David Cameron’s Conservative Party has secured the largest share of seats in the UK General Election, and it seems increasingly likely they will form a majority government. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband is to resign following a crushing defeat.
“Clearly a very strong
night for the Conservative Party,” said Cameron, thanking his
Oxfordshire constituents for returning the seat to him.
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Cameron said he wishes to “govern on the basis of governing
for everyone,” to “bring our country together” and
deliver on devolution pledges made after the Scottish
independence referendum.
“I want my party, and I hope a government I want to lead, to
reclaim a mantle we should never have lost – of one nation,”
Cameron added.
Ed Miliband is to resign as Labour leader, having suffered
crushing defeats in the wake of a massive Scottish National Party
(SNP) surge. Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and Shadow Foreign
Secretary Douglas Alexander were among those eliminated.
While the party made gains at the expense of the Liberal
Democrats, Labour failed to capture target seats from the
Conservatives in England.
In one case, quite the opposite occurred with Shadow Chancellor
Ed Balls being turfed out of his Morley and Outwood seat by Tory
Andrea Jenkyns.
Thanking his supporters in Doncaster North, Miliband said it had
been a “disappointing and difficult night.” He admitted
a “surge of nationalism overwhelmed our party” and that
he was “deeply sorry for what happened” to his Labour
colleagues who lost their seats to the SNP.
The next government will face a “difficult task of keeping
our country together,” he added.
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Cameron’s current coalition partner, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick
Clegg’s Liberal
Democrats, have been utterly decimated.
While Clegg held his seat by an extremely tight margin, every
other Liberal Democrat cabinet minister was eliminated. In
astonishing scenes, Business Secretary Vince Cable, Treasury
Secretary Danny Alexander, former party leader Charles Kennedy,
Energy Secretary Ed Davey and Deputy Leader Simon Hughes were
among leading party ministers to lose their seats.
As a result, Clegg may be forced to resign as leader.
There is now little doubt David Cameron will remain prime
minister.
By far the biggest story of election night, however, is the SNP
surge. Former SNP leader Alex Salmond, who won his Gordon
constituency, claimed “the Scottish lion has roared across
the country this morning.”
While party leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
cautioned a second independence referendum is not guaranteed by
the result, the future of the United Kingdom seems increasingly
in doubt.
Other highlights of the night include a win for London Mayor
Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and Ruslip South. Green Party leader
Natalie Bennett failed to secure her London seat, but pushed her
Liberal Democrat rival into fourth place. Douglas Carswell was
returned to office as UKIP’s first MP to win a seat in a general
election.
The result for UKIP leader Nigel Farage remains a mystery.