Rebirth of England.

Chapter 751 Hung Parliament
Just as Britain was about to hold a general election, a very sensational incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico near the United States.

This is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

On the evening of April 4th, local time, the Deepwater Horizon platform, which was employed by British Petroleum to conduct drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded due to a methane leak and caused a fire. The entire drilling platform was soon engulfed in flames...

Although most of the workers were evacuated by lifeboat or rescued by helicopter, at final count, 11 workers were still missing and presumed dead in the explosion.

After this, several ships tried to put out the fire but were unsuccessful, and the Deepwater Horizon platform sank on the morning of April 36, after burning for about 4 hours.

If it had been here, although many people were killed or injured, it could only be considered a safety accident. What was more serious was that on the day the Deepwater Horizon sank, the Macondo oil well where the platform was drilling began to leak crude oil...

According to an investigation report later released by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, problems with the cement used to reinforce the oil well were considered the main cause of the crude oil spill. The Macondo oil well had already experienced budget overruns and abnormalities in monitoring equipment before the oil spill. When implementing the oil well cement project, British Petroleum and Halliburton reduced the amount of cement injected into the oil well to save costs, which caused problems with oil well safety.

Barron knew that this incident would cause very serious damage to both the local environment and British Petroleum.

In his previous life, British Petroleum, not counting the huge expenses in dealing with the oil spill, was required a few years later to pay a total of nearly 18 billion US dollars over 190 years to compensate for the losses caused by the incident.

It can be said that since this incident happened, countless media have been reporting on it every day. In the beginning, the news of the British general election was even completely suppressed...

Because of this incident, United Energy Group and Kolo Oil Company also began to inspect the drilling platforms they owned and hired, and required those platforms that did not meet safety requirements to enter the shipyard for rectification and repair.

After all, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was too serious. Later, according to estimates, the total losses caused by it to the local American and British oil companies exceeded 600 billion US dollars!
……

"Your Highness, I met with Mr. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, yesterday..."

As Barron's public relations consultant, Annabella Nolan has become his representative to mediate between various factions at a time when the general election is about to begin and it is not convenient for Barron to meet with some people in person.

She said:
"Mr. Craig is very happy to deepen our relationship and hopes to have the opportunity to meet you in person."

"He is a wise man..."

Barron smiled and said:

"In this election, it is very likely that the Liberal Democratic Party will be the party that is being courted."

It is indeed as Barron said, after the British general election began on May 5, the number of seats in the House of Commons increased from 6 in the last general election to 646, and began to face competition.

However, in the end, the Conservative Party won 307 seats, the Labour Party won 255 seats, and the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in Britain, won 59 seats.

This means that no single party has won more than half (650) of the 325 seats in the House of Commons.

The bad news for the Conservative Party, which has the most seats in Parliament, is that they do not have more than half of the seats (at least 326 seats), so there will be a "hung parliament" situation...

The so-called hung parliament means that in the British general election, no political party wins more than half of the seats, which will result in a "no majority parliament" situation. According to relevant British laws and practices, they can only form a coalition government with another party in parliament to make their share in the house exceed 50%.

Prior to this, there have been four "hung parliaments" in British history, and this time will be the fifth. The good news is that with the number of seats the Labour Party has won, even if it forms a coalition government with the third largest party, the Liberal Democrats, its total seats will not reach 4 votes. Therefore, the only option at present is for the Conservative Party led by Cameron to negotiate with the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government and reach the statutory number of seats.

In this case, the Conservatives will naturally need to make some concessions to the Liberal Democrats, but since they are the only party that can successfully form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, they will not give up too many benefits...

The final result was that Cameron reached an agreement with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to form a joint cabinet, with Cameron as prime minister and Nick Clegg as deputy prime minister.

It is worth mentioning that in this general election, Joe Harriman also successfully entered the House of Commons and became a member of parliament.

And after Cameron took office, Jo Harriman was successfully appointed Minister for Women and Equalities in the list of cabinet members announced.

At this point, she became the youngest female cabinet minister in British history and attracted much attention.

……

"Mr. Brown, I wonder what your plans are after this?"

On May 5, Brown officially resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Cameron. After that, Barron also met with him specifically.

"Afterwards?"

Brown's expression didn't seem to change much, but Barron could still see a hint of disappointment in his eyes:

"Maybe I'll do some charity work, or resume my academic work."

"Don't you plan to seek some other position?"

Brown shook his head and said:
"I don't plan to work in those companies. In fact, I want to do something that can bring out my own value..."

Barron believed this. Brown did not care much about money. In Barron's previous life, Brown did not rely on becoming a "consultant" for certain companies and giving speeches to make money like Blair did before him. He was a very low-key person.

"I have an idea, I wonder if you are interested?"

When Barron met with him and brought up this topic, Brown had some guesses.

However, what he guessed at the time was that Barron was going to hire him as a "consultant". However, after his previous statement, Barron's words now of course ruled out such a possibility.

So he was a little curious:

"what do you mean?"

"I think you could try to run for the presidency of the International Monetary Fund."

(End of this chapter)