Latest results of Britain’s election

Voters plunged Britain into limbo Friday as the opposition Conservatives came top in a close-fought general election but failed to deal an immediate knock-out blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

While Conservative leader David Cameron insisted Brown had lost his mandate, key allies of the prime minister indicated his party would bid to cling to power in a deal with the third party, the centrist Liberal Democrats.

Brown’s de facto deputy Peter Mandelson said Labour would “obviously” be prepared to consider such an alliance while another senior cabinet minister, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, said the prime minister was entitled to have first shot at trying to form a government.

Partial results and exit polls showed the Conservatives were in line to win around 305 seats — 21 short of an overall majority of
326 in the 650-seat House of Commons — against 255 for Labour and 61 for the Liberal Democrats.

If confirmed, the forecast would leave Britain with a so-called “hung parliament”, where no one party has a clear majority, for the first time since 1974.