The chart shows the next general election most seats betting and as can be seen that the first time both Labour and the Tories are placed at exactly 50% each.

Even if the Tories do manage to edge it on the number of seats that doesn’t guarantee that the party will still hold the keys to Number 10 Downing Street.

As we have noted before the Tories face the problem that it will be harder for them to find partners should the election end up being tight in the way the betting seems to be indicating.

It might be that the most important thing that the new prime minister has to do is negotiate a way around an inconclusive election result as everything seems to indicate. You would have thought that this would have been an issue latest during the leadership campaign but as far as I can recall there wasn’t really a whisper.

Mike Smithson