Horse-trading looms as British voters deliver hung parliament
Britain today has a hung Parliament after an inconclusive result to the most tightly fought General Election in a generation.
With 36 seats still to be counted, David Cameron’s Conservatives had secured 289 MPs – making it impossible for them to reach the 326 threshold for an overall majority.
The results set the scene for behind-the-scenes horse-trading possibly stretching into the weekend and beyond, as the parties struggle to form a viable administration.
In the North, the future of Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson is in doubt after his sensational defeat.
After more than 30 years at Westminster, he lost out to the Alliance Party's Naomi Long.
He still retains his position as First Minister and Mr Robinson's DUP colleague Jeffrey Donaldson says the party will stand by him.
A hung parliament comes about when no single party has a majority of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons after the General Election.
But that simple statement barely does justice to the cat’s cradle of computations that could follow a deadlocked ballot.
In simple arithmetic, a party needs 326 MPs for a majority in the Commons. But the Speaker, by convention, does not vote and Sinn Féin MPs have traditionally not taken up their seats at Westminster – so that alters the maths straight away.
And it is possible for a minority government to continue in office on a vote-by-vote basis, without any formal or informal deal with another party or parties, unless and until it loses a vote of confidence in the House.
With no party winning a clear majority, convention states that Mr Brown will still be Prime Minister and Labour ministers will remain in office.
He is the Queen’s Prime Minister and they are her Government until such time as he advises her to summon another party leader to the Palace to take over the reins or asks for another election.
Recently-published Cabinet Office guidance states: “Where an election does not result in a clear majority for a single party, the incumbent Government remains in office unless and until the Prime Minister tenders his and the Government’s resignation to the Monarch.
“An incumbent Government is entitled to await the meeting of the new Parliament to see if it can command the confidence of the House of Commons or to resign if it becomes clear that it is unlikely to command that confidence.
“If a Government is defeated on a motion of confidence in the House of Commons, a Prime Minister is expected to tender the Government’s resignation immediately.
“A motion of confidence may be tabled by the Opposition, or may be a measure which the Government has previously said will be a test of the House’s confidence in it. Votes on the Queen’s Speech have traditionally been regarded as motions of confidence.”
Mr Brown can be expected to hold on to power for as long as he sees a possible way to do so.
But there has been speculation that David Cameron may challenge convention by declaring himself the winner despite falling short of an overall majority.
In such circumstances, Mr Brown would have to weigh up whether holding on is possible in the face of what would be intense political, public and media pressure.
