The prime minister called a snap election to increase her majority, but instead she has been left trying to form a minority government with the backing of the Democratic Unionist party.

In her speech on Friday morning Theresa May signalled that the Conservatives hoped to hang on in government.

To win outright, a party must in theory secure 326 of 650 seats in the House of Commons, gaining a majority and earning the right to form the next government.

The Conservatives have won only 318 seats, eight short of that magic number 326, which delivers an overall majority and the keys to Downing Street.

So what happens now?

We are heading for a hung parliament. The UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system means balanced parliaments rarely happen in Britain, but it was the case following the 1974 election and most recently in 2010.



In the case of a hung parliament, the leader of the party with the most seats is given the opportunity to try to form a government. This can take two forms: one option is a formal coalition with other parties, in which the coalition partners share ministerial jobs and push through a shared agenda.

The other possibility is a more informal arrangement, known as “confidence and supply”, in which the smaller parties agree to support the main legislation, such as a budget and Queen’s speech put forward by the largest party, but do not formally take part in government.

In this case, May has made clear she is going to try to strike a deal with the DUP’s 10 MPs. She will now spend the weekend trying to reach a detailed “confidence and supply” arrangement with the DUP before the Queen’s speech on 19 June. She has rejected the other option of a formal coalition.

Will that be enough?

Although you need 326 MPs to reach a simple majority of the 650-seat House of Commons, in reality the number is actually smaller. The Speaker and his three deputies do not vote and the seven Sinn Féin MPs refuse to take their seats. This means that the working majority needed is actually 11 fewer at 320.

The 318 Conservatives plus the 10 DUP MPs could deliver a working majority of 13. This could be enough to allow May’s minority government to survive attrition through byelection losses until the long-delayed constituency boundary changes likely to come into effect in early 2019. These are widely expected to benefit the Conservatives.

If the Tories fail to form an alliance, Jeremy Corbyn could attempt to strike a deal with the Scottish National party, the Liberal Democrats, the nationalist parties from Northern Ireland and the Greens. But this is an unlikely scenario.

Could we be forced to have another general election?

There is a possibility, yes. If any proposed new government fails to gain a majority of support in the House of Commons for a Queen’s speech, its proposed legislative programme, the UK would be forced to have another general election. This would probably be held in August.

• This article was amended on 12 and 13 June 2017 to correct figures around a working majority in parliament.



