The general election has created a hung parliament.

A hung parliament is one in which no party has an overall majority, which means no party has more than half of MPs in the House of Commons.

It means that whichever party ends up in power will not be able to win votes to pass laws without the support of members of other parties.

That support may come in the form of a formal coalition with smaller parties, or the governing party may have to negotiate with other parties to get laws passed.

In the simplest terms, to get an absolute majority, a party would have needed to win 326 seats.

In reality, an effective majority could be smaller because the speaker and his deputies, although members of parliament, do not usually vote.

Also, Sinn Fein have five MPs, who in the last parliament refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen and as a result were not entitled to vote.

Nonetheless, the election results mean that no party can pass laws without support from other parties.

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