May's bid for stronger Brexit hand at stake in UK election

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP

Published Jun 8, 2017

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London - British Prime Minister Theresa

May faces the voters on Thursday in an election she called to

strengthen her hand in looming Brexit talks, with her personal

authority at stake after a campaign that saw her lead in opinion

polls contract.

Voting began at 0600 GMT amid tight security nationwide

after two Islamist attacks killed 30 people in Manchester and

London in less than two weeks, thrusting the issue of how to

counter violent extremism to the top of the agenda in the

closing stages of the campaign.

A final flurry of opinion polls gave May's Conservatives a

lead ranging between five and 12 percentage points over the main

opposition Labour Party, suggesting she would increase her

majority - but not win the landslide foreseen when she called

the election seven weeks ago.

The polls supported the British pound, which held

firm at $1.2957, near its highest levels in two weeks. The pound

gained as much as 4 percent after May called a snap election

seven weeks ago, as polls had initially suggested a landslide

win for her Conservative party.

Yet traders are cautious given the Brexit shock last year

and the fact that her once-commanding lead over the Labour Party

and its veteran hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn has been

narrowing through the campaign period.

Voting ends at 2100 GMT. There will be an exit poll as soon

as voting finishes. The first handful of seat results are

expected to be announced by 2300 GMT, with the vast majority of

the 650 constituencies due to announce results between 0200 GMT

and 0500 GMT on Friday morning.

Both main parties were on the defensive after Saturday's van

and knife attack in the heart of London. May faced questions

over cuts in the number of police officers during her six years

as interior minister and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn drew

criticism for, among other things, voting against some

counter-terrorism legislation.

British police investigating the London attacks said they

had arrested three more suspects late on Wednesday as footage of

the dramatic moment officers shot dead the assailants appeared

online.

Two of the men, aged 27 and 29, were held on suspicion of

preparing acts of terrorism while the third was detained over

suspected drugs offences.

In the final hours of campaigning, both leaders returned to

their core campaign messages.

"If we get Brexit right, we can build a Britain that is more

prosperous and more secure, a Britain in which prosperity and

opportunity is shared by all," May said in a last appeal to

voters to trust her to "knuckle down and get the job done".

After becoming prime minister without an election taking

place in the turmoil that followed last year's EU referendum,

May wants a personal mandate and a parliamentary majority bigger

than the one she inherited from predecessor David Cameron.

Basing her campaign on the slogan of "strong and stable

leadership", she has said she alone could face the 27 other EU

leaders and clinch a deal that would give Britain control over

immigration policy while ensuring favourable trading terms.

She has portrayed Corbyn as the weak and hapless leader of a

spendthrift party that would hit voters with a "tax bombshell",

crash the economy and flounder in the Brexit negotiations.

Corbyn has hit back that Conservative fiscal austerity

imposed since 2010 has hurt the poor and widened social

inequalities.

May's campaign has not gone to plan, and as the poll leads

of 20 points or more she was enjoying when she called the early

election in April have shrunk, talk of a landslide victory has

faded and her personal standing has taken a hit.

As a result, the extent of her control over her fractious

party and of her margin for manoeuvre going into the Brexit

talks will hinge on the size of her majority, and on whether it

is perceived to be a significant improvement on Cameron's.

Provided she wins, she will have averted at least one risk:

by pushing back the date of the following election to 2022

rather than 2020 as originally planned, she has ensured she will

not face crunch time in the Brexit talks at the same time as an

election.

Some in the EU are hoping May does increase her majority, on

the basis that the main risk for the bloc is a collapse in

talks, and that is more easily avoided with a British government

that is not vulnerable at home.

"We need a government strong enough to negotiate," a senior

EU lawmaker told Reuters this week.

But others have sought to downplay the impact of the

election regardless of the outcome, suggesting that it was

little more than a domestic political sideshow.

"Will the election of more Tory (Conservative) MPs give May

a greater chance of securing a better Brexit deal? For those

sitting around the table in Brussels, this is an irrelevance,"

wrote Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chief Brexit

negotiator, in an opinion column in the Guardian newspaper.

May's troubles began on May 18, when she announced a new

policy on care for the elderly that quickly proved unpopular.

She backtracked days later, prompting opposition critics to pour

scorn on her central claim to offer strong leadership.

Opponents were quick to remind voters that May had

campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU before embracing Brexit

after the referendum, and that she had insisted for months an

election would not be in the national interest before calling

one.

May has reacted by sticking to her campaign messages,

endlessly repeating the same slogans and appearing mostly at

tightly controlled events - prompting many in the media to

deride her as an uninspiring "Maybot".

Meanwhile, veteran left-winger Corbyn, who was written off

as a no-hoper by most political analysts, surprised on the

upside with a policy-rich campaign that drew large, fervent

crowds to his events - although sceptics say his appeal in the

broader electorate is limited.

He proposes building a fairer society through policies such

as raising taxes for the richest 5 percent, scrapping university

tuition fees and investing £250 billion in

infrastructure - plans which the Conservatives say are fiscally

irresponsible.

"Labour’s campaign has already changed the face of British

politics," Corbyn said in a final campaign rally.

"As we prepare for government, we have already changed the

debate and given people hope. Hope that it doesn’t have to be

like this, that inequality can be tackled, that austerity can be

ended, that you can stand up to the elites and the cynics."

There was only one point of agreement between May and

Corbyn, which was that the strongest signal that Britons could

send to show they were not cowed by the recent spate of attacks

would be to go out and vote. Reuters

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