Super-statistician Nate Silver predicts "incredibly messy" British general election

Statistician Nate Silver, famous in the US for his uncannily accurate political predictions, believes the outcome of the British general election on May 7 could be "messy".

In an interview on BBC television on Monday night Silver, who forecast the result of the last two US presidential elections with pinpoint accuracy, said the Conservative party would win more seats than Labour.

Of the 650 seats available in British Parliament, Silver said the Conservative Party would get 283 seats and the Labour party would have 270.

He expected the Scottish National Party (SNP) to win 48 seats, the Liberal Democrats 24, the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist party eight, UK Independence Party one and others to get 16 seats,.

He said if current numbers held steady, "you’d have the Tories as the largest party but Labour plus the SNP are more. Even then they are not a majority. The betting markets seem to think there would be more paths for Miliband in that case, but it’s an incredibly messy outcome. There is still enormous uncertainty about who forms a government after 7 May.”