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UK election: Exit poll predicts Conservative gains

08 May 2015 03:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. It's been billed as one of the closest elections in British history, but an early exit poll projection indicates Conservatives could have gained ground at the polls in the country's general election, APA reports quoting BBC.

Results from an exit poll run jointly by the BBC, Sky News and ITN project Conservatives in the lead and gaining 14 seats in Parliament, going from 302 seats to 316. Official results have only been announced for a few seats, and it isn't clear whether the exit poll's projection will hold true. But if it does, it's a result that would keep Prime Minister David Cameron in power and could strengthen his party's pull.

"It's an astonishing result," said Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, a former British Cabinet minister. "If it holds up ... the momentum, the authority that this result would give David Cameron and the Tories would be huge, and the body blow to Labour equally big."

Front pages of at least two British newspapers described the projections as a "shock."

But some pollsters cast doubt on the broadcasters' exit poll prediction that Cameron's Conservative Party would gain seats and Labour would lose them. Polling before the election, they said, pointed toward a much tighter race.

A top British Labour politician also said the projection didn't seem to jibe with earlier figures.

"It's very different from what we've been hearing on the ground across the country," Ed Balls said on CNN affiliate ITN. "I'm not sure this is going to turn out to be right."

Even though the final tally isn't in, one thing is clear: This is an election you should be paying attention to, even if you're not one of the millions of Brits who cast a ballot.

It's an election that could reshape the country's global role for years. Britain's relationships with the European Union, NATO and the United States are hanging in the balance. And the Scottish National Party might get a major boost at the polls that could fuel a fresh push for Scottish independence.