U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May‘s Conservative Party risks falling short of winning an overall majority of seats in parliament in a national election on June 8, The Times newspaper said on Tuesday, quoting research by polling firm YouGov.
In contrast to signs from a string of opinion polls that have suggested May’s Conservatives will increase their majority, the new constituency-by-constituency modelling by YouGov showed it might lose 20 of the 330 seats it holds and the opposition Labour Party could gain nearly 30 seats, The Times said.
That could leave the Conservatives 16 seats short of the overall majority of 326 needed to govern without the support of other parties, the newspaper said.
The British pound fell in Asia after the report, down an initial 0.55 percent against the greenback in about 25 minutes after details of the poll were published. It last traded at by the Times late Tuesday. It last traded at 1.2808 around 0700 HK/SIN.
CNBC contributed to this report.
