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Cameron's Conservatives defy forecasts, win British polls
London, May 8 (IANS) Defying all predictions and
speculations, Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party on
Friday secured simple majority in the 650-member House of Commons,
winning 326 seats in the British general elections.
Ed Miliband's
Labour Party has secured 230 seats, the Scottish National Party (SNP)
56, and the Democratic Unionist Party and the Liberal Democrats are tied
at eight each, BBC reported.
The number of Indian-origin members in the new House of Commons remains at 10, unchanged from the previous house.
Cameron
said the election result is "clearly a very strong result for the
Conservative Party", and added the party has had "a very positive
response to a very positive campaign".
He said the Conservatives published a manifesto squarely for working people, and he hopes to be able to implement it in full.
The
SNP has made a near-clean sweep with 56 out of a total 59 seats --
recording its most successful general elections victory ever. Its
previous best was in October 1974, when it won 11 seats. The party won
six seats in 2010.
The three seats that slipped through the SNP's fingers in Scotland went to the Conservative Party, Labour and the Lib-Dems each.
SNP
leader Nicola Sturgeon, who was at the Emirates Stadium when the
Glasgow votes were being counted, told the BBC that the Labour has been
"losing the trust of the people of Scotland over a period years".
She
added: "What we're seeing tonight is Scotland voting to put its trust
in the SNP to make Scotland's voice heard, a clear voice for an end to
austerity, better public services and more progressive politics at
Westminster. That's what we now intend to do."
Labour suffered
its worst defeat since 1987, losing 40 of its 41 seats in Scotland.
Miliband apologised to MPs on losing their seats in the general
elections, saying that it had been a "very disappointing and difficult
night".
"This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult
night for the Labour Party, we haven't made the gains we wanted in
England and Wales, and in Scotland we have seen a surge of nationalism
overwhelm our party," he said after the results were declared in Morley
and Outwood, where he lost to Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns by
422 votes.
In the Liberal Democrats (Lib-Dems) camp, Nick Clegg
resigned as the leader after the party fared poorly in the general
elections, its tally down to eight from 57 in the previous house.
Clegg,
also Britain's Deputy Prime Minister since 2010, served as the Lib-Dem
leader since 2007 and a member of parliament (MP) representing Sheffield
Hallam constituency since 2005.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander all lost their seats.
Clegg
said the results were "immeasurably more crushing" than he had feared,
but saying it was a "huge honour" to lead the party.
"It's simply
heartbreaking to see so many friends and colleagues who have served
their constituents over so many years abruptly lose their seats because
of forces entirely beyond their control," he said.
Similarly, UK
Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Garage also resigned after having
failed to gain the seat of Thanet South constituency and his party
winning only one seat in the elections.
Farage served as the UKIP's leader since 2010.
Speaking about his defeat, he insisted he had "never felt happier", with a "weight lifted off my shoulders".
Meanwhile,
the number of Indian-origin members in the new House of Commons
following the general elections held on Thursday will remain at 10,
unchanged from the previous house, Ray Media reported.
All
sitting Indian-origin MPs were re-elected bar one. Paul Uppal of the
Conservative party lost the Wolverhampton South West seat in the West
Midlands to Rob Marris of the Labour party.
Uppal's loss, though,
was compensated for by victory for Rishi Sunak, a Conservative, in
Richmond in Yorkshire. This first-time MP was fighting a seat vacated by
William Hague, who until last year was Britain's foreign minister.
Sunak is a son-in-law of N.R. Narayana Murthy, one of the founders of
the Indian software giant Infosys.