Hung Parliament in the UK, May under pressure to resign

British Prime Minister Theresa May faced mounting pressure on Friday to resign after her Conservative Party failed to muster a simple majority in the crucial polls she had called three years ahead of schedule hoping to boost her negotiating powers during the complex Brexit talks.

Though the Conservatives emerged as the single largest party in the election for Britain's 650-seat parliament, the impressive show by the opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn is seen as a humiliation for May to continue in her position.

According to British media, the results are a humiliation for May, who chose to call the election to try to strengthen her hand in talks with the European Union on pulling the UK out of the single market.

The Brexit talks were set to begin on June 19, but the results – a sort of turnaround in fortunes for both major political parties – have thrown that timetable into doubt.

With a handful of seats yet to be declared, Conservatives won 314 and Labour secured 261, leaving neither party anywhere close to the 326 seats required for an overall majority.

Though May won her Maidenhead seat in south-east England with 37,780 votes, she faced pressure to resign after losing her parliamentary majority unexpectedly.

All pre-election opinion poll forecasts of May’s strong lead with projections of a 50 to 70 seat majority have proved far-fetched with the Corbyn-led Labour doing far better than expected.

It was considered to be a Brexit election and the result is being seen as giving hope to the 48 % who had voted to remain in the EU in the June 2016 referendum and a rejection of May's so-called “hard Brexit” stance.

Earlier, Corbyn called on May “to go” but she said the country needed stability and her party would “ensure” it was maintained.

Conservative MP Anna Soubry has described the election results as “dreadful” and a “disaster”, questioning whether Prime Minister May should remain as leader.

Labour looks set to make gains of 33 seats with the Tories losing 15 and the Scottish National Party (SNP) down by 22 seats in a bad night for Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with her party losing seats to the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats who have won 12 seats, up four from their last election tally.

The last hung parliament result in the UK was in 2010, when David Cameron took over as PM and formed a Conservative- led coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

This time there is a bigger chance of a minority government, which means the governing party would be unable to pass laws and legislation without the votes of other parties that are not part of the government.

The SNP could play a crucial role and their position has been that they will not support a Conservative government.

The Liberal Democrats had also ruled out any coalition deals, having suffered in the previous Tory-led coalition of 2010.

In any scenario, any new government is unlikely to be very stable, increasing the prospect of another general election within months.