Theresa May, pound both take a pounding

London: British Prime Minister Theresa May was fighting to shore up her general election campaign on Wednesday after a shock projection forecast a hung Parliament and left the pound wobbling.

According to a projection by polling company YouGov, Ms May could lose control of Parliament in the June 8 election raising the prospect of political deadlock just as formal Brexit talks begin.

In stark contrast to opinion polls that have until the past week shown Ms May on course for a big win in the snap election she called, the YouGov model suggested May would lose 20 seats and her 17-seat working majority in the 650-seat parliament.

The YouGov constituency projection, based on 50,000 interviews over the course of a week, showed Ms May would win 310 seats, down from the 331 seats won by her predecessor David Cameron in 2015.

The opposition Labour Party could win 257 seats, up from 232 seats in 2015, YouGov said. Smaller parties, including the Scottish National Party and Northern Irish parties, could win 83 seats, The Times newspaper quoted YouGov as predicting.

If the YouGov model turns out to be accurate, Ms May would be well short of the 326 seats needed to form a government in June, when formal Brexit negotiations are due to begin. The Times said that YouGov acknowledged that its predictions were controversial and allowed for a wide margin of error.