LONDON — Britain’s two main parties locked horns in a political standoff Friday after an inconclusive election — with Labor’s Gordon Brown signaling he would try to form a coalition and Conservative leader David Cameron declaring the prime minister had lost his mandate to govern.
Cameron — whose Conservatives strongly outpolled Labor but were projected to fall short of winning a majority of seats in Parliament — claimed voters had rejected Labor in Britain’s election Thursday.
“Our country wants change. That change is going to require new leadership,” Cameron said early today, acknowledging that negotiations may be needed to determine who will form the next government.
Speaking earlier in Scotland, Brown vowed to “play my part in Britain having a strong, stable” government — the clearest sign yet that he would try to cling to power and seek an alliance with the third-place Liberal Democrats. He also pledged action on election reform — a key demand of his would-be partners.
A period of political wrangling and confusion appears ahead for one of the world’s largest economies — a prospect that could unsettle global markets already reeling from the Greek debt crisis and fears of wider debt contagion in Europe. Britain’s budget deficit is set to eclipse even that of Greece next year, and whoever winds up in power faces the daunting challenge of introducing big government spending cuts to slash the country’s huge deficit.
In London, bond trading started in the middle of the night — six hours earlier than normal — as traders tried to capitalize on early forecasts. U.K. government bonds rallied in the hope that the Conservatives might manage to form a government.
Official results early today showed the Conservatives overtaking Labor in the number of seats won, 268-218, according to broadcaster ITN, with the Liberal Democrats capturing 43 seats and smaller parties getting 27.
An analysis by Britain’s main television stations suggested the Conservatives will win 305 of the 650 House of Commons seats, short of the 326 seats needed for a majority. Labor was expected to win 255 seats and the Liberal Democrats 61, far less than had been expected after their support surged during the campaign.
Turnout for Thursday’s vote appeared to be high, but hundreds of people across the country were prevented from voting when polls closed at 10 p.m. The head of Britain’s Electoral Commission said legal challenges to some ballot results were likely from those turned away.
Police had to go to one polling station in east London to quell a sit-in protest by 50 angry residents who were denied the chance to vote. Voters in Sheffield, Newcastle and elsewhere in London also complained that they had been blocked from voting.
The biggest surprise of the night was the poor performance of the Liberal Democrats, whose telegenic leader, Nick Clegg, had shot to prominence because of stellar TV debate performances and had been expected to play the role of kingmaker. Instead, the party appeared doomed to keep its perennial third-party status.
Robert Worcester, an analyst for pollster IPSOS Mori, said the Liberal Democrats’ poor showing could be attributed to a low turnout by their supporters.
“They said they would vote, and they didn’t,” he said.
Even so, Britain’s first-ever televised political debates — and their inevitable focus on personality — strongly influenced the campaign.
