Election winner may not actually get to become prime minister

Britain’s next Prime Minister might not be the leader of the party which wins the most seats at the General Election.

16:09 05 January 2015

Former civil servant Lord O’Donnell has said that voters should not necessarily expect the “winner” of the General Election to lead coalition talks. It was also said that election result could be “unusual” and more complicated with prospects of three parties getting involved in talks to reach an agreement as the prospect of one party bagging a landslide victory looks increasingly slim.

However, Lord O’Donnell dismissed the idea of “political chaos.”

"When the result comes out, some people think that x gets first go," he said.

"There isn't a written constitutional requirement that the party with the most seats go first.

"It's up to the parties to negotiate."
 
"There's no constitutional requirement for that to happen, so it could well be that we do have a situation where the Prime Minister is leader of a party which has fewer seats than one of the others."

The former top civil servant says that such outcomes were the "inevitable consequence" of voters not concentrating their vote on the two main parties.

"It's a more complex world... People should be ready for the fact that it might take rather longer to form a government than the five days last time."