May, DUP are afraid that Labour will win second election: Analyst

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will try their best to hang together because none wants another general election, which the Labour Party will win certainly, a British academic and political analyst says.

Dr. Rodney Shakespeare made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on the results of the British general election held last week.

“It’s important to understand that neither the Conservative Party nor the DUP want another general election, because if they do have general election, Labour will win for certain. So they’re likely to hang together,” he said.

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May had called for a snap election in April in hopes of getting an increased majority that could have strengthened her position before going into two years of intense negotiations with the European Union about Britain’s departure from the bloc.

Snap election is an election in a parliamentary system called when not required usually to capitalize on a unique electoral opportunity.

However, May’s election gamble spectacularly backfired. British voters dealt her a devastating blow on Thursday, wiping out her parliamentary majority and throwing the country into political turmoil.

Conservatives won 318 seats in the 650-member House of Commons followed by the main opposition Labour Party which clinched 262 seats. May’s party is short of the 326 it needed for an outright majority and fairly down from the 330 seats it had before the election.

May is now trying to save herself by forming a coalition government with the DUP, which won 10 seats. May and DUP leader Arlene Foster are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss a plan to form the government.

“In the UK politics is in a state of confusion and flux,” Shakespeare told Press TV.

“The Conservative Party has lost its majority, and is likely to be sustained in power for a period by the Democratic Unionist Party, which is normally considered to be a rightwing party,” he stated.

“But the DUP has certain characteristics. Firstly, its social and economic policy is in contrast to that of the Conservatives, on welfare payments, on winter fuel payments, particularly on pensions for example; on all those it is opposed to the Conservatives,” he added.

“And secondly on Brexit, Northern Ireland, where DUP thrives, is next to Southern Ireland. And the DUP wants a soft Brexit, that is to say an open border between North and Southern Ireland,” he noted.

“And in that respect therefore they are going to push the government if they can in the direction of a soft Brexit which seems to be contrary to the opinion of the Conservative Party,” the analyst stated. 

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