TW

Two of the most powerful women in Britain... but they both committed a highly costly error, they underestimated the electorate and their own popularity. Prime minister Theresa May forecast a landslide victory and had to settle for a minority government and Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon gambled on a second referendum on independence but the electorate scuppered her plans. She announced yesterday that she had withdrawn plans to hold a new vote after the Scottish Nationalist lost almost a dozen seats to the Conservatives. Both leaders will be under pressure to resign and really I think they should both go. While events in England were a big blow for May, what happened in Scotland was equally a disaster for Sturgeon. The Scottish leader had given the impression that most of the country was backing her on independence in the same way as May thought that her tough Brexit line had struck a chord with the electorate. Both were wrong because both had their own ideas on the election: May, Brexit; Sturgeon, independence. Understandably the great British public were more interested in education, the National Health Service and security.
I suspect that neither will resign, they will both cling to power by their fingertips. But it has obviously taught them a vital lesson. May is politically wounded but Sturgeon is the Scottish leader who demanded an independence vote and then realised that she didn’t have the backing.