Few, not least Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, expected the UK’s prospects to have changed so dramatically overnight.
But Friday, supporters of the country’s leading Conservative Party were coming to terms with a parliamentary minority.
The weaker mandate couldn’t come at a worst time for May, as she prepares to negotiate the “best possible deal” for the UK’s departure from the European Union.
Here’s what comes next.
Blow to Brexit talks?
The tone of Brexit talks, expected to begin in just 10 days, are now up in the air.Â
Thursday’s vote produced what’s known in the UK as “hung parliament,” forcing May to seek a minority partner.
With a hung parliament, the so-called “hard Brexit” that May had been pushing for seems less and less likely to pass.Â
Within hours of the results being announced, reports suggest May had teamed up with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Despite only holding 10 seats in the United Kingdom’s 650-seat parliament, the party will now assume the role of powerbroker in propping up a minority government.
According to its election manifesto, the DUP supports the UK leaving the European Union, but on the provison that the border with its neighbor, EU member Ireland, remains “frictionless.”
This is likely to pose an obstacle to the types of strict border controls advocated by sections of the Conservative party.
EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, tweeted early Friday that negotiations should start “when the UK is ready.”
However, Siegfried Muresan, spokesman for the European Parliament’s largest party the EEP underscored that “Article 50 is ticking” and Theresa May “should have used time for negotiations, not for elections.”
Upheaval for ruling Conservative Party?
May’s failure to strengthen her grip on power is a huge embarrassment for the leader.
She called the election early with the aim of shoring up support for the Conservatives ahead of the country’s crucial Brexit negotiations, but the move has clearly backfired.
As a leader of a minority government, May will be forced to adopt a more consensus based approach, and this could lead her vulnerable to rivals within the party, should Brexit negotiations run into difficulty.
Already UK bookmakers are slashing the odds of a possible leadership challenge, with Boris Johnson once again emerging as a potential front runner.
Siegfried Muresan, the spokesperson for the European Parliament’s largest party the EEP, tweeted some harsh words for May Friday.
Referencing a campaign trail comment she made, he wrote: “‘I will be a bloody difficult woman to Junker’ said May 5 weeks ago. Fact, is this morning she looks bloody weak.”
After the vote, May said what the UK needed now “more than anything else, is period of stability,” suggesting she doesn’t intend to heed calls from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — and others within her party — for her to step down.
Certainly her position on Brexit talks seems to have been compromised, and this could be sound the death knell for her Prime Ministership.
Scotland’s not going anywhere
Voters in Scotland made their views clear at the polls, sending a resounding message to the Scottish National Party, which lost more than 20 seats.
Leader Nicola Sturgeon has pushed hard for a second referendum on Scotland’s independence from the United Kingdom, which voters rejected in 2014.
Her campaign was energized by a resounding win in the 2015 election, and gained even more urgency after Scotland overwhelmingly sided with the European Union in the Brexit vote of 2016.
In March, Scottish lawmakers voted 69-59 in favor of an independence referendum, giving Sturgeon the green light to ask the UK Parliament for a referendum.
However, it set Scotland on a collision course with the government, with May making it clear that “now is not the time” for a potential split in the UK.
After Thursday’s stunning seat loss, Sturgeon told the BBC that a “post-Brexit uncertainty” was a factor in people’s voting choices and “certainly the independence referendum is part of that.”
She said that the poor showing meant that she would need to “reflect” on voters’ appetite for a new referendum. Based on that, it looks like Scotland won’t be going anywhere soon.
Northern Ireland’s MPs: Kingmakers
The other big winners on the night were MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP)s.
The conservative, pro-union party only gained two seats to take their Westminster tally to 10, but with the Tories short of a majority, the DUP has become disproportionately important.
The DUP’s influence might have been at least in part checked by the pro-independence Sinn Fein party, which gained three seats for a total of seven.
However, as their MPs don’t sit in parliament — they refuse to pledge allegiance to the Queen — their votes are worthless during potential coalition talks.
Founded by arch unionist Ian Paisley in 1971, the party is firmly behind Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom, and maintains a broadly conservative platform, opposing both same-sex marriage and attempts to introduce liberal abortion laws.
Natural bedfellows in a Conservative-led coalition, perhaps, but with their staunch commitment to an open border with neighboring southern Ireland, they could yet prove a decisive and outsized force in Brexit negotiations — and by virtue, the success or failure of the Conservative Party’s key manifesto pledge.
Democracy was the real winner
Once again, voters succeeding in confounding expectations, delivering surprise victories and resounding losses.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn started this campaign with a deficit in the polls of around 20 points, and his chances written off by most experts, political commentators and the press.
He ended it with more than 30 extra seats and the UK’s political system disrupted.
The result represents “an earthquake in Labour politics,” political analyst Robin Oakley told CNN.
Ahead of the election, Corbyn offered UK voters the most left-wing, big government policy agenda for nearly 40 years — and crucially an end to seven years of Conservative “austerity” policies and campaigning on promises to push for better funding for health and education.
The politicians who’ve felt the wrath of voters include Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who clings to her seat by just 300 votes. SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson and former party leader and SNP heavyweight Alex Salmond were among those booted out, as was former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who lost his seat for the Liberal Democrats.
