Defying pre-election opinion polls, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Party won what he called “the sweetest victory of all,” trouncing the opposition Labour Party in parliamentary elections.
With 643 of 650 constituencies in the British Parliament counted, the Tories had 326 seats to Labour’s 230, giving Cameron’s party a slim majority.
It means he won’t need to form a coalition.
Another significant result was the Scottish National Party’s crushing of Labour, winning 56 of 59 seats in Scotland months after Scotland’s failed bid for independence.
The SNP has now overtaken the Liberal Democrats to become Britain’s third-largest party.
The Tory win is the second in a row in a major international election in which a conservative party defied pre-election polls and won a resounding victory, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election in February.
The Tories’ campaign focused on a record of economic competence and the chance to “finish the job” while Labour promised a shift to the left with higher taxes on the rich and government aid to the poor.
“I think this is the sweetest victory of all,” Cameron said. “There are so many things to be proud of in this result. The fact we held on in Scotland. The fact we extended our representation in Wales. The fact that candidates I have seen work so hard week in, week out, some of them year in, year out, have triumphed in so many seats.”
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who had been poised to become prime minister, and Liberal Democrat Party leader Nick Clegg both resigned their posts.
Miliband accepted “absolute and total responsibility” for the crushing defeat. His deputy, Harriet Harman, also resigned.
Clegg was one of just eight members of Parliament of the centrist Liberal Democrats to survive his party’s near total destruction. Before the election the party held 56 seats.
“This has been a cruel and punishing night,” Clegg said early Friday. “The election has profound implications for the country and the Liberal Democrats.”
Another major election casualty was the opinion polls.
“The pollsters need to go off and interrogate themselves and poll each other to find who has been telling porkies to whom,” said Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson, Agence France-Presse reported.
“It’s extraordinary that 11 polls on the eve of the election should get it so wrong,” he said.
The main poll-takers had the two parties at about 35 percent each.
Only one day before the elections, YouGov, ICM and Survation called it a draw, AFP said, and three other polls gave the Conservatives the narrowest of leads.
Thursday night’s elections also offered a human-interest story: The British Parliament now has its youngest member in nearly 350 years.
Mhairi Black, just 20 years old, defeated sitting Labour Party legislator Douglas Alexander by more than 6,000 votes.
She’s the youngest member since 13-year-old Christopher Monckton in 1667.
Black said in a tweet that the “people of Scotland are speaking and its time for their voice to be heard at Westminster.”
“Thank you to everyone who turned out and voted for me.”
The London Telegraph noted, however, she needs to complete her politics exam at the University of Glasgow before heading to Westminster.
