Final results of the UK general election indicate that the Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Theresa May has been delivered a heavy blow by the people as she failed to secure majority seats in the parliament. Press TV interviewed Robert Evans, a former member of the European Parliament from London, and Ian Williams, an expert of the Foreign Policy in Focus from New York, on Britain’s political outlook following the shock vote.

Evans predicts that Britain would experience “complete and utter political chaos” in the next few months as the general elections ended in a hung parliament, where the Conservatives won 318 seats, short of the 326 they needed for an outright majority and well down from the 330 seats they had before.

The Conservatives would criticize the prime minister for such a “poor campaign” that ended up in losing 13 seats in the Parliament, he added.

The commentator also warned that Britain is facing turmoil because the Tories have failed to secure a stable transition period ahead of Brexit talks.

“We are in not quite a political stalemate, but we are in a situation of turmoil just when the Conservative said they wanted stability because of the Brexit debates and Brexit arguments,” he added.

He further pointed to Theresa May’s unsuccessful campaign that paved the way for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party to clinch 261 seats in the parliament.

“This result is a big surprise for many people because we have been told repeatedly by the opinion polls that something different was going to happen,” Evans noted.

May “thought when she called the election very arrogantly that she was going to get a big vote of confidence but in fact the British people have spoken and they said they don’t like what is going on, they didn’t like the manifest that the Conservatives put forward,” he argued.

The former member of the European Parliament blamed the premier for her party’s defeat in the snap election.

“Theresa May refused to debate, she refused to talk with the ordinary people in the election” and “she has paid the price for that,” the analyst added.

Another panelist, Williams, said that Theresa May made a mistake when she called for a snap election because the prime minister had a wrong expectation about winning the election.

May could not get a majority in the parliament, because she had US President Donald “Trump’s politics” and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s “demeanor,” which is a fatal combination, the analyst elaborated.

He also forecast “a very precarious future” for the United Kingdom and for Theresa May, who needs to form a coalition government, while “almost all of other parties in the parliament are opposed to the Tory policy of austerity and cuts in spending and welfare.”

This is a clear mandate from the British public against conservative and neo-liberal austerity policies, Williams concluded.

Culled from Presstv

Britain wakes up Friday morning more divided and uncertain about its future than anyone thought possible. A general election that was supposed to settle political and constitutional questions thrown up by Britain’s exit from the European Union failed — answering none, raising more and leaving no party with a majority in parliament.

From a position of relative strength, dominating a compliant parliament which had accepted Brexit, Theresa May is now struggling to cling on to her job, unsure whether she will even be able to form a minority government. After a night of political drama which saw Labour’s vote share surge by 10 points, halving the 2010 deficit, three things now seem certain: May is mortally wounded; Jeremy Corbyn is safe as Labour party leader for as long as he wants; and Britain is in for a prolonged period of political instability which may only be solved by a second general election.

If Brussels had come round to the prospect of an unyielding two-year Brexit negotiation under May — grating in its parochialism maybe, but at least grown up — they now face the nightmare prospect of a new partner across the table or a weakened May beholden to her backbenchers and a small retinue of Northern Irish MPs.

A hung parliament — in which no single party commands a majority — is certain. Her future as prime minister hangs by a thread. She could be gone by the end of the day. A second general election could be called within months — taking place as early as August. Brexit is also now up in the air — as even David Davis admitted.

The Brexit Secretary told Sky News at 2.30am that the election was, in part, about getting a mandate for “the sort of Brexit we want.” It was also designed to give the government more time to complete the process by ensuring that the incoming administration would have a clear five years before having to call an election.

He suggested the U.K. government may have lost a mandate to exit customs union and single market. “[Our manifesto] said we wanted to leave the customs union and the single market, but get access to them. That’s what it was about, that’s what we put in front of the British people, we’ll see by tomorrow whether they’ve accepted that or not,” he said.

Nigel Farage was quick to warn that he would re-enter the political fray if Brexit was softened. “We may well be looking down the barrel of a second referendum.” The Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland — potential king-makers if the Tories are to remain in power — will look to soften Brexit around the edges, particularly in order to ensure there is no threat to the soft border with the Republic of Ireland, so crucial for the region’s economic security.

Boris Johnson is the most obvious Tory winner from the fallout. When a steady but uninspiring leader has been found wanting, they may turn to a tried and tested winner with the charisma to take on Corbyn. Boris Johnson was already “sharpening the knives for Theresa May,” Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said.

Source: Politico

British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn says it is time for the UK to hold “difficult conversations” with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the wake of the London terror attack.

Terror on and near the London Bridge left at least seven people dead and wounded almost 50 others on Saturday.

“Yes, we do need to have some difficult conversations starting with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states that have funded and fueled extremist ideology,” Corbyn said in Carlisle, north England, on Sunday.

Daesh claims responsibility

Saudi Arabia and some of its regional allies have already been implicated in support for Takfiri terrorism, currently wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.

On Saturday, three knife-wielding assailants drove a hired van into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed others nearby in an attack initially praised and subsequently claimed by the Daesh Takfiri group.

“A detachment of Daesh fighters executed yesterday’s London attack,” said a statement posted on Amaq’s media page, monitored in Cairo.

The opposition leader, who will face Prime Minister Theresa May in a June 8 snap election, also censured Islamophobia in the wake of the attack.

“We must resist Islamophobia and division and turn out on June 8 united in our determination to show our democracy is strong,” asserted the Labour leader.

Culled from Presstv

British voters are more likely to vote for the Labour Party in the June 8 general election, says a scholar in London, arguing that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is the only candidate who represents a real change. Dr. Rodney Shakespeare, a university professor and political analyst, made the remarks when asked about Labour’s recent rise in polls.

The latest YouGov survey showed on Tuesday that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s ruling Conservative Party was likely to lose 20 parliamentary seats and Labour could gain almost 30 in the upcoming vote. That means Tories could ultimately win 310 seats at the election, falling short of an absolute majority of 326 seats needed to form a government.

Such a result on June 9 would be catastrophic for May, who called for the snap election back in April, arguing the UK needed certainty, stability and strong leadership in Brexit negotiations with the European Union.

“I don’t usually bet or gamble, but I have placed two bets on the UK general election: one is that there would be no overall majority and two that Labour will win,” Shakespeare told Press TV on Wednesday. “The reason is actually the same reason that led people to vote for Brexit,” he argued. “Brexit was motivated by lots of people suffering economic hardship that has increased rich-poor division.”

The “anger over economic insecurity” was what Shakespeare said would come into play in favor of the Labour Party this time. Aside from this, the issue of terrorism was another factor that was going to help Labour, according to Shakespeare.

He argued that concerns for more terror attack like the one that took place in Manchester recently won’t go away unless a “fundamental change” takes place in the UK’s current foreign policy. “The only way that we can stop that is strike at the philosophical of that [terrorist] belief which is in fact the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “There is a chance that Jeremy Corbyn at least would stand up to be counted.”

The scholar argued that Corbyn would certainly bring about change in Britain’s Bahrain policy, but it remains to be seen if he can do the same with regards to Saudi Arabia. “Very urgent is to vote in somebody, that means in practice Jeremy Corbyn and Labour Party, who is going to at least start what should be a huge change in foreign policy,” he added. “Saudi Arabia, the USA, the UK and Israel… they are all in together… we have to stand up to be counted,” Shakespeare concluded.

Culled from Presstv