"The Prime Minister called this election because she wanted a mandate", said Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after winning in his seat with 40,000 seats in Islington North. "Whatever the results, the Conservative party will remain the party of stability", she said.
"At this time, more than anything else this country needs a period of stability", she said early Friday after she was re-elected to her own seat in Parliament.
With a Labour surge in the General Election under his leadership, could Jeremy Corbyn do what looked unthinkable before the campaign and become the next Prime Minister?
While the Conservatives gained seats in Scotland, they failed to make gains in Labour heartlands such as Wrexham, which May had visited twice, while the party suffered a shock defeat in Canterbury, which had been a safe Conservative seat since 1918.
May has accused Corbyn of being unprepared for negotiations set to begin on June 19, and unwilling to curb mass migration - a key driver of the Brexit vote.
George Osborne, the former finance minister who stepped down at the election, told ITV that the results were "catastrophic" for his party.
The Conservatives still have the most seats but Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party was the night's big victor, gaining more than 30 seats in Parliament, while the pro-Brexit United Kingdom Independence Party saw its share of the vote collapse.
"People have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics", he said, repeating his campaign promises to push for better funding for health and education.
The Tory former minister Anna Soubry said she should "consider her position" after a "dreadful" campaign.
The reason the prime minister gave for calling the election was to strengthen her hand during the negotiations.
Either way, this has proven to be an embarrassing blow for Theresa May, who called the snap election with the hope of winning an overwhelming majority.
It will also be hard for the next prime minister - whether it's Ms May or someone else - to argue that they are speaking for the entire nation after such a bitter and divisive campaign.
Chelsea's Eden Hazard set to miss start of season after ankle surgery
When asked if he would sign a new deal with his current club, Hazard added, "I am feeling very well at Chelsea ". Hazard picked up the injury in training with Belgium in Tubize on Sunday.
Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party, which campaigned for Brexit, did not make it into parliament.
May had billed the election as a clear choice on who would lead Britain as it negotiated its way out of the EU.
Despite being ahead in the opinion polls by more than 20 points at the start of the election campaign, May's lead was slowly eroded, with Britons unimpressed with her election policies, particularly one to force elderly people to pay more for their social care.
He said the United Kingdom could be a "different and fundamentally better place" as he claimed Labour's campaign had changed politics in the country.
Sterling fell by more than two cents against the USA dollar after an exit poll showed May losing her majority, though it later recovered some of its losses.
The BBC looks at what is likely to happen now that a hung parliament has been confirmed.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd only held on to Hastings and Rye by a majority of 336 after a recount.
The BBC projected that the Tories would win 318 seats, Labour 267, the SNP 32, the Liberal Democrats 11, Plaid Cymru 3, the Greens 1 and others 18. Former leader Nick Clegg, a former Deputy Prime Minister, lost his Sheffield Hallam seat.
"Her position I think is very, very hard".
It is now expected that the Tories will seek to form a coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which won 10 seats overnight. Tim Farron, the current leader, retained his seat with only a narrow majority.
The campaign had played out differently in Scotland than elsewhere, the main faultline being the SNP's drive for a second referendum on independence from Britain, having lost a previous plebiscite in 2014.
Comments