Laboristas ganan elecciones británicas

Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has won a third term in office. It's the first time the Labour party movement has won three times in a row. But the Prime Minister's parliamentary majority was significantly reduced.

This report from Naomi Grimley:

As Mr Blair stepped up to a stage to make his victory speech, his supporters chanted "Four more years". They prefer to see this election in very simple terms- they won, and what's more they won for a third time. That's been done before by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party, but never by the Labour party.

Even so, Mr Blair's majority has been halved by this result. His advisors admit that the war in Iraq played an important part in that. They think it meant traditional Labour supporters either stayed at home or voted for other candidates. So Mr Blair is promising to listen more to the public and govern "sensibly and wisely".

As for the main opposition party - the Conservatives - it was always unlikely they'd achieve the ten percent swing they needed to win this race but they have made some significant gains in areas like London. And Britain's third party - the Liberal Democrats - have also increased their number of MPs. So the new Labour government has won power but they do so with the lowest share of the popular vote in modern British history.

Naomi Grimley, BBC Political Reporter

chanted
repetían la misma consigna una y otra vez

terms
palabras o expresiones

halved
reducida a la mitad

to govern
gobernar

sensibly
de forma sensible

swing
cambio de posición (en este caso, de un partido a otro)

made some significant gains
tuvieron algunas victorias importantes (al ganar determinadas circunscripciones)

popular vote
aquí: el total de los votos en las elecciones