British Prime Minister Theresa May bet six weeks ago that her position was impregnable and that a snap election would further consolidate her power and that of her ruling Conservative Party. She bet wrong. Not only did last Thursday's election reverse recent Conservative gains, but May lost her party's majority in the lower house of Parliament. Personally, she emerges from the ballot weakened to the point that she may be unable to continue as prime minister. More important still, she has destroyed the foundation of her Brexit policy, the negotiations for Britain's departure from the European Union.
After taking office when then-Prime Minister David Cameron resigned to take responsibility for the result of the referendum on United Kingdom membership in the EU, May promised that parliament would serve its full term as she negotiated Brexit. Conservative Party divisions on that issue, and the seeming implosion of the Labour Party under its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, prompted May to reverse course and call a snap ballot, one that was expected to widen her majority and strengthen her hand in dealing with dissent within the Tories and the EU.
Instead, May was humiliated in last week's vote as Conservatives won just 318 seats, eight short of the 326 needed for a majority and 12 fewer than in the outgoing parliament. Labour, despite being 25 points behind in polls when the election was announced, picked up 30 seats, climbing from 30.4 percent of votes cast in 2015 to 40 percent last week.