Brits go to polls to elect third PM in two years

In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron won a comfortable majority in Parliament to form a government now free of the previous LibDem partner in coalition. But he soon tripped in a claptrap of his own making - the Leave or Remain referendum on the EU membership that he promised during the election.

The leavers won narrowly in the referendum, making Brexit (or leaving the European Union) a national obsession. Cameron fell on his own sword just after one year of leadership, the Conservative party was fractured, and in the ensuing tussle and backstabbing, Theresa May emerged. Margaret Thatcher's name was mentioned in a gesture of anointment.

May was Cameron's Home Secretary and a "bl**dy difficult woman", according to one celebrated male party grandee. She had the reputation of a tough Home Secretary and a no-nonsense politician shaped by a vicar's daughter''s upbringing.

No, there's not going to be a snap election, she said. Then she steered the Great Repeal Bill to become law in Parliament, the preliminary to invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty for the separation negotiations with Europe. She had the majority in Parliament, was in a strong position, and had the backing of most, if not the entire nation.

Sitting opposite her in Parliament was Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour opposition, a laughing-stock, mocked by the media, and at odds with some of his own party's leading lights. He became leader not through the party's internal cabal but by mustering the force of the grassroots, activists and supporters in the wilderness who registered to become party members for a pittance to vote.

He speaks of ''old-fashioned'' things like national health, social housing, re-nationalisation even, and he loves the trade unions. He has a history of activism and opposition to war. He co-founded the anti-war movement when Blair and Bush were turning their ire against Iraq. Unelectable was the word they used to describe him in some quarters of the party and in the press.

The last party leader who won so much derision was perhaps Michael Foot, the Labour leader who led the party into a disastrous election in 1979 that brought Thatcher to power. But Foot was an intellectual with a passion for shabby dressing while Corbyn scraped through his school exams, his present wife is his third, and the first (a professor) allegedly called him uneducated for refusing to send their children to the local Grammar.

But Corbyn refused to be distracted. In Parliament, he brought a new style to the normally raucous prime minister's question time: he read letters received from people in the constituencies and eschewed personal attacks.

May, as was obvious to all, had Corbyn's head on a platter. The Conservative party was upbeat and so, on April 18, to a stunned Parliament and nation, May called a snap election.

Opinion polls put May at more than 20 points ahead of Labour, centrally placed as her party's national brand, and Corbyn, common wisdom said, was to his own Waterloo headed.

But in just a month on the hustings Labour managed to slash the Conservative lead by 16 points. What went wrong?

The media attribute this to what is now known as Theresa May's wobble when she did a U-turn on the so-called dementia tax, the manifesto plan to charge the elderly for their care if they have resources worth more than £100,000. This meant that old people would lose their property, a serious mistake as the old and property-owners-in-waiting are a powerful lobby and they tend to vote Conservative.

What the media have also failed to acknowledge is that Corbyn's battle bus had been working hard outside even the cognisance of his own traditional party. His national activists - dedicated and passionate - have been quietly working among the grassroots, the young and the disgruntled poor. They have reputedly enlisted over a million young voters, potentially Labour supporters, and they have been campaigning even before the election call, at constituency level.

May's reputation, in the meantime, was damaged. No strong, perceptive leader could have made such an elementary mistake. Strong and stable leadership was her initial campaign slogan, but it was dropped as its self-regarding message. The campaign was now back to the Conservative message.

The dementia tax was but one indication that the Conservatives under May had got it wrong. Then Labour's election manifesto created more of a stir than the Conservatives' and, most crucially, Brexit, the ballot-box issue on which May had steered the party from the start, lost its grip on the electorate. The issue was thrown wide - Brexit and policing, the national health and schooling, defence and Britain's share of the European market. And the leadership.

The unexpected had already begun to take shape: Corbyn the unelectable suddenly became the possible leader. His personal style has visibly changed, appearing now more comfortable in parrying media questions, more leader-like. A recent poll showed that barring London's Mayor Sadiq Khan entering the fray, Corbyn is the Londoners' preferred choice for prime minister over May.

The battle for Downing Street has now become a two-horse race, and even the hitherto Corbyn-sceptic Guardian newspaper has given a more sympathetic coverage. The LibDems, on the other hand, have lost their clout, UKIP, the troublemaking, anti-immigration party that worked hard to make Brexit the national ticket, is now routed. What further surprise awaits?

Terror attacks in London. The Conservatives have always been the law-and-order party but even that failed to be the party's rallying call. May, as Home Secretary had been responsible for cuts in police budget and numbers. One former police commissioner came out to say so. Corbyn even called for her resignation. It was hardly the attention that she needed.

Before that, she failed to appear at an all-party television debate, giving Corbyn the opportunity to outmanoeuvre her by agreeing, at the last minute, to appear. The next day, attacks on the prime minister's absence dominated media coverage.

May's election surprise has given Corbyn the chance to pull the same. Opinion polls, eager to redeem their failure in the Brexit referendum, are still undecided about the outcome. One even had Labour on a lead by three points, but the certainty is that whatever the outcome, May is no longer the unassailable party leader in the way that she was perceived.

Corbyn may have cut the Conservative's lead drastically, say opinion pollsters, but his greatest support comes from young voters who are notoriously slack in turning up to vote. Former UKIP voters may come back to the Conservatives, and that is May's biggest hope. But many agree the party's present majority in Parliament looks certain to be slashed, with some London Conservatives losing their seats.

Some betting shops are already taking bets on Boris Johnson, the present Foreign Secretary, as the next leader of the Conservatives.

But Labour, even if it has made great strides to stop May gaining an even bigger mandate from the people has still one enemy to contend with. Yesterday the right wing media, not just the Murdoch press but also the Express and the Daily Mail ran banner headlines about Corbyn's and Mayor Sadiq Khan's alleged association with the Jihadists.

Blair in his day entered into a pact with Rupert Murdoch to look after each other's interests before entering the election fray. Corbyn is completely on his own come election day. The result may change drastically with the new media onslaught on his credibility. The results will start to come in late evening today.