AS WE NOW know, Theresa May’s gamble to increase the Conservative Party’s overall majority in parliament, to lend further legitimacy to her Brexit stance, has backfired.
Instead of increasing their majority, the Tories have lost it altogether as Labour and Jeremy Corbyn made gains.
With the path to forming a new government uncertain, here are the winners and losers in the UK general election.
Jeremy Corbyn
It was a very good night for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He’d been called unelectable by his own party colleagues who tried to oust him well in advance of the election.
But he proved the doubters wrong, increasing Labour’s seats, avoiding a Conservative majority and earning the party a bigger vote share than it had in 2010 and 2015.
Zac Goldsmith
The on-off Conservative had an ill-fated campaign to become Mayor of London and resigned from his seat over the decision to build a new runway at Heathrow in his Richmond Park constituency.
He lost a by-election to Lib Dem Sarah Olney just six months ago, but regained his seat this time around by just 45 votes.
Ruth Davidson
The Conservative leader in Scotland faced much criticism on the eve of the election for calling SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon a “clype”, which is a slang term for an informer.
She did, however, manage to achieve the Tory’s best performance in Scotland since 1983, winning 13 seats from under the SNP’s nose.
The DUP
While the Democratic Unionist Party has only gained two seats, now up to 10, it occupies the position as potential kingmakers with the Conservatives missing out on an overall majority.
Speaking to the BBC this morning, Simon Hamilton MLA said that the party would wait to see what the final maths was, but accepted his party could hold a lot of power.
“Clearly our votes are going to be incredibly important in the new parliament.”
LOSERS
Nick Clegg
The former Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister faces an ignominious exit from Westminster, losing his seat that he clung on to in 2015.
Amid its front page coverage, the Daily Mail got a sly dig in at Clegg with the line “humiliation for loser Clegg”.
Alex Salmond
It was a bad night in general for the Scottish National Party, as it lost over 20 seats in the country.
Its former leader, Alex Salmond, was one of the main casualties, losing his Gordon seat.
The SDLP and UUP
Whatever about a two-party system for the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland is in a similar situation with Sinn Féin and the DUP now dominating the political landscape.
The SDLP and UUP have lost all of their seats in parliament.
Theresa May
The one with the most to lose was Theresa May, and the Conservative Party has lost its overall majority. The emerging narrative from the election is that her gamble to hold an election failed, and now the path to Brexit looks even more uncertain.
Reports at this stage indicate that she will not resign but she has faced calls from within her own party to step down this morning.
MP Anna Soubry said it was time that May should “consider her position”, adding that she had run “a dreadful campaign”.
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