U.K. election: Hung parliament guaranteed as no party can win a majority

(Image credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 9 June 2017

With 636 of 650 seats called, there is no way British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives or any other party will win enough seats for a majority, causing a hung parliament.

Almost every seat has been called, and the Conservatives have 310, followed by Labour with 258, both falling short of the 326 seats needed for a majority. Wanting to increase her majority ahead of Brexit talks, May called the early election in April, when her party had a 20 point lead over Labour, but support for Labour surged in recent weeks, and the party picked up several seats in the election. Conservatives aren't taking this stunning shift well, with one member of parliament, Nigel Evans, telling BBC 5 Live, "We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, we shot ourselves in the head."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox