Unic Press UK: Prime Minister Theresa May today agreed a deal with Northern Irish Protestant party Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
In the ‘Agreement between the Conservatives and Unionist Party and the Democratic Union’s Party on Support for the Government in Parliament‘, which was signed/published today, the parties said:
“The DUP agrees to support the government on all motions of confidence and on the Queen’s speech, the budget, finance bills, money bills, supply and appropriation legislation and estimates.
In line with the parties’ shared priorities for negotiating a successful exit from the European Union and protecting the country in the light of recent terrorist attacks, the DUP also agrees to support the Government on legislation pertaining to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, and legislation pertaining to national security.”
The outcome of the 2017 UK Elections [318 seats for the Conservatives and 262 for the Labour Party] meant that no political party won the minimum number of seats in parliament to govern the United Kingdom outright. In effect, a hung parliament was triggered.
What is a hung parliament?
A hung parliament is triggered when no single political party has an overall majority. It means that none of the political parties were able to win at least 326 parliamentary seats, which is the number of Member of Parliament (MP) seats required for a political party to have full ‘control’ and to run the government outright.
In the event of a hung parliament, which is the case apropos of the 2017 UK general elections, there would be a series of negotiations among the political parties, leading to a coalition government being formed by two or more parties, as was the case when the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government in 2010.
