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Exit polls show massive Labour win in Britain
May 1, 1997
Web posted at: 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT)LONDON (CNN) -- Early exit polls in Britain pointed to a dramatic victory in Thursday's general election for Labour Party leader Tony Blair over Conservative Prime Minister John Major.
"Labour have clearly won this election with what appears to be a massive majority," said the announcer for British broadcaster ITN, citing an exit poll sponsored by the station.
Based on the early MORI exit poll results, ITN predicted Labour would win with a majority of 159 seats in the 659-seat House of Commons. That was based on the answers of 15,000 people questioned as they exited ballot boxes.
Separately, an exit poll for the British Broadcasting Corp. gave Labour 47 percent of the vote, the Conservatives 29 percent, and the Liberal Democrats 18 percent.
That would be the poorest Conservative showing since 1832.
Labour, which has moved toward the political center under Blair's guidance, led consistently and comfortably in pre-election polls. The Liberal Democrats, led by Paddy Ashdown, offered a third alternative that might lessen a winning majority.
All 659 seats in the House of Commons were open. Britain's 45,000 polling stations closed at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), and the bulk of results were expected to be announced within three to four hours.
Nearly 44 million people were eligible to vote, and turnout -- with the blessing of warm sunshine -- was reported to be high. Nationwide there were more than 3,700 candidates.
Major looked relaxed when he voted in his constituency of Huntingdon, north of London, with his wife Norma. The Conservatives had won control in the four previous elections, beginning in 1979 with the historic election of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister.
Blair and his wife Cherie took their three children with them as they voted in Sedgefield, northeast England.
If the polls prove accurate, Blair, 43, would be Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years. He first became a member of Parliament in 1983.
The party that wins a majority will form the next government and name the next prime minister; 330 seats are needed to win. Voters do not vote for the prime minister directly.
The new Parliament convenes on Wednesday, and the government will lay out its program a week later in a speech to Lords and Commoners by Queen Elizabeth II.
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