LONDON — The Conservative Party fared much better than expected in Britain’s parliamentary election, with an exit poll and early returns suggesting that Prime Minister David Cameron would remain in his office at 10 Downing Street. ADVERTISING LONDON — The
LONDON — The Conservative Party fared much better than expected in Britain’s parliamentary election, with an exit poll and early returns suggesting that Prime Minister David Cameron would remain in his office at 10 Downing Street.
All day Thursday across the nation of 64 million people, voters streamed to schools, churches and even pubs for a say in their country’s future. About 50 million people were registered to vote, and turnout appeared high for Britain’s most unpredictable vote in decades.
Cameron voted early with his wife, then hours later beamed as he arrived for the count in his constituency in southern England around 2:30 a.m. With his Conservatives on the cusp of winning a majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, the election result looked set to be far better than opinion pollsters, or even his own party, had foreseen.
London Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative candidate for parliament, said if the exit poll was accurate, “then obviously it’s a very, very clear victory for the Conservatives and a very bad night for Labour.”
The opposition Labour Party led by Ed Miliband took a beating, according to the exit poll, much of it due to the rise of the separatist Scottish National Party. The poll said the SNP would take all but one of the 59 seats in Scotland, most of them from Labour.
“What we’re seeing tonight is Scotland voting to put its trust in the SNP to make Scotland’s voice heard, a clear voice for an end to austerity, better public services and more progressive politics at Westminster,” party leader Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC.
Labour’s rout in Scotland was comprehensive, as the party’s supporters stampeded to the nationalists in droves. Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy lost his seat, but insisted he would not resign. Miliband’s grip on the leadership seemed more tenuous, as the party failed to make predicted gains against the Conservatives across the rest of Britain.
Cameron’s coalition partner, the Liberal Democrat party, was expected to lose most of its seats.
The exit poll projected that the Conservatives would get 316 seats — up from 302 and far more than had been predicted — and Labour 239, down from 256. The Liberal Democrats would shrink from 56 seats to 10, while the Scottish nationalists would grow from six to 58. The anti-immigration, anti-Europe UK Independence Party was projected to win two seats.
