Conservatives sweep to power as Labour takes a beating in Scotland
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THE Conservative Party has swept to power in Britain’s parliamentary elections, winning an unexpected majority that returns Prime Minister David Cameron to 10 Downing Street in a stronger position than before.
Cameron went to Buckingham Palace to tell Queen Elizabeth II that he has enough support to form a government.
That brought the election to a conclusion that was much quicker than expected. Polls ahead of election day had shown the Conservatives locked in a tight race with the opposition Labour Party, raising the possibility of days or weeks of negotiations to form a government.
Labour took a beating, mostly from energized Scottish nationalists who pulled off a landslide in Scotland, and Ed Miliband announced his resignation as party leader.
“I’m truly sorry I did not succeed,” Miliband said. “We’ve come back before and this party will come back again.”
With the Conservatives winning an outright majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, the election result looked to be far better for Cameron than even his own party had foreseen. With 643 constituencies counted, the Conservatives had 326 seats to Labour’s 230.
The prime minister beamed as he was announced the winner of his Witney constituency in southern England.
“This is clearly a very strong night for the Conservative Party,” he said.
Cameron, the first Conservative prime minister to win a second term since Margaret Thatcher, vowed to counter the rise of Scottish nationalism with more powers for Scotland and Wales.
“I want my party, and I hope a government that I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost — the mantle of one nation, one United Kingdom,” he said.
Labour was routed in Scotland by the Scottish National Party, which took 56 of the country’s 59 seats. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC that the vote represented “a clear voice for an end to austerity, better public services and more progressive politics at Westminster.”
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond, who was elected as MP for the Gordon constituency, said: “The Scottish lion has roared this morning across the country.”
Cameron’s coalition partner, the Liberal Democrat party, faced electoral disaster, losing most of its seats as punishment for supporting a Conservative-led agenda since 2010. Leader Nick Clegg held onto his seat but resigned as party leader.
Among the early Scottish National Party winners was 20-year-old student Mhairi Black, who defeated Douglas Alexander, Labour’s 47-year-old foreign policy spokesman and one of its most senior figures. Black is the youngest UK lawmaker since 13-year-old Christopher Monck entered Parliament in 1667.
One of the big losers of the day was UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who resigned after losing his race. His party ran third in opinion polls, but by early yesterday had won only one seat because its support is spread out geographically.
Britain’s economy — recovering after years of turmoil that followed the 2008 financial crisis — was at the core of many voters’ concerns. The results suggest that many heeded Cameron’s entreaties to back the Conservatives as the party of financial stability.
Questions at television debates made plain that many voters distrusted politicians’ promises to safeguard the economy, protect the National Health Service and control immigration.
Polls had shown a virtual dead heat in the race, and many expected weeks of wrangling over who would be in power.
“I thought it would be closer,” said account manager Nicky Kelly-Lord, 38.
But some, like project manager Jonathan Heeley, 42, thought it inevitable that a country struggling to rebuild in the wake of the financial crisis would be anxious to keep the recovery going.
“The country’s rebuilding itself and people want to stay with that,” he said.
The pound surged as much as 2 percent after exit poll results were released, as investors took that as reassurance the country will not see days or weeks of uncertainty over the formation of a new government. The currency held onto most of those gains yesterday, trading at US$1.5440. Stocks also surged, with the main FTSE 100 up 1.6 percent.
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