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Shock result as UK election returns hung parliament - as it happened

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Fri 9 Jun 2017 05.29 EDTFirst published on Thu 8 Jun 2017 15.57 EDT
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Heather Stewart
Heather Stewart

Steve Baker, the chair of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group of backbench MPs, has thrown his weight behind Theresa May.

“My principal thought is that it’s essential that Conservative MPs support Theresa May as prime minister, and make it possible to form the most stable government possible,” he told the Guardian.

In the run-up to the article 50 vote earlier this year, Baker played a key role in coordinating Conservative MPs, and liaising with Downing Street on their behalf.

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Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, is the latest senior Tory to stand behind Theresa May but she suggested calling the election had been an error.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “This is a result obviously that she absolutely did not want and none of us wanted. That’s going to make life difficult. I think she should carry on. She is entitled as prime minister to see if she is able to form a government. People do want there to be clarity about leadership, we’ve got the very important Brexit negotiations starting in 11 days.”

Asked if she had confidence in May’s leadership, Morgan said: “I think Theresa May is a competent and more than capable prime minister and leader of the party, but clearly there has been a misjudgment in the way we started off thinking there was going to be a significant win for the Conservative party, that hasn’t happened, we need to understand why.”

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The former Labour foreign secretary and one-time Labour leadership hopeful, David Miliband, has expressed his surprise and delight at the result. “So good brutal Brexit rejected,” he tweeted.

Wow. So good Labour stronger. So good Brutal Brexit rejected. So good next generation realized the stakes and spoke up.

— David Miliband (@DMiliband) June 9, 2017
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The European council president, Donald Tusk, reminds the UK of the ticking clock on the Brexit negotiations.

We don't know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end. Do your best to avoid a "no deal" as result of "no negotiations". #GE2017

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) June 9, 2017
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Martin Kettle
Martin Kettle

The result has transformed the UK political landscape.

Hung parliaments are good news for whips, civil servants, journalists and opposition parties. Anyone who thrives in the engine room of politics is going to love the next few months and years. But the real winner in a hung parliament is the political leader, or even the political idea, that rises above the short-term and points a way to less turbulent times. Who that leader is, or what that big idea might be, is one of the many fascinating uncertainties the country now faces.

Groups campaigning for the rights of the 3.5 million EU citizens in Britain and 1.2 million UK nationals on the continent have said that with Brexit negotiations now likely to start with a hung parliament, it is even more vital that all political parties undertake to secure citizens’ rights after Brexit.

In a joint statement, Nicolas Hatton, the co-chair of the3million and Jane Golding, the chair of the British in Europe Coalition, said the new government must “ringfence citizens’ rights from other aspects of the article 50 withdrawal agreement to make them legally binding in the event negotiations fail”.

The groups also want new legislation to enable all EU citizens to claim their individual rights by March 2019. “There is a huge task ahead, considering 3 million people need to be documented to continue to live normally in Britain after Brexit,” said Hatton.

Golding added: “The EU has made a generous, unilateral offer to UK citizens in the EU and is prepared to guarantee the vast majority of our rights. Now the election is over, we need urgently to know the UK’s response to that offer so we can see an end to the uncertainty facing thousands of families.”

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Henry McDonald
Henry McDonald
Nigel Dodds Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

The Democratic Unionists will only support a Conservative government if Northern Ireland is not granted any unique special status that would keep the region halfway inside the EU, the party’s leader at Westminster has confirmed.

Nigel Dodds, who was re-elected in his North Belfast seat, said the DUP would insist there would be no post-Brexit deal that could decouple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

It will be one of the DUP’s key preconditions in negotiations with the Tories to help them form a new administration.

With one eye on the Brexit negotiations, which begin within the next 10 to 11 days, Dodds said: “There are special circumstances in Northern Ireland and we will try to make sure these are recognised.

“As regards demands for special status within the European Union, no. Because that would create tariffs and barriers between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market which is the rest of the United Kingdom.

“While we will focus on the special circumstances, geography and certain industries of Northern Ireland, we will be pressing that home very strongly. Special status however within the European Union is a nonsense. Dublin doesn’t support it.

“Brussels doesn’t support it. The member states of the EU would never dream of it because it would open the door to a Pandora’s box of independence movements of all sorts. The only people who mentioned this are Sinn Féin.”

The DUP won 10 of the 18 Northern Ireland seats with Sinn Féin winning seven and the remaining seat in North Down still in the hands of the Independent Unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon.

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The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, says the Brexit negotiations should start when the UK is ready, but that the (two-year) timetable and the EU’s position is clear.

#Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready; timetable and EU positions are clear. Let's put our minds together on striking a deal

— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) June 9, 2017

Bohuslav Sobotka, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, says the UK is not ready to start negotiations.

Brexit spustil v Británii pohyb, který je stále méně předvídatelný. A tak ani rok po referendu nejsou Britové schopni začít jednání s EU.

— Bohuslav Sobotka (@SlavekSobotka) June 9, 2017
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Ewen MacAskill
Ewen MacAskill
A t-shirt in support of Momentum, grassroots movement supportive of Jeremy Corbyn Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Momentum, the Labour organisation set up to support Jeremy Corbyn, hailed the results as a success for a superior ground game and campaign techniques deployed for the first time.

The 24,000-strong organisation helped mobilise activists in targeting marginals and exploit social media in support of the overall Labour campaign.

Adam Klug, Momentum’s national organiser, said: “The ground game was crucial to this in terms of mobilising and enthusing activists, many of them first-time canvassers. Momentum played a major part in this.

“I think it is the end of the old way of doing politics.”

While most of the media focus was on Corbyn, Labour was engaged in a largely unseen effort on the ground, using its large base of volunteers as a counter to the Conservatives’ higher spending.

Klug had been a primary teacher when he volunteered in 2015 to work in Corbyn’s first leadership contest and went on to work full-time for Momentum, which grew out of the campaign.

He and his colleagues have not yet celebrated. “We did not win,” said Klug, who said the organisation would continue campaigning, building for the next time.

Labour had won more seats than he had expected. Had all the speculation that Corbyn would have to resign or face another leadership challenge now gone? “I think definitely,” Klug said.

During the election, Momentum developed a tool to help direct volunteers to the nearest marginals: the site attracted 100,000 unique users.

“This was five times the size of Momentum. We reached out way beyond our bubble,” Klug said.

One in four UK Facebook users had viewed a Momentum video in the final week of the campaign, he said. They also developed an app to help people engage in phone-canvassing from their homes or anywhere else rather than go to phone banks.

With the help of about half a dozen volunteers from the Bernie Sanders campaign, it introduced techniques pioneered during the US campaign, with a big effort aimed at training canvassers. Three thousand came to training days throughout the UK, about two-thirds of them first-time canvassers, Klug said.

Momentum asked for volunteers to take Thursday off to get people to the polls. Klug said about 10,000 volunteered, knocking on an estimated 1.2m doors.

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Heather Stewart
Heather Stewart

Theresa May hopes to cling on as prime minister despite failing to secure a parliamentary majority after the snap general election resulted in a surge of support for Labour.

Senior Conservatives confirmed that May has no intention of resigning and is instead working to form a government, most likely by making a pact with Northern Ireland’s DUP, which has 10 MPs. “We won the most seats and the most votes,” one Tory source said.

The DUP is socially conservative and enthusiastically pro-Brexit – and could also press for a boost to public spending in Northern Ireland. Party sources said they were in regular contact with the Conservatives.

May has the right to remain in office and try to assemble a working government – but she is under intense pressure from senior colleagues, many of whom blame her for a botched manifesto launch and a wobbly campaign.

Hearing David Davis has been in to see Theresa May this morning. He's keen to shore her up to ensure Project Brexit is on track, I'm told.

— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) June 9, 2017
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The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, says Labour wants to form a minority government.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Neil he said: “If we can form a minority government, I think we can have a stable government. We would be able to produce a Queen’s speech and budget based upon our manifesto, which I think could command majority support in parliament, not through deals or coalitions but policy by policy. That would prevent another election.

“We are not looking for a coalition or deals.”

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