A POLITICS professor at the University of York says the election was probably one of the most unusual to be held since 1945.  Professor Martin Smith, head of the Department of Politics, said uncertainty has been created for all the parties. "Theresa May called an election believing that she would enhance her majority, destroy the Labour Party and provide herself with the mandate to negotiate Brexit," he said.

"She has achieved none of these and, indeed, has now opened up considerable uncertainty within her own party. If she remains leader and Prime Minister she will have to lead the party and the Brexit negotiations with diminished authority.

"Her mandate for Brexit is uncertain and opens up the possibility for considerable conflict within the party. If she resigns as Prime Minister, the government will have to begin the Brexit negotiations with a leadership contest in the party. Whatever way, the UK is going to go into Brexit negotiations in a very weak position."

He said that for Labour, the assumption was that it would suffer a heavy defeat and the party plunged into a civil war over its future direction.  "Jeremy Corbyn by galvanising the youth vote has realigned British politics and demonstrated that there is appetite for a distinctive, left Labour party.

"Corbyn's critics will now have to rally behind him because the possibility of the reassertion of the centre of Labour has gone. Whereas May's authority has diminished, Corbyn's is now considerable."

He said the Liberal Democrats, despite some gains, continued to be in the political wilderness and seemed crushed by a return to two party politics and UKIP was now 'irrelevant' in British politics, with its voters shifting both to Labour and Conservative.  "In Scotland, the SNP has lost its near monopoly and the chance of a second referendum has disappeared.

"There are two major questions: how long will Theresa May last as Prime Minster and what happens to Brexit? May has suffered from hubris and seemed unaware how much issues of education, health, inequality and work matter to voters."