An analysis of marginal seats in the UK general election has revealed exactly how many votes away Jeremy Corbyn was from becoming Prime Minister.
The election, which took place on Thursday (June 8), resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservatives failing to win a majority. Now, Theresa May is seeking to form a government with the DUP – the only party who won enough seats to keep the Tories in power who haven’t already rejected the idea of creating a coalition government with them.
If Corbyn had won seven seats that were narrowly won by the Tories, he would have been in the position May is in now and forming a “progressive alliance” with the smaller parties involved in the election.
The Labour leader was just 2,227 votes away from being elected as the country’s new Prime Minister. The party had previously confirmed they were prepared to form a coalition government, as the Independent reports.
If Corbyn had claimed seven more seats, the total seats won by Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and one independent MP would have come to 322 – enough to dethrone the Conservatives of their power.
The seven seats that were won by the Conservatives with the slimmest margins were Southampton Itchen (won by 31), Preseli Pembrokeshire (won by 314), Hastings and Rye (won by 346), Chipping Barnet (won by 353), Thurrock (won by 345), Norwich North (won by 507) and Pudsey (won by 331).
However, the Conservative Party were only 287 votes from forming a majority government and could have done so by winning four seats. Dudley North (won by Labour by 22), Newcastle-under-Lyme (won by 30), Crewe and Nantwich (won by 48) and Canterbury (won by 187) would have allowed PM May to form a government without the help of the DUP.