UK General Elections: What will be the future?

United Kingdom is holding general elections on June 8, following Theresa May’s decision of snap elections in April.
01 Jun, 2017

United Kingdom is holding general elections on June 8, following Theresa May’s decision of snap elections in April.

So, what are the major constituencies and political parties contesting for the win?

UK’s parliament consists of 650 seats divided into 4 major constituencies by population.

England is the biggest constituency with 533 seats in Parliament. In England, there are two major political parties: the Conservatives and the Labour.

The conservatives are the right wing political party led by Theresa May. They are also called Tories, their nickname.

The left wing Labour party is led by Jeremy Corbyn and has its origin in the labour and trade union movements.

The centrist Liberal Democrats, the environmentally-aware Greens, and the pro-Brexit right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) also have small majorities in the UK parliament.

Scotland has 59 seats in the parliament, with the Scottish National Party (SNP) leading with 56 seats.  SNP is best known for campaigning for Scottish independence.

In Wales, Plaid Cymru - a Welsh term meaning the Party of Wales, and pronounced "PLIGHD KUM-ri"- has just three seats out of 40. And Northern Ireland holds another 18 seats.

UK had general elections in 2015 when the Conservative party came into power with a tiny majority in parliament and David Cameron became prime minister.

As per his campaign promise, Cameron held referendum in June 2016 to decide Britain’s fate with EU and people voted in favor of Brexit. Brexit compelled Cameron to leave as he wanted to stay in EU.

Today, UK elections have become highly unpredictable. According to BBC, opinion polls and analysts are suggesting that Labour leader Corbyn is accelerating to surpass May’s lead.

In recent days, May’s election campaign is badly hurt by her poor social care policies.

A YouGov poll, funded by The Times suggests another possibility, depicting the Tories are losing seats which could result in a "hung Parliament" where no single party could form a government on its own.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017

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