What if, as current UK Prime Minister Theresa May recently did, Gordon Brown called a snap election in 2007 but this backfired on him? The conventional wisdom is that Brown should have called a snap election and would likely have won a workable majority. That is possible, but as the recent snap election showed, a snap election call could easily backfire. And in 2007 the polls were close between Labour and the Tories, though most showed Labour narrowly ahead, and therefore a hung parliament was a possibility. The immediate pre-campaigning also suggested that Cameron could stage a comeback, as the Blackpool conference went brilliantly for the Conservatives while Brown made a tactical blunder in his trip to Iraq. It is possible that in the actual campaign Brown's honeymoon would have worn off and it could have ended in a hung parliament. Here are the results I made for TTL 2007.
2007 UK election
Gordon Brown-Labour: 314-41 39.2%
David Cameron-Conservative: 295+97 41.6%
Menzies Campbell-LibDem: 10-52 11.5%
646 seats
324 for majority
What would be the effects of these alternate results? Would Brown be able to form a minority government or coalition with support from the Liberal Democrats and possibly the Nationalist parties to gain a bare majority? How would the Labour Party react to losing their majority? What would happen to Brown's leadership? What about the LibDems-note that under these results OTL 2007 leadership contender Chris Huhne loses his seat but Nick Clegg keeps his)? How long could Labour last under these conditions? How would UK politics be affected? What would be the effect on the upcoming financial crisis-would Brown or whoever is PM by that stage(if another election hasn't already occurred) be able to handle the crisis? What if?
2007 UK election
Gordon Brown-Labour: 314-41 39.2%
David Cameron-Conservative: 295+97 41.6%
Menzies Campbell-LibDem: 10-52 11.5%
646 seats
324 for majority
What would be the effects of these alternate results? Would Brown be able to form a minority government or coalition with support from the Liberal Democrats and possibly the Nationalist parties to gain a bare majority? How would the Labour Party react to losing their majority? What would happen to Brown's leadership? What about the LibDems-note that under these results OTL 2007 leadership contender Chris Huhne loses his seat but Nick Clegg keeps his)? How long could Labour last under these conditions? How would UK politics be affected? What would be the effect on the upcoming financial crisis-would Brown or whoever is PM by that stage(if another election hasn't already occurred) be able to handle the crisis? What if?