U.K. and European Lawmakers React to Britain's Shock Election Result

With only a few straggling constituencies left to announce, the U.K. electorate returned the country a hung parliament early Friday morning, meaning that neither of the two largest parties had secured the 326 seats required for an absolute majority.

The result was an overwhelming rejection of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who had called the election to strengthen her mandate to negotiate a Brexit deal. During her campaign, May promised a "strong and stable" leadership in the run up to divorce talks with European leaders, scheduled June 19. But the results delivered a humiliation to May and her Conservative Party.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, by contrast, enjoyed a triumphant night, increasing his party's Commons tally by 31 seats. "Politics has changed and politics isn't going back into the box it was before. People have had quite enough of austerity politics," Corbyn said after winning in his home constituency of Islington North.

Here’s how U.K. and E.U. lawmakers reacted to the shock election result:

Some Conservatives were predictably dour. Nigel Evans, a lawmaker for Ribble Valley, said his party had shot itself in the head, the BBC's Chris Mason tweeted.