May’s gamble backfires as young and old punish Tories

Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election has resulted in the loss of the Conservatives’ 17-seat majority in a dramatic election night that saw an unexpected surge for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.

With the House of Commons 650 seats declared, the Conservatives had lost 13 MPs, taking their tally to 318; Labour won 262 seats, up from 230; the Liberal Democrats won 12 seats, three more than in 2015, and the Scottish National Party got 35, a sharp fall from 54 in 2015. Turnout was 68.7 per cent—2 percentage points higher than in the 2015 general election.