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The snap election, called forward by British Prime Minister Theresa May, ended with a hung parliament, after the Tories failed to win an overall majority.
Instead of consolidating her leadership, May’s gamble backfired, leaving her in a weakened position.
Feng Zhongping, Vice President of the Institute of Contemporary International Relations branded the general election as “the most unpredictable election in the UK," explaining that “two months ago everybody thought May would definitely win the overall majority, and May herself definitely knows this.”
May has been facing mounting calls for resignation, but Feng said she should not cave in for the moment.
“For a stable government, which the UK needs most, I think (May) should actually stay and then think about gradually leaving office for a strong leader to replace her.”
The surprising results of the election are bound to plunge the country into political turmoil and cast a shadow on May’s standing in the upcoming Brexit negotiations.
The landslide victory the prime minister had counted on failed to materialize in the ballot box, and now May could find herself on the weaker end of the negotiating table.
“She wanted to secure support within her own party, to allow her any dissenting voices and the potential to still retain what she needs in order to push through a potentially hard Brexit and that is now seemingly gone,” Dan Williams, CGTN correspondent in the UK, said.
However, regardless of May’s position during Brexit talks, no one in the European Union has interest in the UK failing, argued Jim James, Vice Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
“What the European leaders would want to do is to ensure that the UK not just survives but manages this process successfully,” he said, expressing belief that EU leaders will work with the UK leadership to ensure “some stability” in the country.
Commenting about the sterling slipping in the wake of the election results, James said that “it is great for UK exporters,” noting that for the overall British economy “a two-cent [shift] against the dollar is not a wholesale change in the overall long-term prospect of the pound, which actually recovered after the Brexit.”
(CGTN)
