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Business News/ News / World/  David Cameron set to keep power as Nationalists sweep Scotland
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David Cameron set to keep power as Nationalists sweep Scotland

An updated BBC forecast at 6 am put the Conservatives on course to win 325 of Parliament's 650 seats

The results also showed support for the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron’s coalition partners, crashing and a landslide victory for nationalists in Scotland at the expense of Labour. Photo: ReutersPremium
The results also showed support for the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron’s coalition partners, crashing and a landslide victory for nationalists in Scotland at the expense of Labour. Photo: Reuters

London: David Cameron is set to remain prime minister with an effective majority in Parliament after pulling off a surprise election victory that was helped by a near-total victory for nationalists in Scotland. The pound jumped.

An updated BBC forecast at 6 am put the Conservatives on course to win 325 of Parliament’s 650 seats, more than in the last election in 2010, with Ed Miliband’s Labour Party trailing on 232. The Liberal Democrats were forecast to win just 12, a fifth of their 2010 total.

Cameron campaigned on his record of producing an economic recovery and cutting a record budget deficit, while keeping the anti-immigration UK Independence Party at bay with a promise to hold a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. The results also showed support for the Liberal Democrats, Cameron’s coalition partners, crashing and a landslide victory for nationalists in Scotland at the expense of Labour.

“This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party," Labour leader Ed Miliband said after winning his own seat in northern England. “I’m deeply sorry for what has happened."

The pound rose 2.2% to 72.39 pence per euro at 6:44 am London time, the biggest jump since March 2009. It jumped 1.5% to $1.5475.

The FTSE 100 Index of stocks may open 70 points higher if the exit poll proves accurate, Joshua Raymond, chief market strategist at City Index in London, wrote on Twitter. The index closed at 6,886.95 on Thursday, the lowest since 2 April.

Polls miss

Every opinion poll before Thursday’s election had indicated the Tories were neck-and-neck with Labour Party, causing market volatility on concern months of uncertainty lay ahead as Britain struggled to form a government.

The speaker in the 650-member House of Commons doesn’t vote and some Northern Irish lawmakers traditionally don’t take their seats, making 325 a barely workable majority.

While Labour figures early in the night suggested they might still join forces with the SNP to push Cameron out, that prospect receded as the scale of the Tory gains became clear.

The Liberal Democrat are on course to win just 12 seats, a fifth of their 2010 total. Business secretary Vince Cable and energy secretary Ed Davey both lost to Tories in London. In Scotland, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, business minister Jo Swinson and former leader Charles Kennedy all lost. Labour casualties included foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander — beaten by a 20-year-old student — and Jim Murphy, leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

Tory support

While the Tories would be just short of a formal 326-seat majority and might be unlikely to be able to call on the Liberal Democrats, they would probably be able to get support from the Democratic Unionists in Northern Ireland, who won eight seats in 2010. The DUP said it would back either of the two main parties to form a government provided it gained concessions for Northern Ireland.

“I want my party, and I hope the government I would like to lead, to reclaim the mantle of one nation, and one United Kingdom," Cameron said after winning his own seat. “That’s how I hope to govern if I’m lucky enough to form a government in the coming days."

The impact of the SNP’s triumph will be fresh confrontations between Edinburgh and London as the nationalists seek to stoke support for independence.

Biggest jump

The Tories focused their campaign on warnings that a Labour government backed by the separatist SNP would throw Britain into “chaos." They also argued that Labour would slow Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s deficit-reduction programme — the “long-term economic plan" that foresees a budget surplus in 2018-19.

As well as £30 billion ($46 billion) in fiscal consolidation, including cuts in welfare spending, the Tory manifesto pledges reductions in income tax and inheritance tax and the chance for many tenants to buy their homes.

Labour had pledged to reintroduce a tax on bank bonuses, raise the top rate of income tax to 50% from 45%, freeze energy prices, cap the profits of suppliers to the National Health Service and impose a mansion tax on the most expensive homes.

With 58 of Scotland’s 59 seats declared, the SNP held 55 of them, putting the question of the break-up of the UK firmly back on the agenda. Scots voted 55% to 45% against independence last September, but the referendum energized the nationalists, who won six seats in 2010. Bloomberg

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Published: 08 May 2015, 08:12 AM IST
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