Richmond falls to Zac Goldsmith May 7, 2010 Green millionaire poster boy Zac Goldsmith was celebrating his successful election campaign in the west London seat of Richmond Park today, after having won the poll with virtually half of the votes in the constituency. Richmond’s result marked a 7 per cent swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives, as a staggering 76.9 per [...]
…but Conservatives consolidate gains in the Home Counties constituencies May 7, 2010 VOTERS in the Home Counties yesterday flocked to the polls in droves in support of David Cameron’s Tories, with the party swinging the majority of the key marginal seats surrounding London. Previous Labour constituencies such as Dartford, Reading West, Harlow, Stevenage, Basildon, Crawley and Watford all fell to the Conservatives, thanks to weighty swings in [...]
BNP’s Griffin crashes out against Margaret Hodge May 7, 2010 BRITISH National Party leader Nick Griffin conceded defeat earlier today in his Barking election battle against Labour veteran Margaret Hodge, who said the seat had sent a resounding message to the far-right to “get out and stay out”. Griffin secured just 14.6 per cent of the vote, against Hodge’s majority 54.3 per cent share – [...]
Lib Dems fail to live up to Cleggmania May 7, 2010 NICK Clegg admitted he was disappointed by his party’s lacklustre performance at the polls as the promise of a “new politics” gave way to disillusionment. While their slide from the dizzying heights of the “Clegg bounce” weeks earlier did not come as a complete surprise, nobody in their camp expected things to fall apart so [...]
Green Party takes first ever Commons seat in Brighton May 7, 2010 THE GREEN Party made its most significant political breakthrough in Britain today when it won its first ever national parliamentary seat in the southern English seaside city of Brighton. Caroline Lucas, the environmental party’s leader and a member of the European Parliament for South East England, won the Brighton Pavilion seat, overturning a Labour majority [...]
Voters turned away amid polling chaos May 7, 2010 THE Electoral Commission has launched an investigation as chaos at polling stations threatened to overshadow the closest election in over 30 years. Thousands of voters were turned away before they got to the ballot box as understaffed and ill-prepared polling stations struggled to cope with the high turnout. More than 300 people were blocked from [...]
Britain’s been here before: 1974 election voted in hung house May 7, 2010 THE only hung parliament the UK has had during the modern electoral system was in 1974. Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath had tried to gain the political impetus by calling a snap election but was caught out when the public did not return an outright majority. The result of the February election was extremely close, [...]
CITY VIEWS: CAN THE BRITISH ECONOMY COPE WITH A HUNG PARLIAMENT? May 7, 2010 PRAKASH AGARWAL | UBS “Yes, I come from India where coalition government is the norm and we never have any problems. The politicians will be sensible enough to come to a decision that is right for the country and a coalition will keep them honest. I understand there’s concern over the deficit but I think [...]
Q&A: HUNG PARLIAMENT May 7, 2010 Q. What happens now that there is a hung parliament? A. In the first instance, Gordon Brown has the constitutional right to try and form a government, something he will almost certainly do. Last night, Labour figures led a concerted effort to try and convince the Liberal Democrats to enter a Lib-Lab coalition, in exchange [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS (AND SOME OF THE BLOGS) SAY TODAY May 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ELECTION ENDS IN HUNG PARLIAMENT David Cameron was facing the prospect of a constitutional stand-off with Gordon Brown on Friday morning over who would get the keys to Number 10 as a hung parliament in the UK appeared inevitable. The Conservative party leader insisted that Labour had “lost its mandate to govern” as [...]
