Sanders congratulates UK’s Corbyn on election results

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is offering his congratulations to the liberal Labour Party and its leader after it gained seats in the United Kingdom’s latest election.

“I am delighted to see Labour do so well,” Sanders told The Washington Post Thursday in an email. “I congratulate Jeremy Corbyn for running a very positive and effective campaign.”

“All over the world people are rising up against austerity and massive levels of income and wealth inequality,” the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate added. “People in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere want governments that represent all the people, not just the 1%.”

{mosads}Thursday’s election results were a blow to British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party, which lost 12 seats and, consequently, its parliamentary majority.

Corbyn’s Labour Party picked up 29 seats, embarrassing May after her decision in May to call the snap election.

The U.K.’s House of Commons contains 650 seats, meaning that a party must win at least 326 seats to hold a majority and form a government.

If that threshold is not met, parties must form a coalition or risk losing the ability to govern effectively due to a hung Parliament.

May resisted calls for her resignation on Friday and said she had reached a deal to form such a unity government with the right-of-center Democratic Unionist Party.

Tory losses in Thursday’s election are likely to weaken May’s hand in negotiating the U.K.’s exit from the European Union when talks on the matter begin later this month.