Exit poll figures from the BBC released as polls closed suggested the Conservative Party will lose seats as a result of Thursday’s election, indicating the UK could be on course for a hung parliament.
The Conservatives had 330 seats in parliament before the snap election compared to 229 for Labour. A party must control 326 to have a majority. Current exit polls show the Tories losing 16 seats, while the Labour Party picks up 37. In a distant third is the Scottish National Party with 34 and the Liberal Democrats in fourth with just 14 seats.
{mosads}Polls closed in the United Kingdom at 5:00 p.m. EST, and reporting on election results is forbidden in the country before polls are closed. Election poll results in the country are historically inaccurate. As The Guardian noted, poll results from the BBC and ITN are often off by double digits in terms of how many seats each party will pick up or lose. Most recently in 2015, the BBC’s exit polls were off by 22 seats, suggesting the Tories would be 10 seats short of a majority when they ended up with a majority of 12 seats.
The results, if accurate this time, look to be a disaster for Prime Minister Theresa May of the Conservatives, who was looking to solidify and strengthen her party’s majority before beginning negotiations to Brexit, or leave the European Union.