spell and end to any landslide Tory government of the future. Even if he tries flirting with Cameron for a place in a Tory administration just to raise his personal profile and ego, the policies set down by his cabinet and Vince Cable will come into conflict with Tory aims and would cause a rift between Clegg and his party.
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