Стр. 20 - V

Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : O. Okhoshin
Independent researcher, Candidate of Science (History)
THE SNAP GENERAL ELECTION of June 8, 2017, the third
in the last two years, produced a "hung" parliament and can be de-
scribed as a turning point in the country's political history. The To-
ries with 318 seats came closest to parliamentary majority of 326
seats; Labour trailed behind with 262 seats, followed by the Scottish
National Party (35), Liberal-Democrats (12), the Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP) from Northern Ireland (10), Plaid Cymru (4),
and the Green Party (1). The United Kingdom Independence Party
(UKIP) headed before the referendum by Nigel Farage was left in
the cold. Prime Minister Theresa May, who preserved her post, an-
nounced that she would put together a minority government with
the support of the Democratic Unionists, the only party that had
agreed to side with the Tories on the legislation and budget issues.
The snap election, Mrs. May's effort to consolidate the nation in the face of the "crucial Brexit
talks," ended in a failure.
Theresa May reached an agreement with the DUP; the Unionists got no ministerial posts but
agreed to side with the Conservatives on the confidence-and-supply basis on the laws related to
Brexit and national defenses (meeting the NATO target of at least 2% of GDP). This left the
DUP with a wider leeway and free to withdraw its support on these and other issues in future.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) used Brexit to revive the independence issue even though
the 2014 referendum had shown that the majority in Scotland would prefer to remain together
with the UK: 55% for and 45% against.
Brexit voting gave the SNP a chance to announce that it would be guided by the will of the Scots
and build up a legal basis of a second independence referendum to be carried out before the
UK's final withdrawal, that is, between fall 2018 and spring 2019.
The Scottish nationalists and the British Labour ran with more or less similar slogans related to
social reforms. Both proclaim that the interests of common people should prevail over the in-
terests of the City, that budget cuts should be discontinued, that the minimal wage should be
raised to £10 per hour, and that Brexit should be "soft."
The snap election of 2017 and the "hung" parliament that resulted from it revealed the deep-
rooted crisis of confidence that affected the majority of political parties of Great Britain. The
election results complicated the situation and the initial stages of a dialogue between the UK
and the EU.
Snap Election in Britain as Seen From the Celtic Regions