Britain’s Conservative Party will be the largest party but may not have a majority, says an exit poll after the UK’s snap general election.
The survey taken at polling stations across the UK suggests the party could get 314 MPs when all the results have been counted in Thursday’s poll.
Labour would get 266, the Lib Dems 14, UKIP none and the SNP 34, the NOP/Ipsos MORI poll for BBC/ITV/Sky suggests
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 45.8 million people entitled to vote.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she called the snap election to try to strengthen her hand in negotiations with the European Union on Brexit.
But if the exit poll is borne out by results, analysts say the PM will have made a serious miscalculation.
The pound fell sharply after the exit poll as traders had been expected a clear victory for Mrs. May’s party with an overall majority in the House of Commons.
The pound was $1.2792 against the dollar, losing about a cent-and-a-half.
The exit poll suggests the Conservatives would be 12 seats short of an overall majority.
It suggests Labour would gain 34 seats, the Conservatives would lose 17 seats, the Lib Dems would gain six and the SNP lose 22 seats.
The Green Party would be unchanged with one seat and Plaid Cymru would still have three MPs, according to the poll.
In total, 30,450 people were interviewed as they exited from 144 polling stations across the UK.
Conservative Defence Secretary Michael Fallon cautioned against reading too much into projections “before we have had a single actual result”.
Labour’s John McDonnell agreed that it was too early to call the result, but added that if the poll was correct it would “change the nature of politics” in the UK.
BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg said that if the exit poll was proved to be correct Theresa May’s “high risk” gamble in calling an election to increase her majority will have failed.
BBC
