UK Elections 2010

[ejaz007]

Cameron set to win most seats
Updated at: 0530 PST, Friday, May 07, 2010


LONDON: In the first election since 1974 with no party gaining a majority, Cameron’s Conservatives were forecast to have won 305 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, the national exit poll showed. Labour was forecast to take 255 and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats 61, the poll showed.

The projection, if confirmed by actual results, may initiate a period of maneuvering as Brown seeks to remain in power through a coalition with other parties while Cameron asserts his right to form the next government.

“The outcome of this country’s vote isn’t yet known,” Brown said in his home district of Kirkcaldy after his re-election to Parliament was announced. “My duty to the country coming out of this election is to play my part in Britain having a strong, stable and principled government.”

Cameron’s margin was probably enough to force Brown to resign, even though passing his program of spending cuts to tackle a record budget deficit and folding the U.K. financial regulator into the Bank of England would require the support of other parties, said Mark Wickham-Jones, a professor of politics at Bristol University.

“If this exit poll is correct, Gordon Brown is out,” said Wickham-Jones. “Cameron is going to try and govern, but it’s going to be a very difficult time, very stormy.”

The pound rose 0.3 percent against the dollar, reversing a decline, to $1.4873 at 1:55 a.m. in London. Gilt futures expiring in June, which began trading at 1 a.m., opened higher, rising 0.4 percent to 117.70.

A minority government “seems likely to lead to some volatility in asset prices unless and until the ability of the new government to operate effectively is established,” said Simon Hayes, chief U.K. economist at Barclays Capital, in a note.

The minority government produced by the February 1974 election lasted eight months before another vote in October.

If the exit polls are borne out, Labour would have their lowest number of seats since 1987, prompting speculation Brown, 59, who took over from Tony Blair in June 2007 after spending 10 years as chancellor of the exchequer, may quit as leader.

“Gordon will know whether he should stay on or not,” Home Secretary Alan Johnson told media. “Gordon deserves the dignity to actually look at these things and make up his mind.”

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson signalled the prospect of forging a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, saying that Brown retained the first shot at forming a government if the opposition failed to gain majority.

“The rules are, if it’s a hung parliament, it’s not the party with the largest number of seats that has the first go, it’s the sitting government,” he said.

Brown appealed to the Liberal Democrats, one of whose top priorities is reforming the voting system. In Kirkcaldy, he said a coalition would “implement our commitments to far-reaching political reform, for which there is a growing consensus.”

A Brown spokesman said it was too soon to comment on a possible coalition, saying discussions would depend on final results.

Even without their own majority, Conservative leaders said Brown shouldn’t hesitate to relinquish control. Based on the exit polls, a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats still wouldn’t have a majority.

“It’s pretty clear that Labour cannot continue in government,” said George Osborne, the Conservatives’ Treasury spokesman. Labour politicians “need to get real, they’ve been rejected by the British people.”

Going into the vote, Labour had 345 seats and the Conservatives had 193.

In a sign of the breadth of the Conservative gains, the opposition took the Kingswood district in Gloucestershire from Labour. Its 9.4 percentage-point swing from Labour would give them a majority in Parliament if repeated across the country.

Voting was marred because long lines prevented some from casting their ballots before doors closed. Polling stations in Leeds, Ealing, Lewisham and Hackney were among those with such difficulties, the media reported.

In Sheffield, the local election official, John Mothersole, wrote an apology to residents who were unable to vote.

“We got this wrong and I would like to apologize,” he said in a statement on the city council’s website. “We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards.”

Cameron, 43, who would be the youngest prime minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1812, led his party to the biggest net gain of seats in 79 years. Osborne, 38, would be the youngest chancellor since Randolph Churchill in 1886.

They argued during the campaign that a record budget deficit, build-up of public debt and slumping economy demanded Brown’s ejection by voters. The parties clashed on the pace of spending reductions, with Brown saying Cameron’s pledge to enact cuts this year risked a double-dip recession.

While Cameron won’t have enough seats to push through his legislative agenda, he may not seek a formal partnership with Clegg, according to Philip Norton, professor of government at Hull University and a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

“If you’re a few short, you can still govern as a minority,” said Norton. “You could probably survive quite a while as a government without doing any deals.”

The exit poll was generated from surveys by GfKNOP and Ipsos-MORI at 130 polling stations across the country. While the poll accurately predicted Labour’s majority in 2005, it underestimated by nine the number of seats the Liberal Democrats won.

Cameron set to win most seats

 

[ejaz007]

Cameron moves into 10 Downing Street

* New British prime minister says will form coalition govt with Liberal Democrats
* Gordon Brown resigns ending 13 years of rule by centre-left Labour Party

LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II appointed Conservative leader David Cameron as prime minister on Tuesday, after the resignation of Gordon Brown five days after cliffhanger elections.

A statement from Buckingham Palace said the Queen had requested Cameron to form a new government, AFP reported.

“The Right Honourable David Cameron accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon his appointment as prime minister,” it said.

Coalition: After becoming the prime minister, Cameron said he aimed to form a full coalition government between his Conservative party and the smaller Liberal Democratic party.

“I believe that is the right way to provide this country with the strong, the stable, the good and decent government that I think we need so badly,” he told reporters.

He said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg were prepared to put aside party differences to work in the national interest.

“This is going to be hard and difficult work. A coalition will throw up all sorts of challenges. But I believe together we can provide that strong and stable government that our country needs,” he said.

He also said the new government would have the tasks of rebuilding trust in the political system following a damaging parliamentary expenses scandal.

Earlier, Brown resigned as prime minister, ending 13 years of rule by the centre-left Labour Party.

The centre-right Conservatives won most seats in a parliamentary election last week but fell short of a majority. Labour came second and the Liberal Democrats a distant third.

Both the Conservatives and Labour tried to win Lib Dem support to form the next government during five days of intense negotiations, but it became clear on Tuesday afternoon that Labour had lost and Brown would have to resign.

“I have informed the Queen’s private secretary that it’s my intention to tender my resignation to the Queen,” Brown told reporters outside his Downing Street office, flanked by his wife Sarah.

First among those choices will be what to do to reduce Britain’s record budget deficit, which has raised fears that the country could lose its triple-A credit rating and get into debt difficulties. agencies

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[Hyde]

Yeah i was watching live - that was an historical moment for the conservative party - Tony blair was a good Prime Minister but i was fed up of seing Gordon Brown doing nothing in practical

I don't know but i didn't like this guy much and wanted to see a change in UK's politics. Conservatives has provided great leaders such as Sir Winston Churchill and Margeret Thatcher and i hope they can take better steps to revive UK's economy once again that is now below-par comparing to other European countries.

 

[Ahmad]

Cameron wasnt sure to go to number 10 until Brown announced his resignation. Labour could get a deal with the Lib Dems if they wanted, but most of the labour MPs were keen to be in oppostion seats rather than forming a coalition with the others. i was hoping that Cleg could get a full cocession from the Tories on £10000 tax plan, but instead they only accepted for people whose income was lower than that. we will see how this alliance works as the right and left parties are tight in this coalition. the other scary thing is cut in public finances, that will make a huge number of people redundant.

 

[Ahmad]

This is what the Liberals have won in this government:

•Referendum to bring in an alternative vote system. Coalition members will be subject to three-line whip to force legislation for referendum through, but will be free to campaign against reforms before referendum.

• New five-year fixed term parliaments, an entirely or mainly elected second chamber and a commission to review party funding. According to this plan, the next general election will be held on the first Thursday of May 2015.

• Reduce tax burden on low earners. A substantial increase to personal tax allowance from April 2011 with a "long- term goal" of a £10,000 personal tax allowance. Tory plans to reduce inheritance tax that would have benefited the richest people most have been scrapped.

• New pupil premium to be introduced, steering more funding to schools for every child they take from poor homes to help close class gap in school results.

Here is what the Tories got from the deal:

• £6bn cuts this financial year and a reversal of some planned rises in national insurance contributions.

• A cap on immigration with Lib Dem plans for an amnesty on illegal immigration dumped.

• School reforms to introduce more Swedish-style "free" schools.

• A commitment to maintaining Britain's nuclear deterrent .

• No proposals to join the euro and a referendum lock will ensure that any proposal to transfer new powers must by law be put to a referendum.

• The Conservatives have kept their plan for a £150 marriage tax break. Lib Dems will abstain but not oppose this.


I am glad that they abondaned the inheritance tax that could only help the rich.


Also, liberals have the deputy prime minister post and probably 6 cabinet seat.

 

[ejaz007]

Pak-origin woman made party chief, cabinet minister
Thursday, May 13, 2010
History made in UK after Tory victory
By Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: In a historic breakthrough for race relations and community cohesion, Britain got it’s first ever Pakistani-origin woman as a full cabinet minister in the new coalition government, led by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

In a double whammy for the most influential Muslim woman in British politics, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was made the Conservative Party Chairperson and a full cabinet minister.

She will be the first Muslim ever to attend the cabinet meetings with other members of the ruling elite. She will have an office in 10 Downing Street as well as one in the Conservative Party headquarters. She took over charge of the party from the party chairman Erick Pickles, who has been made Communities and Local Government Secretary on Tuesday afternoon after Prime Minister David Cameron announced his cabinet consisting of his top lieutenants in a coalition government to lead the country for the next five years.

David Cameron struck a coalition deal with the third-placed leftist Liberal Democrats to work in a stable government for the interests and stability of the country but it is to be seen how the ideologically divided membership will react to the deal of expediency.

Lady Warsi in her new role will be responsible for the running of overall affairs of the party and will be a bridge between the parliamentary Conservative Party and the voluntary membership. In fact, shewill oversee the working and operations of the Tory headquarters and will be responsible for reporting the party affairs to the prime minister and vice versa.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting and the transport minister in the last cabinet, attended the cabinet meeting under Gordon Brown’s administration but he was not given the full cabinet ministerial post and powers.

Warsi’s appointment is seen as a milestone in British politics and comes to show how far the race relations have progressed in Britain.

In 2007, the former solicitor became the first Muslim member of the shadow cabinet in what was seen as David Cameron’s radical push to change the party from its old image. Her appearance on BBC’s Question Time won Warsi plaudits for her outstanding performance as not only she defended her party’s policy and direction under the new leader David Cameron but she also put a strong defence of the British Muslim communities and took on racist leader Nick Griffin at one of her Question Time appearances.

Speaking to The News soon after the announcement of her new role, Sayeeda Warsi said: “I am much pleased. It’s a huge achievement for me as someone who is from a working class, of Muslim faith and of Pakistani background and for the Conservative Party.

“My appointment shows how progressive the Conservatives are under David Cameron and how much the party is serious in its efforts to create a united society, representing its various strands in a cohesive manner.”

Warsi, who will be the face of the Conservative party from now on, called her appointment a progressive and historic decision and vowed she will dedicate herself to make the Conservative message of change a success.

Warsi accompanied the Tory leader David Cameron during his last visit to Pakistan where they held talks with government and opposition figures and visited development projects.

“Britain has enjoyed warm relations with Pakistan and our government will ensure that our relations are further strengthened and they are more geared towards solving the issues that affect the people of both the countries,” Warsi said, adding Pakistan will be one of the key foreign policy priorities of the new government.

A glimpse of how the new government will deal with Pakistan came when the formation of a new US style National Security Council was announced by new Foreign Secretary William Hague.

The first meeting took place on Wednesday to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan and review the current terrorist threat to Britain. It also discussed the ‘war on terror’ and the presence of British troops in Afghanistan.

The issue of Afghanistan and the pullout of British troops from Afghanistan has been completely absent in this election campaign. Liberal Democrats had run their election campaign on the anti-Iraq-war ticket in 2005 but they have been mum about the Afghan quagmire and its consequences for Britain.

On the contrary, this election’s campaign saw pledges from all parties to better equip and kit-up the troops in Afghanistan to continue fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A conservative source has indicated that Cameron’s coalition government would depart from some security policies of the outgoing Labour government but it’s not clear what the new policy will look like, whether it will do away with the Labour policies or become more hawkish and more involved in foreign wars.

Campaigners are watching with interest as to how the new coalition will deal with the crucial issue of civil liberties and the Labour-created authoritarian and intrusive government.

Pak-origin woman made party chief, cabinet minister