For the third time in just over two years, British voters found themselves waking up on Friday to a dramatic poll result that few of them had confidently predicted.
The strong and stable – and sizeable – Tory majority on which Theresa May had gambled her premiership, as well as the country’s negotiating position on Brexit, had been revealed as an almost laughable fantasy.
Instead of the 50, or 80, or 100+ seat lead that the majority of the polls, right up until election day, had predicted, the Conservatives had failed to scrape their way to a workable majority. That was thanks to an astonishing Labour surge that had been inconceivable at the start of the election campaign seven weeks ago, when May’s lead in the polls was bigger than Corbyn’s entire share of the vote.
But if the remarkable nature of the general election result was clear, quite what it meant for the future government of the UK was anything but. For both the bleary-eyed political obsessives who, stunned by the 10pm exit polls, had been unable to switch off on Thursday night, and the astonished latecomers flicking on radios and TV sets to learn the scale of the shock, that meant a morning of frenzied texting, tweeting and Googling.
Inevitably, #hungparliament began trending on Twitter, first nationally and then worldwide. The most searched political party on Google overnight on Thursday was the Democratic Unionists (DUP), as it became increasingly apparent that a badly wounded May would need the support of the Northern Irish party to have any hope of forming a government, since both the Liberal Democrats and SNP had vehemently ruled out propping up the Tories.
Speculation was feverish that May could not stay in her job – a prospect first raised by George Osborne, the former chancellor whom she sacked last year from the cabinet, in the moments after the exit poll first dropped on Thursday night, sending an electric shock through the political establishment and the country alike.
Then, politicians and pundits had scrambled to recalibrate their expectations for what, it seemed certain, was going to be a dreadful election for the Tories – and particularly for the woman who triggered it. Only minutes after 10pm, Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor, was confidently predicting that if the exit poll was correct, another general election would surely follow before too long.
With a hung parliament likely, attention turned to the potential kingmakers, though the former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell reminded viewers that “Tim Farron made it very clear: no pact, no deal, no coalition.” The DUP, however, was contemplating its potential role in the brave new political world with what Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, one of its MPs, openly admitted was “relish”. The Tory struggles, he said, were “perfect territory for the DUP, because obviously if the Conservatives are just short of an overall majority it puts us in a very strong negotiating position.”
It was not until 3am that May came into view. Tight-faced and visibly strained, she delivered her acceptance speech at the Maidenhead count looking anything but victorious. The priority was stability, she said. Her message, now, was that if the Conservatives did win the most seats and the most votes “it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability, and that is what we will do”.
Jeremy Corbyn, by contrast, arrived at his count beaming broadly, with the body language of a man who had wildly outperformed expectations and become unassailable as his party’s leader.
There were plenty of shocks as the night went on. One of the biggest beasts to fall was Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and former Lib Dem Leader, who looked visibly upset at being ousted by Labour from Sheffield Hallam, a seat he has held since 2005. In his speech, Clegg said it had been the greatest privilege of his political career to serve as the local MP, and urged politicians to work together across party lines. “We must try and reach out to each other to find common ground to heal those divisions,” he said. “If we do not our country will endure unprecedented hardship.”
It was a night of disappointment, too, for the SNP. The party’s total number of seats fell from 2015’s unprecedented 56 to 35, amid a Tory fightback that saw the Scottish Conservatives under Ruth Davidson double their share of the vote and take 13 seats north of the border. Among those ousted by Conservative rivals were Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, and Angus Robertson, the party’s leader in Westminster.
Labour took a Conservative scalp with the highly symbolic toppling in Ipswich of Ben Gummer, the Cabinet Office minister who had written the Conservative manifesto.
There were uncomfortably close shaves, meanwhile, for Amber Rudd, the home secretary, who sneaked home in Hastings and Rye after a recount with a majority of just 346, and for Anna Soubry, the prominent pro-remain Conservative, who confounded predictions that she had lost her Broxtowe seat to hang on, just. In Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith narrowly squeaked back by just 45 votes into the seat he lost to the Lib Dems six months ago.
Despite the departure of their former leader, the Liberal Democrats also had some cause to celebrate, with their seat tally rising from eight to 12. Vince Cable, formerly business minister in the coalition government, regained Twickenham, and Jo Swinson, the former equalities minister, took Dunbartonshire East back from the SNP.
As the scale of May’s failure became increasingly certain, pressure continued to build on her to step down. Soubry spoke for many Tories early on Friday morning when she said it had been “a dreadful night” and a “dreadful campaign”. Should May resign, she was asked by the BBC’s David Dimbleby? “It’s a matter for her … it’s bad.”
Sarah Wollaston, a prominent backbench Conservative, tweeted that May should get rid of her special advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, writing:
4. I cannot see how the inner circle of special advisers can continue in post. Needs to be far more inclusive in future
— Sarah Wollaston (@sarahwollaston) June 9, 2017
Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, speculated that the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, would now be “sharpening his knife” for a leadership challenge, though in his acceptance speech at the Uxbridge and South Ruislip count, Johnson said it was “too early to comment” on the events of the night.
Rumours swirled throughout Friday morning, nonetheless, that Johnson was indeed “on manoeuvres”, sounding out colleagues to test their support. But others spoke of an equally vigorous “stop Boris” campaign behind the scenes, with David Davis or Philip Hammond also floated as potential successors.
May’s opposing party leaders, unsurprisingly, were clear that her position was unsustainable. Farron gave a withering speech at his party’s headquarters on Friday, saying of May: “She has put her party before her country. She has been found out. She should be ashamed.
“We will now have a government that is weaker and less stable, at a time when we are about to embark on the most significant negotiations in our history. If she has an ounce of self-respect, she should resign.”
Having said in his constituency acceptance speech that the supposed mandate May had achieved — “lost votes, lost support and lost confidence” — was “enough [for her] to go, actually”, Jeremy Corbyn piled on the pressure on Friday morning, stressing that he was ready to join with others form a minority government. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, likewise stressed that May had “lost all authority and credibility”. “We’ve always said that we would work in alliance with others to promote progressive policies to build a fairer country. We stand ready to play our part in that alliance.”
Even Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, had suggested overnight that it would be “difficult for [May] to survive, given that she was presumed at the start of the campaign – which seems an awfully long time ago now – to come back with over 100, maybe more, in terms of her majority.” The prospect of power for the party’s 10 MPs evidently changed her mind as the night progressed.
The party, which was founded by the late Rev Ian Paisley, wants to allow people to discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds, opposes liberalising abortion rights in Northern Ireland, has repeatedly vetoed marriage equality and counts a number of creationists and climate change deniers among its senior members.
For one party leader, it was indeed the end of the road, as Paul Nuttall, appointed leader of Ukip in November, stepped down after a disastrous night which saw his party flatline across the country. Whoever succeeds him will be the party’s fourth leader in a year.
As confusion continued to swirl over what the result meant for Britain’s negotiations over Brexit – due to begin in just 11 days – there were conciliatory noises from a number of the continent’s key players, acknowledging that it was highly likely the UK was in no current position to negotiate anything.
“Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready,” tweeted the European commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. “Let’s put our minds together on striking a deal.”
Donald Tusk, president of the European council, also indicated there could be flexibility in the timetable for talks beginning, although he stressed that May’s decision to trigger article 50 before the election meant the clock was ticking on the deadline for negotiations to end.
But as a promised Downing Street speech at 10am failed to materialise, it rapidly became apparent that – humiliated or no – May had no intention of resigning, apparently intending to carry on just as before. Shortly after 12pm, her prime ministerial silver Jaguar swept out of Whitehall towards Buckingham Palace, where she would tell the Queen that she had secured a commitment from the DUP to support a minority Conservative government.
Her royal audience concluded, a grim-faced May stood at the Downing Street podium and gave a brief speech that was notable for the absence of any real acknowledgement of the electoral convulsions that had just shaken Britain. Brexit talks would continue in 10 days, just as before, she said. She would press ahead with the highly controversial anti-terror measures announced in the wake of the London Bridge attacks.
Only the reference to the support she would welcome of “our friends and allies in the Democratic Unionist party”, and perhaps her pointed reference to her own side as “the Conservative and Unionist party”, acknowledged in any way the new political landscape.
“I will now form a government. A government that can provide certainty,” said the woman who was still, somehow, prime minister, apparently without irony. “Now let’s get to work.”
