Conservatives, Labour woo 3rd-place finisher after Britain’s inconclusive election

No UK election winner, big 2 parties woo a partner

LONDON — Britain’s inconclusive election turned into high political drama Friday, with the Conservative and Labour parties wooing the same potential ally while the markets pressed for results and a public accustomed to clearer outcomes watched transfixed.

Conservative leader David Cameron, ahead but shy of a majority, seized the initiative with a “comprehensive offer” to the ideologically dissimilar but possibly willing Liberal Democrats.

Labour incumbent Gordon Brown, beaten but still battling, dangled before the Lib Dems their dream of major electoral reform.

A weekend of frantic negotiations loomed — but momentum seemed to be with the youthful Cameron.

“We have to accept that we fell short of an overall majority,” said Cameron, 43.

Results showed the Conservatives won 306 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons; 326 were needed for outright victory. Labour won 258 seats, the Liberal Democrats 57 and smaller parties 28.

“Britain needs strong, stable, decisive government, and it is in the national interest that we get that on a secure basis. … I want to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats,” Cameron said.

But Cameron promised only a “committee of inquiry” to look into Lib Dems’ major goal: reform of the electoral system so that the number of seats gained is based on the percentage of vote a party achieves. They say that is fairer than the current system, in which a party can win a parliamentary majority by getting only a third of the votes.

The Conservatives won 36 percent of votes cast Thursday, Labour 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats 23 percent.

The Conservatives also held out the tantalizing prospect of Lib Dem seats in a Tory government. Senior Conservative lawmaker William Hague said Cabinet posts for Liberal Democrats were not “off the table.”

Cameron also left open the option of trying to form a minority government if the Liberal Democrats turned him down.

Brown, too, appealed to the Lib Dems to make a deal, and went further than Cameron by promising quick legislation on electoral reform.

“There needs to be immediate legislation on this to begin to restore the public’s trust in politics,” Brown said.

“The question for all the political parties now is whether a parliamentary majority can be established that reflects what you, the electorate, have told us,” Brown said in a statement delivered outside 10 Downing St. — still his home, at least for now.

Even a deal with the Liberal Democrats would leave Labour a few seats short of a majority, meaning they would have to turn to Scottish and Welsh nationalists for further support.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg did not immediately respond in public to his opponents’ overtures. He said earlier that the party winning the most seats and the most votes — the Conservatives — should have the first right to try to govern.

“I think it is now for the Conservative Party to prove that it is capable of seeking to govern in the national interest,” he said.

The closely fought election was the first since 1974 to produce a hung Parliament, in which no party has overall control. The prospect of days — possibly weeks — of political horse-trading unsettled the financial markets. As the pound and the FTSE-100 index fell sharply, pressure mounted for a quick solution.

“It’s vital that this political vacuum is filled as quickly as possible,” said Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors business group. “The country simply can’t afford an extended period of political horse-trading which delays much needed action to tackle the deficit.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama looks forward to working with whomever is the next prime minister.

Cameron and Clegg held talks by telephone, kicking off a furious round of negotiations. Face-to-face talks were expected later in the day, the BBC reported.

Although Britain has no written constitution, senior civil servants have been careful to lay out the rules in the event of a hung Parliament and avoid even more market-rattling uncertainty.

Mandarins from the prime minister’s office, the civil service and Buckingham Palace will make sure all parties are kept informed as politicians meet and wrangle. Queen Elizabeth II, as head of state, will ultimately have the job of inviting someone to become the new prime minister — but she plays no role in deciding who that will be.

The parties hope to make a deal before financial markets reopen Monday, but talks could drag on until May 25, the date set for the queen to read the new government’s plans for the upcoming term of Parliament.

Such a long period of political wrangling and confusion in one of the world’s largest economies could unsettle global markets already reeling from the Greek debt crisis and fears of wider debt contagion in Europe. Britain’s budget deficit is set to eclipse even that of Greece next year, and whoever winds up in power faces the daunting challenge of introducing big spending cuts.

The FTSE 100 share index ended 2.6 percent lower Friday amid the uncertainty, while the British pound traded as low as $1.4449 by late morning. It rallied to $1.4720 by late afternoon, still down sharply from $1.51 Thursday morning.

Turnout for the election — the closest-fought in a generation — was 65.2 percent, higher than the 61 percent in 2005. Some polling stations were overwhelmed, and anger flared as hundreds of people were blocked from voting when polls closed. Electoral Commission chief Jenny Watson acknowledged that Britain’s paper voting system had been unable to cope with a surge of voters.

It was an election that confounded political certainties: What appears a Conservative victory is a defeat for reforming leader Cameron. The Lib Dems’ poor showing still leaves them kingmakers. And the battered Brown could stay as prime minister despite Labour’s worst showing in decades.

“I have a feeling Gordon Brown will have to be dragged from No. 10 with his fingernails in the doorposts,” said Victoria Honeyman, a lecturer in politics at the University of Leeds.

For Cameron, a bicycle-riding graduate of Eton and Oxford who staked his leadership on returning the Conservatives to power after 13 years, the result is less than a triumph. The Tories fell short of a majority that only a few months ago was considered inevitable, and Cameron’s right-wing opponents within the party may prevent him offering concessions to the Europhile, civil libertarian Liberal Democrats.

Tim Montgomerie, who runs the grass roots website Conservative Home, said many activists would be disappointed with Cameron’s campaign. Some traditionalists have complained that Cameron failed to address core party issues such as immigration, instead focusing on a confusing message about building a “Big Society.” A large number of Cameron’s favored younger candidates failed to capture seats.

“As he enters his talks with Nick Clegg, David Cameron has got to realize that he’s not just building a coalition outside the party. He’s got to build a coalition inside the party, too,” Montgomerie said.

The biggest disappointment may belong to Clegg, whose party surprisingly failed to capitalize on his stellar TV debate performances and opinion polls showing him rivaling Labour for second place. The party ended up with six fewer seats than before.

Bill Jones, a professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University, said Clegg’s support had turned out to be soft.

“People thought, ‘He looks like a nice young man, he seems to be talking a lot of sense and he is quite handsome,’” Jones said. “It was like a passing love affair the electorate had with Clegg. But it ended.”

Associated Press writers David Stringer, Paisley Dodds, Raphael G. Satter, Robert Barr and Jennifer Quinn contributed to this report.