Why doesn't Corbyn understand that he lost?

[Sittinonthefloor]

I'm totally bemused! He thinks it's an absolutely 'incredible' result and that May should resign. Has no one told him that more people voted for her and the tories have more MPs? The tories ran an appalling campaign, trying to sell hugely unpopular policies, May comes across dreadfully (all twitchy and brittle) yet still more people voted for her - even with all the bribes he was offering. A decent candidate could have won it for labour, (Yvette cooper?) I know there's been a big swing, but still! Not winning against a poor opponent who's run a dreadful campaign is hardly a cause for celebration.

No chance?

If the Tories only got 42% of the country supporting them, despite all these people saying Corbyn is not leadership material, on what planet should Corbyn be propping up the government? If people are willing to vote for someone his detractors say could never be a Prime Minister, what does that say about the depth of hatred an awful lot of people must have for the Tories?

I disagree Charmageddon. May is on the ropes and, as leader of the opposition, I think Corbyn has every right - nay I would say he has a duty - to go for the kill. That's how our parliamentary system works. Like I've said, I still believe he has a lot to do and he needs to take every possible opportunity to get his policies across. To be honest, I didn't think he had it in him!

Yes roundabout. 40 to 42.4% even closer than Brexit. Plus 6500 Labour voted weren't even counted in the final figures in Plymouth. So hardly a clear mandate.

I see what you're saying tanith, I just genuinely can't think of anyone else who might have come forward at that point.

Bear in mind that it realistically had to be someone with recent front bench experience, ideally in one of the more important ministries. It probably had to be a Leaver if it wasn't May, as she was the only Remainer that would likely have been acceptable to the Leave branch. That leaves a very small pool.

I think that's a different situation to May on Friday, where she really did go to the Palace with indecent haste. Though I see why she did it, as it was probably her only option if she wanted to stay on.

Funny what you can achieve if you offer everything with absolutely no chance of delivering it!

Are you talking about Labour or the Tories there? Seems like it could apply to manifesto pledges from both, really.

That translates to 792228 votes less missing 6.5k so about 785700. Hardly a huge majority.

But the Labour leadership ARE propping up the government on the biggest issue of the day - Brexit. They have said they won't oppose it, they have said we have to leave the single market (so hard Brexit) and they applied the whip to the Art 50 vote and not a single amendment got through. Read the manifesto. They talk about tariff-free access to the SM, but nobody can explain what that means and no other country has it. So I think it only exists in John McDonnell's head. And given what he said today, they cannot oppose leaving the SM.

Indecent haste, how ridiculous. Her constitutional duty was to ensure a government could be formed. May was able to do this with the seats they won and the basis of the agreement with the DUP.

The alternative, she did as Gordon Brown did in 2010 and asked the Queen to invite the Leader of the Opposition to form a government. Wasn't going to happen based on the numbers.

The hubris around Corbyn's 'win' and May not getting the landslide is really clouding how many seats the Tories actually won and how close to a majority they are on their own.

I'm reading people questioning the legitimacy of the new government. As if the Queen has just approved an illegitimate government for goodness sake. Corbyn ought to act with even an ounce of Gordon Brown's dignity, wish the returning Prime Minister well and then proceed with preparing for the Brexit discussions in the media and Parliament. Which he's about to come unstuck on having fudged it with voters.

There is no public appetite for another election or referendum.

I can't believe you're talking about Hubris. Theresa May owns the word.

What Theresa May has done is Shakespearian. What a shame he's not around to chronicle it.

Out of this general election, May is the biggest loser. Fact.

Had the general election gone on a week or two more, Labour would have won outright.

Considering the vicious smears from the right wing media, Corbyn did fucking brilliantly.

May on the other hand...

Corbyn's comments about his win and forming a progressive alliance have been exactly that. Hubris.

Of course it's indecent haste, considering TM by no means had the guaranteed support of the DUP at that point. It's not a done deal even now, though I expect it probably will be soon enough. She was doing what she had to do to keep her post, of course, which I get and probably would do in her situation if I wanted to stay on. But let's not pretend it was anything other than acting in haste and desperation. The same is true of her blowing her beans twice this weekend wrt premature announcements.

That said, if the DUP formally agree and the 1922 Committee do approve this and back May, Corbyn should indeed stop calling for her to resign, and begin the actual process of proper opposition. Rather than shouting from the sidelines as he's had to do this weekend. The criticisms of him calling for May to step down have thus far been entirely without legitimacy. But if he continues to focus on that, if and when it becomes clear she won't, that is when people saying he shouldn't be doing it will have a point.

I understand why May's supporters are grasping every opportunity to distract from her folly and incompetence. But it won't work. This is her moment. And she has brought it entirely and needlessly on herself.

I really don't get how in earth anyone can claim Labour have 'done well'.....

The Tories lead the country into a poorly thought out referendum with no plan at all of what to do if the vote was 'leave'

May hasn't shown one ounce of leadership since she took over from the fiasco that was that referendum

1 year later they still have no plan whatsoever as to what Brexit means or what they actually want.

The Tories ran the most dreadful, muddled elections campaign in living memory with policies that alienated virtually all sections of society at any one time

We've had 7 years of austerity that has bought the public sector to its knees

Austerity policies have actually increased public borrowing not decreased it

And the 'victory' labour achieved is to win a few seats back to prevent an overall majority for the Tories but to still be 50+ seats behind. So far behind that even if everyone else voted with them they can't get a majority?! It's a fucking disaster!!! Any half decent opposition given the current state of the Tories and this country should have won a bloody landslide!

And the only reason given for this disastrous performance is the media are mean to poor Jeremy and it's all their fault! 🙄

If the government were in such a bad way then why did they call an election - and piss away a perfectly good majority - when they didn't need to?

I don't pretend to know the reasoning why TM and the Tories thought that the British public were going to just shrug and be fine with what has happened over the last 7 years ... I can only assume that they looked at polls (proven to be totally unreliable and next to useless so god knows why!) BUT to not be able tomoubt enough of an opposition to beat them is pretty poor. Sigh

• to mount

I think the point is that Corbyn is in a much stronger position than anyone had expected a week ago whereas May is mortally wounded by her own hand. I think the labour party has every right to claim a moral victory but you're quite correct that it's not enough. They've won nothing yet and they mustn't sit on their laurels.

To be fair to TM et al, it wasn't just polls that suggested Labour were going to get killed in a GE. It was by-elections too. The Tories won several in the 2015-17 Parliament, and that's almost unprecedented for a governing party. They didn't just pluck the idea out of thin air.

No, the Tories were in a pretty good position at the start of this election. Talk of 3 figure majorities were probably exaggerations, but seriously, a few weeks back Labour activists apparently thought they were going to lose most seats with a sub 5k majority. They lost a mayoral election to the Tories in the fucking Tees Valley four weeks ago, FFS. That basically signified electoral Armageddon.

So that is why Labour are happy. They have done massively better than they could possibly have expected just a few weeks ago, and the Tories have been humiliated. It's the turnaround. Of course they're pleased.

I think the labour party has every right to claim a moral victory but you're quite correct that it's not enough. They've won nothing yet and they mustn't sit on their laurels.

I think that's the big point for me.

The Tories are getting on with it, shadow cabinet announcements, trying to work out how to negotiate their way through this mess - Labour however still seem to be running the election campaign.

It's done - now deal with the aftermath.

It's not done yet, though, and won't be until the DUP and the 1922 committee have their final says. I quite agree that as and when they go along with May, it will be time for Corbyn to deal with the aftermath. But we have not yet arrived at that point.

I think they're just using the chaos as an opportunity to get their policies across. I'm not sure what else they should be doing at the moment. As posters keep pointing out - quite correctly - they're not the ones in government.

Even if and when a deal is sealed with the DUP I wouldn't call it "over". It's worth looking to history to see what the possibilities are, and the Guardian have nicely recapped the hung parliament of 1974 and how Labour's Wilson (who "lost" the GE) ended up "winning" over Heath in the long run....

www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-prime-minister-ted-heath-harold-wilson-labour-party-minority-government-a7783336.html