LONDON--Prime Minister Theresa May faced calls to quit on Friday after her election gamble to win a stronger mandate backfired, throwing British politics into turmoil and potentially delaying the start of Brexit negotiations.
With no clear winner likely to emerge from Thursday's vote, a wounded May vowed to provide stability, while her Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn said she should step down.
An updated BBC forecast predicted May's Conservatives would win 318 of the 650 House of Commons seats, eight short of a majority, while the left-wing opposition Labour Party would take 267 -- producing a "hung parliament" and potential deadlock. Sky News also predicted May would lose her majority, scoring somewhere between 315 and 325 seats.
With talks of unprecedented complexity on Britain's departure from the European Union due to start in just 10 days' time, there was uncertainty over who would form the next government and over the fundamental direction Brexit would take.
"At this time, more than anything else this country needs a period of stability," a grim-faced May said after winning her own parliamentary seat of Maidenhead in southeast England. "If ... 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."
After winning his own seat in north London, Corbyn said May's attempt to win a bigger mandate had backfired.
"The mandate she's got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence," he said. "I would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country."
May had unexpectedly called the snap election seven weeks ago, confident of sharply increasing the slim majority she had inherited from predecessor David Cameron before launching into the Brexit talks. Instead, she risked an ignominious exit after just 11 months at Number 10 Downing Street, which would be the shortest tenure of any prime minister for almost a century.
"Whatever happens, Theresa May is toast," said Nigel Farage, former leader of the anti-EU party UKIP.
May had spent the campaign denouncing Corbyn as the weak leader of a spendthrift party that would crash Britain's economy and flounder in Brexit talks, while she would provide "strong and stable leadership" to clinch a good deal for Britain. But her campaign unravelled after a major policy u-turn on care for the elderly, while Corbyn's old-school socialist platform and more impassioned campaigning style won wider support than anyone had foreseen.
Sterling fell by more than two cents against the U.S. dollar after an exit poll showed May losing her majority. "A hung parliament is the worst outcome from a markets perspective as it creates another layer of uncertainty ahead of the Brexit negotiations and chips away at what is already a short timeline to secure a deal for Britain," said Craig Erlam, an analyst with brokerage Oanda in London.
