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U.K. Election Results in Hung Parliament; May's Future as U.K. Prime Minister in Doubt; Boris Johnson Keeps Parliamentary Seat. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 9, 2017 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[01:00:00] HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: -- story as it develops. I'm Hala Gorani.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND REPORTER: I'm Richard Quest. Because the news never stops, neither do we. This is CNN. Max Foster is in Downing Street.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster, 10 Downing Street, Theresa May is inside. We've got continuing coverage of the snap U.K. election. The U.K. will officially be in a hung parliament situation leaving the political future of the Prime Minister very much in doubt. After shocking election results that few predicted, this is where the numbers stand right now. The Conservatives are the largest party, but they don't hold enough to hold a majority on their own. That means they'll have to team up with other parties to form that bigger government that'll need to get their laws through.

It's not all clear how that may shake up, and that's why we're going to follow every twist and turn of this for you. But no matter what, it's been the result that the Tories had not hoped for. She has been at her party headquarters; no doubt, speaking to party members and trying to figure out what her future will be, and the mood there is not what anyone expected when she called this election back in April which is all about getting a bigger mandate. She was expected to trounce the Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and bolster her majority. All to strengthen the impending Brexit negotiations, but she appears to have squandered this. And that gamble has backfired leaving her weaker than when she started, and that's why her position looks pretty weak right now. Both May and Corbyn did speak to their supporters though, after winning their respective seats. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: At this time, more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability. And if, as the indications have shown, if this is correct, that the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do.

JEREMY CORBYN, BRITISH LABOUR LEADER: You know what? Politics has changed. And politics isn't going back into the box where it was before. Because what's happened is, people have said they've had quite enough of this austerity politics. They've had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure. On the founding, I held of service, and I'm proud of the results that are coming in all over the country tonight of people voting for hope, voting for hope for the future and turning their backs on austerity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the triumph in the campaign for him. He was the outsider. He didn't have much support in his own party, and now he's very much the Leader of the Labour Party and the future of it because that campaign was firmly built around him-certainly, in the latter stages. The Scottish National Party, as well, suffering some major losses above the English border. The former party leader, Alex Salmond, just lost his seat to the Conservatives. That's a real end of an era. Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon, who had been his henchman for so long said the Scottish National Party though, could be open to forming a progressive alliance with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLA STURGEON, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY LEADER: This is a disaster for Theresa May. You know, she called an election, clearly, and adequately thinking that she was going to crush the oppositions, sweep everybody and even truce to alliance majority. You know, her position I think is very, very difficult. You know, we would have to wait and see how things shake out. But you know, I've always said, the SNP would want to be part of political terms if that will be at the government. But, you know, there's a number of seats still to be declared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Our Hannah Vaughan Jones is standing by for us on London's Abingdon Green, outside the Houses of Parliament. And ultimately, Theresa May, did win, didn't she? But she's got the most seats, but she failed in her campaign.

HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: She certainly did, Max. And now, the blame game really is already kicking off. We've already seen on Twitter and the like, and other commentators who we're speaking so far this morning, that people questioning the Tories Party manifesto, the Tories policy just going forward over the last seven weeks. Theresa May, personally criticized for the way she handles herself. She didn't engage in any T.V. debates, something that the Labour Leader, Jeremy Corby, had called for specifically. She didn't do that, she didn't seem to really engage too much with the British electorate, and that is perhaps why they have turned against her in large part now.

We heard earlier in your introduction there, Theresa May speaking after she did win her parliamentary seat back for the head, as well. Some commentators saying, that perhaps that was a pre-resignation acceptance speech. We will wait to see, of course, how this morning plays out. It has just gone 6:00 this Friday morning, and a new dawn in the British political landscape, certainly, around us at the moment. I want to bring in Political Analyst, Carol Walker, who joins me now. Carol, it's definitely a hung parliament. What does that mean?

[01:05:00] CAROL WALKER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what it means is that no party has an overall majority. And that, it is going to be very, very difficult for whoever forms the next government to get through the program that they want and to get the backing here in Parliament for those Brexit talks. Theresa May called this election, as you said, saying she knew - her own big mandate to strengthen her hand in those Brexit negotiations, instead of which, she has no majority whatsoever. The big question now is whether or not she will try to stay on as Prime Minister.

We heard those comments from her earlier took them about how we needed a period of stability. That is, frankly, the last thing that this country has at this moment. There is huge uncertainty about the shape of the future government. Theresa May, since then, has been talking to party workers at her campaign headquarters, a Conservative Party H.Q. She thanked workers. She talked about how important their work was, but even many of those there at that meeting were not sure whether or not she was indicating that she would stay on.

JONES: And all of the polls throughout the last seven weeks even though they've been getting tighter and tighter, as far as labour is concerned, up against the Tories. The polls, generally, have all said that Theresa May is the best fit for Prime Minister if it was Theresa May against Jeremy Corbyn. What does that mean then for Jeremy Corbyn? He's had a huge night. He's been derailed for so long by his parliamentary party colleagues. But if he doesn't have the backing of the nation to actually go forward as Prime Minister, potentially, and take forward Brexit negotiations. He's in a tricky situation then, because, does he go in self-interest or does he go in the international interest?

WALKER: Jeremy Corbyn, who many had thought, was going to have a bad campaign. In fact, many Conservative strategists, I think, built a campaign assuming that it wasn't going to go well for Corbyn. It has been for him a triumphant night. He has gained seats in areas where in one expected the Labour Party to take seats.

JONES: In places like?

WALKER: Canterbury that has been in conservative hands for about over 150 years. So, he has gained (INAUDIBLE), a very, very good result for the Labour Party. They don't have enough on their own to form a government. We had the conservatives warning of this coalition of chaos.

JONES: SNP now saying that they might go into some sort of coalition which-

WALKER: Well, the SNP have been saying that they would be prepared to work with a progressive government. That is what Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP Leader, has been saying all along. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the SNP have had a pretty bad. They've lost a number seats, north of the border; down 19 seats. In Scotland, they've lost Alex Salmond, their former Leader; Angus Robertson, former Leader here at Westminster. There has been no talk ahead of this election about a coalition, no serious discussion of it because nobody expected this hung parliament. Interestingly enough, that there were Democrats who were in a coalition with the Conservatives for five years from 2010. Their leader, Tim Farron who's back in parliament, said at the beginning of the campaign, "no packs, no deals, no coalitions." One does wonder, he's just getting to be rethinking that stance now.

JONES: What happens in ten days' time though when Britain, someone, who is the Prime Minister, will go to Brussels and will start negotiating Brexit? How does that work with a hung parliament, and with a Prime Minister who in any event will certainly not have a strong mandate from the British public to go forward in their name?

WALKER: It will be incredibly difficult for whoever has to carry out those Brexit negotiations. Whoever does it, will know that they will have to get the final deal through the Houses of Parliament in a situation where they simply can't be sure what sort of deal they could get through, what the other parties will be? It will be very, very difficult to deal.

Certainly, any sense that the Prime Minister of the day will be able to push through a really hard Brexit that will be difficult to indeed. We know that the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP want to retain a place or possibly ties, the best possible trade deal, the best possible access to European markets as they can. And I think it does make it a hard Brexit much less likely, and those already difficult negotiations even tougher.

JONES: What about - is it a protest vote against Theresa May, rather than a ringing endorsement, perhaps, for Jeremy Corbyn and Labour?

WALKER: Well, we've seen a very volatile and a very fluid situation with a number of seats changing hands in different ways. The Conservatives picking up seats they didn't expect to get in Scotland. What happened in large parts of the North of England is that the vote for the U.K. Independence Party, formerly led by Nigel Farage, had a very bad night. But those votes which many people expected would automatically go to the Conservatives instead went to the Labour Party.

In some of those traditional Labour seats, in some of those swing Labour seats, it was the Labour Party that picked up many of those former U.K. votes. That is why we've seen this patchy picture. That is part of the reason the Labour Party has done better than expected. They have also done very well in Metropolitan areas, some affluent areas which Conservatives have done better than expected in some working class areas.

[01:10:33] JONES: Very interesting political picture. Carol thanks very much. Carol is going to be staying with me all morning to break down all the results as they continue to come in. So, Mike, we can hear the helicopters over above us. I'm sure you can hear them as well. Everyone's trying to track where all of these political leaders current and possibly future may be at the moment as everyone starts to digest all of this news. But certainly, it rises, with this hung parliament it raises the

prospect of yet more elections as well that could, indeed, be another general election not too far down the line, depending on how the final results come in. Something that one would imagine the British public might not be too happy about given the fact that we know so many people were slightly exhausted, after Brexit and after the 2015 general election as well. So, still also playful, not everyone will be happy about it. Max, back to you.

FOSTER: I know. One person that's not really happy about it is Theresa May, no doubt, in the building behind me. And she's expected to speak today. She'll have to speak, at some point, this morning. And the big question is, will she resign or will she stay and fight this one out? Let's speak to Marcus Roberts, he's a Political Pollster at YouGov. Marcus, just for, you know, the wider audience; just explain how these majorities work in a parliamentary democracy likely U.K. What are we looking for here? And how does the system work at its best?

MARCUS ROBERTS, YOUGOV POLITICAL POLLSTER: Well, there's two numbers to follow here. One is 326 seats out of the total 650 seats in the U.K. parliament, and the other is more or like 320. And the reason is a whole bunch of different factors involving Northern Irish MPs is not taking their seats, and the speaker, and his deputies not voting. So what is likely to happen now, what is very likely to happen now, is that Theresa May falls short, not only of a technical majority but of that working majority, of that 320 part.

That means, that she's going to need to make deals for other parties, probably most likely the all-star Unionist Party from Northern Ireland. And that, technically, will give her a majority of two, maybe three, possibly four, but there's a big question here which is: can you really do Brexit as a Prime Minister? The most complicated and difficult foreign policy challenge since the Second World War for the government of Britain on a majority of two, maybe three, maybe four when you're dependent upon the votes of a Northern Irish Party, because you yourself called an election and failed to win the mandate, you yourself as Prime Minister said, that you absolutely need.

FOSTER: Well, she certainly can't do the Brexit as she was planning, can she? So, she's going to have to sit back from the harder Brexit that she was looking at and soften it somehow. So, that in itself is a U-turn and weakens her even more.

ROBERTS: Well, she'll probably be pulled in two different directions. One, by All-star Unionists, who may want a softer Brexit with regard to the North and Irish border to ensure as much trade, commerce, goodwill between Northern Ireland and the rest of the island of Ireland as possible. And on the other hand, she'll be pulled towards a hard Brexit because her right flank of conservative MPs will absolutely demand their pound of flesh and say, they will give no quarter in terms of demanding that tough Brexit.

How does she navigate that? How does she navigate on the one hand requirements from some of her MPs, and her potential Northern Irish allies for a soft Brexit, so that immigration can end and open borders can continue to some extent. And her right wing MPs' is demanding a hard Brexit so that the borders can be controlled and closed, so that immigration can be brought down. This was the crux in many ways of the referendum last year, and this is now the crux of her problem as Prime Minister.

FOSTER: She can't manage that, can she? To bring everything together and make a subjective judgment, she can't continue as a powerful leader with all of that in mind. Someone else has to come in behind there, surely.

ROBERTS: And who could that possibly be?

FOSTER: That's the question.

ROBERTS: We may well but in a world where - which are the (INAUDIBLE) to say to some problems, there are no solutions. It may be that she cannot actually, effectively govern Brexit through any kind of Mathematical arrangement or parliamentary alliance at the moment. In which case, what does that do to Brexit as a whole? Because you will have the opposition parties: the Labour Party, the Scottish Nationalists, and the Liberal Democrats, all demanding the softest of soft Brexit. Then some people may even demand a rethink on the Brexit process as a whole. That probably won't happen but it won't stop her from having headaches on all fronts.

[01:15:22] FOSTER: Who's the alternative Prime Minister though? Let's actually look at the runners and writers here. I don't think it's premature to do that, is it? You've got Boris Johnson, obviously. He's a very charismatic leader the public know him but within the party hugely controversial. He won't really have the spot, will he? Within the party already proved after Brexit he didn't have that. We got David Davis, he's having up the Brexit negotiation people now even talking about Ruth Davidson this one a very charismatic leader up in Scotland who did very well overnight. Who are we looking at as a replacement to Theresa May if it comes to that?

ROBERTS: Right now conservative MPs would give their eyeteeth for Ruth Davidson they're very popular as you say, Scottish leader, having a seat in Westminster. But she unfortunately for them doesn't she's only a member of the Scottish parliament. She's not a member of Westminster as well. If she was a member of Westminster as well, she would be an absolute certain favorite right now to take over as Prime Minister. So with her out of play, the question is, will it be Boris? Will it be David Davis? And both of those have big advantages and big disadvantages. Boris brings to the conservative party a feel good factor. David Davis brings a conservative party a sense that Brexit would be safe in his hands. Both of them would still face the same fundamental strategic, not structural problem which is how can you make Brexit work when you don't really have a majority? And there is no answer to that other than heaven forbid, another election.

FOSTER: Who could have imagined. Thank you very much indeed for joining us, Marcus. Who could have imagined we could now be talking about Boris Johnson becoming the next potential Prime Minister. Who could have imagined at even have been here having an election a few months ago and who could have imagined when the election was actually called that Theresa May would squander that massive lead in this most extraordinary way. It really is an incredible day here in London. And we're going to have much more on the snap election and the setback if we can call it that for the tourist. How the conservatives are going to try to manage the situation now. All eyes, all ears on Downing Street where I'm standing now and where Theresa May is going to take this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORBYN: The election campaign has gone on for the past six weeks. I've traveled the whole country and spoken at events and rallies all over the country and you know what? Politics has changed and politics isn't going back into the box where it was before. Because what's happened is people have said they've had quite enough of austerity politics. They've had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure. Underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society and I'm very, very proud of the campaign that my party has run a manifesto for the many, not the few. And I'm very proud of the results so the coming all over the country tonight of people voting for hope, voting for hope for the future and turning their backs on austerity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:20:43] FOSTER: An interesting sound bite there from the British party Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn. That's been his consistent message throughout and actually, it's one of the things that clearly resonated with the British public as well as the fact that Theresa May wasn't terribly good on the campaign trail. But back to his message and people said he couldn't be a mainstream leader he was too far to the left but he's proved everyone wrong tonight.

I'm Max Foster outside 10 Downing Street in London continuing coverage of the U.K. snap election and we're going to recap events for you for those that haven't managed to keep up with the fast-moving story here. The snap general election has led to a hung parliament and it's a major setback for the British Prime Minister Theresa May. Here's where things stand right now. By the Conservatives are the largest party in parliament but they've lost seats and will lose their majority. So Theresa May has lost what she campaigned for. It's also been a major embarrassment for her. She called the snap election to shore up support ahead of tough Brexit negotiations. Now her leadership of the party and the parliament hang in limbo. The British election maybe an upset because it is one familiar faces is sticking around. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson appears who have held off of labour surge and his constituency to keep his seats for Uxbridge and South Ruisi, here's what he told supporters after his win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: In particular, thanks, tonight to all my friends and colleagues from (INAUDIBLE), everybody who campaigned with us over the last few weeks and thank you for all your fantastic efforts for this borough. I really don't think it would be possible for any of us heading in MP's to do it without you and of course I want to pay a particular tribute to the voters. Everybody in this city, the citizens of London who refuse to be bowed by repeated terrorist attacks and has got on with the Democratic process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Boris Johnson, all eyes on him today as well and along with David Davis, two of the senior conservatives that people are looking to as possible replacements Theresa May. She steps down a little bit later this morning. Our Phil Black traveling the British capital as results come in he's in the Battersea districts right now I mean, you couldn't meet us up, could you Phil?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No indeed. I'm actually here in Battersea people are waking up to that very uncertain national political picture, but here locally, a pretty dramatic result. This was a conservative seat. They won it in 2010, held it in 2015, extending their lead but in this latest vote a labour surge has seem the votes swing by 10 percent to labour and so this is now a Labour held seat. The local labour candidate campaigned very strongly on social justice issues but there's another issue here that clearly hung over this entire area as I expected do you know the match of London. And that is, Brexit. This is a region of London that voted very heavily to remain with the European Union and now in this vote, they have voted very strongly against the political party that wanted that hard Brexit scenario that was prepared to say no deal is better than a bad deal and so forth. So here Theresa May's idea and philosophy, if you like heading into the Brexit negotiations, has been well and truly rejected. If it's mean if you take the national result as a rejection of Theresa May's Brexit policy, here that rejection is strongest and most profound. People are just beginning to wake up there as I say we're talking to them through the morning to get a sense of just what they thought happened here and how and why this seat suddenly has turned to labour in this way.

FOSTER: I want to ask you about the labour party. Jeremy Corbyn in particular, Phil, because I know that you've been out and speaking to labour party supporters and how that vote changed. Just explain where we've gone from here because he wasn't taken seriously just a matter of months ago and now he's the champion of British politics.

BLACK: It is an extraordinary result for Jeremy Corbyn personally. There's no doubt about that because from the earliest days of him taking on the leadership of the Labour party he was discounted as not being credible. Not being someone that could reach out to the mainstream in British Politics, someone that as I know you've said, simply too left wing to be considered a mainstream national leader. That sort of reputation has tarnished his period in control of the party. Remember, he was challenged again, most of the parliamentary Labour parties simply didn't support him, didn't have confidence in him. They challenged him again; he won that challenge because he's always had that very core passionate support from within the Labour party membership itself. Corbyn's true believers are those that have 'allowed him to keep a very firm grip on the party even when the parliamentary Labour party members and much of the broader electric had essentially written him off.

Going into this campaign it became very clear that even within the labour party itself he continued to be a divisive figure. Still inspiring great passion and enthusiasm and attracting huge crowds to these rallies that he has been holding across the country but at the same time, a lot of people and a lot of labour party supporters across the country was still very uncertain about him for whatever reason. Perhaps his policies on Brexit, Brexit perhaps because he's seen as in a city a more urban socialist type figure I suppose to a more traditional working class labour figure. For all of these reasons, there has been this division within the party as well and a lot of long-time labour voters have told us they would not be voting for Labour many the first time of their lives because of Jeremy Corbyn. As it turns out a lot of that has proven not to be true. Labour party has still surge Jeremy Corbyn has overseen here a very much more impressive result for his party than so many people predicted, Max.

[01:26:45] FOSTER: OK, Phil in Battersea South London. Thank you very much indeed. It's going to be fascinating to hear from those central or centrist Labour party members very high profile figures so many very many of them and they're going to have sort of realign their thoughts if they want to stay in the labour party under Jeremy Corbyn. Because he's made his position very clear indeed over the campaign. You are watching CNN's special coverage of the 2017 U.K. election. Theresa May's future as Britain Prime Minister in doubt this morning after some shocking results for her in the U.K. elections. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of the parliamentary elections here in the United Kingdom. Just a short while ago we learned that the U.K. election will officially result in a hung parliament.

[01:30:00] That leaves the future of the prime minister Theresa May in doubt. She was expected to beat Jeremy Corbyn and bolster her majority, also strengthen her hand for the upcoming Brexit negotiations, but that gamble has soundly backfired, leaving her weaker than where she started out.

This is where the numbers stand right now.

Conservatives should have been way ahead of that, if the polls were right, but it didn't happen.

Hannah Vaughan Jones joins us, standing by in London near the houses of parliament.

These stories move on very quickly indeed, don't they? And everyone now looking to hear if Theresa May is going to stay in position, but then we're looking at who's going to replace her. So many questions this morning.

HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNNA NCHOR: Yes, so many questions. We are also hearing that Theresa May is possibly going to be making some kind of speech to the British public around 10:00 local time. We just heard. It's half past 6:00 on this Friday.

I'm joined by Sir Craig Oliver, the former director of communications for the former prime minister, David Cameron.

Thank you very much for joining us, Sir. Theresa May, is her position now untenable?

SIR CRAIG OLIVER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR DAVID CAMERON: I don't think it's untenable but I think it's certainly very difficult. She's going to have a huge amount of pressure on her and she didn't have to call the election. She made herself very much the center of that Conservative M.P.s, some who are already coming out and questioning that and I think there's going to be an intense amount of pressure on her. But knowing her, I suspect she'll want to see where all the cards have fallen before she makes a decision.

VAUGHAN JONES: How much of this is the Tory Party manifesto to blame or how much is, for example, because we had those two terror attacks in the U.K.

OLIVER: There's going to be a huge postmortem. There's never one factor. I think through the manifesto was clearly a huge problem. Not only was there the social care issue but there were things like taking away the winter fuel payment from people in England but not in Scotland. That made people angry. There wasn't any real retail policy in the manifesto to make people feel good as well. Lots of other things. Jeremy Corbyn managed to get a lot of young people out, which a lot of people haven't managed to achieve before. So when the postmortem is done I think there will be a lot of things that the people are focused on.

VAUGHAN JONES: You were at Downing Street when the Brexit referendum was happening and Theresa May has focused her entire campaign this time on Brexit. Strengthen my hand and I will be able to go to Brussels being able to put Britain first. Do you think she's misjudged or the Conservative Party has misjudged the public mood when it comes to Brexit and what the priorities are for the people here?

OLIVER: I think she did get Brexit in the front and center of the people's minds. I think a lot of people thought we dealt with Brexit last year in the referendum. Now I want to talk about public services and various other things. The British public isn't necessarily on the same page as the politicians. And I think when the analysis is a lot of people will say concern over the NHS, concern over police cuts, concern over a number of public services will be an issue.

VAUGHAN JONES: And Jeremy Corbyn was derided by many parliamentary colleagues for so long as the Labour leader but he does seem to have a huge amount of national support at least, and what are his chances of actually entering Downing Street?

OLIVER: Very, very slim. I think we've also got to remember that nobody won. The Labour Party did not win this election. They're nearly 60 seats behind the Conservative Party when the final tally is done. The Liberal Democrats didn't do very well. Nicola Sturgeon, in Scotland, didn't do very well. But definitely the worst performer of all is Theresa May, and that's because the expectations were so high for her and she failed to meet those expectations.

VAUGHAN JONES: As far as the Conservative Party is concerned now and if Theresa May does announce that she will be standing down, how soon can a replacement be in Downing Street and then also going to -- to Brussels --

(CROSSTALK)

OLIVER: I think the only way to do it is to say that you remain a caretaker prime minister. Why would an election take place?

(CROSSTALK)

VAUGHAN JONES: Do you have an expectation of what she'll say at 10:00?

OLIVER: I don't honestly know. I think, my gut is she's someone who wants to wait longer and see how things play out. But it has been a devastating result for the Conservative Party. And it's perfectly possible. You can't have a situation where there is no prime minister, so it's perfectly possible that she could announce that or she could say I'm going to fight on, it's too important, I'm going to stay.

VAUGHAN JONES: And who are the men and women who might come to the fore?

OLIVER: We heard a lot of word about Boris Johnson, who very pointedly went off and didn't say a lot, who backed Theresa May. There's a lot of word about whether David Davis sees that he could be a leader of the Conservative Party. A lot of people also talking about Ruth Davidson, even though she's a current M.P. She can't technically become leader of the Conservative Party, but a lot of people have been impressed by her performance.

VAUGHAN JONES: In Scotland.

OLIVER: In Scotland. She's actually outshone the rest of the Conservative Party by reversing things in Scotland. And if they haven't done as well in Scotland they would be in real trouble.

[01:35:10] VAUGHAN JONES: Do you think this is a ringing endorsement for Jeremy Corbyn or just a backlash against Theresa May and her Brexit agenda.

OLIVER: I think you've got to be really careful of saying it's an endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn. He's done really well in the sense that he's massively out played expectation. But he's still the second party by some distance and nowhere near forming a government with an overall majority. So I think we need to be quite careful about saying how well he's done. Yes, he's done well relative to very low expectations but he's still the second party.

VAUGHAN JONES: Thank you very much for joining us, Sir Craig Oliver. We appreciate it. And, Max, now we've got 10 days to go before those Brexit negotiations

are due to begin. There is a chance that they may push that back but with just two years to go before Brexit is supposed to be concluded, anyway, that would not wash well with the British public, nor with Brussels and the people we are hoping to make deals with going forward.

FOSTER: Hannah, thank you very much, indeed.

And interesting listening there to Craig Oliver talking about how Jeremy Corbyn is still leading the second largest party. But he has more seats in the parliament and the leading party has got less, so his influence has certainly increased.

While all eyes are on Downing Street, Theresa May's house, of course, and whether she'll stay, also eyes on Jeremy Corbyn's house today, and seeing how he's going to move forward. In his party, you had a weakened position going into this but now he's got a very strong position. So Britain does have a strong opposition party, and that's always good for British politics. We'll wait to hear from him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Pretty powerful images there, chanting, "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn." It does seem the young vote did come out. People didn't think it would happen but they did come out. It seems they were voting for him.

They come as Labour's Corbyn is calling for Prime Minister Theresa May to stand down, saying her decision to call a snap election has backfired after it resulted in this hung parliament. Mrs. May's Conservatives remain the U.K.'s largest party but they're losing seats.

This is where the numbers stand right now, and it's a very grim picture indeed for the Conservatives. Even though they're winning, the mandate has been largely lost. So it's going to be very hard to get laws through the British parliamentary system for them, and that's going to be a big reflection on Theresa May, which is why there are calls for her to resign.

It's been a wildly different result, but -- than it appeared just a month and a half ago when this election was called. A disastrous night for Theresa May and a triumphant effort from Labour's Jeremy Corbyn.

This is what both leaders had to say a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [01:40:14] THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: As we ran this campaign, we set out to consider the issues that are the key priorities for the British people, getting the Brexit deal right, ensuring that we both identify and show how we can address the big challenges facing our country, doing what is in the national interest. That is always what I have tried to do in my time as a member of parliament. And my resolve to do that is the same this morning as it always has been. As we look ahead and we wait to see what the final results will be, I know that, as I say, the country needs a period of stability. And whatever the results are, the Conservative Party will ensure that we fulfill our duty in ensuring that stability so that we can all as one country go forward together.

JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY: The election campaign has gone on for the past six weeks. I've traveled the whole country. I've spoken at events and rallies all over the country. And you know what? Politics has changed and politics isn't going back into the box where it was before. Because what's happen is people have said they've had quite enough of austerity politics. They've had quite enough of cuts in public expenditures, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society. And I am very, very proud of the campaign that my party has run. A manifesto for the many, not the few. And I'm proud of the results that are coming in all over the country tonight of people voting for hope, voting for hope for the future, and turning their backs an austerity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, he wants Theresa May to resign. He said just this morning, he said it before as well, even before the vote actually happened following the terrorist attacks that struck London and Manchester and her reaction to that, but really, it's what the Conservative Party thinks about Theresa May that matters here. They're the ones that decides whether he stays or goes. If, indeed, she doesn't decide before them.

Hannah Vaughan Jones is trying to break this down with Carole Walker, just down the road from here.

FOSTER: Max, thanks very much, indeed.

I understand that we do have some live pictures of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, in London as well. Victorious after his last night's success.

Interesting though what Sir Craig Oliver was saying a minute ago, saying no one actually won this election. The political landscape has very much changed.

This is Corbyn's house that we're looking at in north London.

We heard from Theresa May a little bit earlier on, saying that in her acceptance speech when she regained her seat saying that it was "a period of stability that Britain was in need of." However, it does seem that the British people, the country has voted for change, which is, of course, the change that Jeremy Corbyn had been calling for. Politics of hope and a politics that was different to the norm.

Let's bring in political analyst, Carole Walker, who's been breaking down all of the comings and goings in this election so far for CNN.

And the blame game is very much begun already. Who is to blame, do you think, for the failings of Theresa May and the Tory Party?

CAROLE WALKER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Theresa May herself must have to take a large share of the blame for this. She talked there about her hope for a period of stability. I think that's another objective she is going to absolutely fail to achieve. We have got a very, very uncertain future now. It's very, very unclear what the shape of the next government is going to be. And the big question is whether Theresa May herself is going to stand down. We heard those comments from her earlier. She has since then been to her campaign headquarters, talked to Conservative Party activists, thanked them for their work, said that the Conservative Party had to carry on and get on with the job. But even those there in that meeting were not clear whether or not she was signaling whether she would try to stay on. And although there are many in the Conservative Party who are very, very angry with Theresa May for calling an election that she didn't need to call, and then having a pretty disastrous campaign, a series of U-turns. She was seen herself as wooden. She didn't get involved in some of the TV debates. But there are others in the party saying this is really not the time to be having a party leadership contest when we've got those Brexit negotiations looming so soon.

VAUGHAN JONES: We should also mention she didn't want to call the election. I know she did, but she really -- she's the type of politician who very much, she doesn't have that many political friends. She's very much kind of slow and steady wins the race. And she could have carried on until 2020 with a majority. She was obviously given advice from her advisors that a snap election was the best idea going into Brexit and it was the best idea because they were expecting kind of up to 100 majority in parliament, weren't they?

WALKER: When she became leader of the Conservative Party, she said she was not going to call an election. That was the first of many --

(CROSSTALK)

WALKER: -- used over and over and over again.

She then decided, yes, this was her best opportunity to get a big mandate. That's what she was expecting. She went into this election, people were predicting that she could win a landslide.

She also, though, I think, hoped that by calling the election now it would mean that she would not be ending the Brexit negotiations in two years' time hard up against the general election. She felt that that would give her a bit more scope to maneuver. As it turns out, she has almost no room to maneuver.

Whoever carries out these negotiations is going to find it incredibly difficult to get the support here in houses of parliament for a deal.

VAUGHAN JONES: Just to exaggerate and highlight the gamble that Theresa May has taken as she tweeted just in the last seven weeks, "If I lose just six seats, Jeremy Corbyn will be taking to Brussels to negotiate on behalf of Britain."

She's lost more than six seats. Does that mean she's effectively saying, my position is untenable, I have no mandate, and over to you Mr. Corbyn?

WALKER: When she was tweeting this -- when she made those comments in fact, in one of her final campaign speeches, warning people, oh, you could have Jeremy Corbyn down there negotiating in Brussels, she thought that would resonate with the public that we don't want Jeremy Corbyn. That's not what has happened. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, seen for so long as somebody way out on a limb, way out on the left wing of the Labour Party, many in the Labour Party felt he was much too left wing, much too much of a Socialist. There have been numerous attempts within the Labour Party to get rid of him, but he fought a campaign which defied all the expectations. He came without with a manifesto which although C conservatives dismissed it as uncosted, it offered a very attractive proposition to the electorate. He said I'm going to pump hundreds of billions into the economy, end this people of austerity, end tuition fees so people can go to university for free, I'm going to create more jobs, I'm going to increase workers' rights. And there were a lot of positives there that people can latch on to. The Conservative campaign completely underestimated Jeremy Corbyn. He has made huge inroads. And the future of the next government is highly uncertain. We wait to hear from Theresa May whether she is going to try to stay in place. There are mixed views in her party as to whether she should go or stay.

VAUGHAN JONES: Carole, thank you very much.

Well, that word from Theresa May is expected around 10:00. A couple of hours from now here in London.

And a huge gamble that she did play and it hasn't seemingly paid off at all. We now know the one thing that is certain that we will have a hung parliament. So now it's all over whether the Conservative Party can negotiate, do some kind of deal within the smaller parties within parliament to try and put together some kind of working majority, to try and push forward their agenda.

And obviously, the biggest part, Max, of that agenda, in the short term at least, is going to be Brexit. How does Britain get started on these Brexit negotiations? And does that party -- does that party leader have the public support behind him or her?

Back to you.

[01:49:12] FOSTER: Thanks, Hannah.

And that's why people are looking at Brexiteers, as it were, as possible replacements to her already. They're having to make those calculations because we don't know whether she's going to stay or go. And David Davis and Boris Johnson are the two front runners in that at the moment but nothing as you can imagine is predictable in British politics right now. I'm not going to go there. But we're watching every twist and turn as it does get confirmed to us.

CNN's special coverage of the U.K. parliamentary election. And coming up, the latest on Britain's dramatic snap election as Theresa May's political future hangs in the balance. Do stay with us.

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FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom.

Just a short time ago, we learned the U.K. election will result in a hung parliament. According to our math, the Conservative Party with its 311 seats in the House of Commons does have a working majority if it works with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, and that can be assumed in the situation. But think about that for a moment. It gives the DUP in Northern Ireland huge power, and that changes the story in Northern Ireland. So there are repercussions throughout all of this.

It's a humiliation for the prime minister, Theresa May, who choose to call the election to try to strengthen her hand in talks with the E.U. on Brexit. Now that her gamble has backfired, her political future is very much hanging in the balance.

This is where the numbers stand right now. And we kind of assume the Conservatives with the DUP are going to form a government but it's going to be so hard going through everyday business, trying to get laws through, when you see Labour so strong, snapping as her heels.

Something we never ever expected, Hannah, over there in Aberdeen Green as M.P.s return to London and try to make sense of all this.

VAUGHAN JONES: Yeah, and everyone's been talking so much about Theresa May, of course, as our current prime minister and whether or not she will, indeed, step down in the next couple of hours.

But we should focus also on Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, who has long been criticized by so many of his parliamentary colleagues, but he does have much support within the broader Labour Party, and now seemingly within the nation as well. A very, very big night for Jeremy Corbyn.

I want to bring Matt Zarb-Cousin, a former spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn.

Thanks so much for joining me, Matt. I know you've been up all night, so we'll try and press on ahead.

A massive night for your former boss, Jeremy Corbyn. And is he now due an apology from his parliamentary colleagues?

MATT ZARB-COUSIN, FORMER SPOKESMAN FOR JEREMY CORBYN: Well, I think 1983 lives long in the memory of many Labour M.P.s and Labour activists. And there's ways that I'm feeling that moving to the left wouldn't be electable, but what we're seeing is that lots of Labour policies in this manifesto have been very popular. They polled very well. There is a desire I think amongst public to break with the status quo, break with the economic consensus that has left so many people behind. People are struggling in this country and they want something different.

VAUGHAN JONES: Jeremy Corbyn is known for campaigning. He's big on movements. He's not necessarily known for his towing the party line, if you like. Is he now in a position where he has to head up some kind of government, is he prepared for that?

ZARB-COUSIN: Absolutely. He's a very different sort of leader when he likes to listen to everyone else's point of view. He's a very good negotiator in that respect. Good at getting people on the side. You mentioned not towing the party line. I think that's one of his strengths actually. He's principled and he's got a great track record. He's always, you know, stood up for what he believes in and I think that's what's energized a lot of young people. Young people are very cynical of politicians. They can see that he's actually authentic.

VAUGHAN JONES: A hung parliament is what we now have. Who could Labour potentially do deals with? We've heard Nicolas Sturgeon, the SMP, saying they would potentially consider some kind of progressive alliance. Is that something that you can see Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues already on the phone, already trying to battle out some ideas?

ZARB-COUSIN: Well, they've ruled a formal coalition and they've ruled out deals. We could get a minority Labour government. I think Theresa May will probably resign. She's lost the confidence of her M.P.s. She's lost the confidence of the public. Her approval ratings have nosedived in this campaign. She was highly regarded before she called the election. I think I'd be very surprised if she sticks around.

[01:55:31] VAUGHAN JONES: Do you think she'll go straight away? There is an argument, of course, that in the public interest she needs to stay around as a caretaker prime minister until the political chaos, if you like, has levelled down a little bit.

ZARB-COUSIN: Well, I think what we're seeing tonight or last night is a swing to Labour. 9 percent swing to Labour that hasn't been seen since 1945. And I think the public have in a sense rejected Theresa May. She's lost seats. She was supposed to get a 100-seat majority to strengthen the hands of negotiations, and this has been a terrible night for her. I don't know what will happen now, but if she does resign, there may be a leader contest that may delay getting on with the Brexit negotiations. We'll see how it plays out.

VAUGHAN JONES: Is it more of a backlash against Theresa May, rather than a hugely successful night for Corbyn? He campaigned on the basis of anti-austerity, end austerity measures that have been in place for so long. I'm wondering whether it's voter fatigue that the public said no to Theresa May because they were fed up for having to vote all the time rather than saying we'll vote for Corbyn because we want to end austerity.

ZARB-COUSIN: Well, I think calling the election in the way that she did, for political gain, she thought she would gain out of it, and take it for granted the way she did, not costing any policies, not giving anyone any positive reasons to vote Conservative, I think all of these things played a part.

VAUGHAN JONES: We'll wait to see what moves she makes in the coming hours.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, thanks for joining us on CNN.

ZARB-COUSIN: Thank you.

VAUGHAN JONES: We appreciate it.

Max Foster is on Downing Street. Max, back to you now.

FOSTER: "Storming Corbyn." That's the headline on one of the London newspapers this morning. Theresa May, meanwhile, inside the building. We're awaiting a statement. Will she stay or will she go?

Our continuing coverage of the U.K. snap election after this short break.

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