Women make historic gains in British election

Women have entered Britain’s parliament in numbers after Thursday’s election, winning at least 200 seats out of the 650-seat parliament, TopNaija.ng can confirm.

The last parliament had 196 female lawmakers, voted in at the election in 2015 and subsequent by-elections.

NAN reports that Preet Gill, the first Sikh woman to be elected to the British parliament’s House of Commons, is from the opposition Labour party.

Britain’s election ended in a hung parliament early Friday, with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives losing their majority.

With results in 637 constituencies counted, no party was in a position to gain the 326 seats required to gain an absolute majority in the 650-seat parliament.

The Conservatives had won 311, the opposition Labour party were on 258 and the Scottish National Party were in third position with 34.

The result is a humiliation for May, who had called the snap election in the hope of boosting her mandate to carry out the country’s Brexit negotiations.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on her to step down, saying she should “go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country.”

But May indicated she would seek to remain in office.

“At this time more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability,” she said after being re-elected in her Maidenhead constituency.

“And if, as the indications have shown and if this is correct that the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure we have that period of stability, and that is exactly what we will do.”