U.K. Conservatives to Win Most Seats, Election Exit Poll Suggests
Here is this topical report from Bloomberg:
David Cameron is on course to remain prime minister at the head of a minority government after the U.K. general election, an exit poll showed. The pound jumped.
The prime minister’s Conservatives were forecast to win 316 of Parliament’s 650 seats, with Ed Miliband’s Labour Party trailing on 239 seats, according to the survey of voters published shortly after polling stations closed Thursday.
The forecast, based on interviews at voting centers in 140 districts across Britain, put the Scottish National Party in third place with 58 seats and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats fourth with 10, almost wiping out the 57 seats they won in 2010.
“We haven’t had an incumbent government increase its majority since 1983,” Conservative Chief Whip Michael Gove told the BBC. “If it is right, it means the Conservatives have clearly won this election and Labour has lost it.”
The pound rose 1.1 percent to $1.5418 as of 10:02 p.m. London time. Sterling strengthened 1 percent to 73.15 pence per euro.
The first results from electoral districts will start coming in from about 11 p.m. London time, with the final seat not due to declare until Friday afternoon.
If true, and the exit polls cannot be entirely wrong, this is an unexpectedly large triumph for David Cameron and the Conservative Party.
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