David Cameron's Conservatives win outright in U.K. election

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party defied the polls and won an outright majority of Parliament, election results showed Friday.

The party won 331 seats, enough to form a government without a coalition partner.

The outcome defies months of polls forecasting a statistical dead heat between the two major parties — Conservative and Labour — with neither expected to win an outright majority, setting the stage for the country's second coalition government in a row.

In a victory speech Friday outside 10 Downing Street, Cameron said the Conservative Party as a majority would be able to deliver all of its promises and pledged to hold a referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union.

"I truly believe we're on the brink of something special in our country," Cameron said. Together, we can make Great Britain greater still."

Following protocol, Cameron met privately Friday at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II to agree to the formation of his Conservative government.

The final tally for the 650-seat House of Commons shows the Labour Party won 232 seats. Cameron's current coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, all but collapsed, winning only eight seats. It previously held 57 seats.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party surged to new heights, picking up 56 out of a possible 59 seats in Scotland. Only one Labour member of Parliament was elected in Scotland.

Overall, it was a disappointing election for Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Both parties saw high-profile members of Parliament lose their seats in the voting.

"This is not the speech I wanted to give today," Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said at the start of a news conference Friday as he announced he was stepping down.

"Britain needs a strong Labour Party," he added. "And now it's time for someone else to lead this party."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who narrowly avoided being unseated, also announced his resignation as party leader. He called it a "cruel and punishing night" for his party.

A third minority party leader — Nigel Farage of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) — said he was stepping down after failing to win a seat, losing to the Conservative Party candidate. UKIP — the anti-immigration, anti EU party — won just one seat.

"I'm a man of my word," Farage said Friday. He had previously promised to resign if he lost the race. Still, he also mentioned he would consider running for UKIP in the future.

In London, U.K residents didn't seem all too surprised with the results, despite the tight race predicted by pollsters. "It always seems to be the Conservatives," said Pam Berg, 62, of Manchester. "I don't think any of the others had a chance."

UKIP voter Linda Flockhart, 60, of Hackney, said she was disappointed UKIP didn't gain more seats and that Farage resigned. Now, she says, the onus is on the Conservatives to carry out the pledges made during the campaign. "It's all promise beforehand and once they get in it's the complete opposite," she said.

Pat Abbas, 52, a cleaner in Hackney who didn't want to reveal how she voted, agreed. "The thing is they say a lot of things (during the campaign) and then they backtrack," Abbas said. "We'll just wait and see. They've promised a lot."

David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama, and a senior adviser to Labour candidate Miliband, commented on Twitter on the poor performance by pollsters.

"In all my years as journalist & strategist, I've never seen as stark a failure of polling as in UK. Huge project ahead to unravel that," he tweeted.

Source:www.usatoday.com