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Boris Johnson on course for sweeping UK election victory


Boris Johnson’s Brexit election gamble appeared to have paid off in spectacular style, as an exit poll put the Conservatives on course for a crushing majority of 86, the party’s biggest victory for more than 30 years.

Mr Johnson staked his premiership on Britain’s first December election in a century but as polls closed at 10pm on Thursday it seemed that the public had overwhelmingly backed him and embraced his campaign slogan: “Get Brexit Done.”

The poll suggested Mr Johnson was on course to win 368 seats — 50 more than Theresa May won in 2017 — while Labour was set to crash to its worst election result since the war: the poll predicted the party had won only 191 seats, down 71.

The result was set to be a rout for those parties offering to reverse Brexit. Labour had promised a second referendum while the Liberal Democrats were predicted to be on course to win just 13 seats.

The other big winner of the night was set to be Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National party, who was predicted to be on course to win 55 out of the 59 seats north of the border.

The huge SNP mandate will set up a constitutional clash with Mr Johnson, who has refused to concede a second independence referendum. If the SNP wins Scottish parliament elections in 2021, the pressure on the prime minister will be immense.

The expected Commons majority would represent a stunning vindication of Mr Johnson and will give him the parliamentary cushion he sought as he tries to navigate Britain’s exit from the EU.

Mr Johnson has promised to bring forward his Brexit legislation before Christmas with a view to Britain leaving the EU on January 31. The real slog of negotiating a trade deal with the bloc will then begin.

Ballot boxes are carried into at Silksworth Community Centre in Sunderland for the 2019 General Election count. PA Photo. Picture date: Thursday December 12, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Election. Photo credit should read: Nigel Roddis/PA Wire
A ballot box being carried at the count in Sunderland © Nigel Roddis/PA

If he secures a commanding majority, there has been speculation Mr Johnson might marginalise hardline Eurosceptics and negotiate a softer Brexit — including a close economic relationship — to minimise economic disruption.

But there has been nothing from Mr Johnson’s campaign rhetoric to suggest that he will choose to align closely with the EU, and many in his party will see his election victory as a vindication of a harder form of Brexit.

Mr Johnson called the election “the most important of our lifetime” and the voters rewarded him with what was set to be the biggest Tory Commons majority since Margaret Thatcher’s 102-seat 1987 victory, easily surpassing John Major’s 21-seat win in 1992.

The result will put massive pressure on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to stand aside, and his close lieutenant John McDonnell, shadow chancellor, said it looked like the results were “extremely disappointing”.

Asked whether Mr Corbyn would resign, Mr McDonnell said “decisions would be made in the morning”. Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat leader, was struggling to hold on to her seat in East Dunbartonshire.

Staff at Labour’s headquarters on the eighth floor of in Victoria Street in London were silent minutes after the shock exit poll came through — pointing to the party’s worst showing in a general election since 1935.

The BBC exit poll suggested that the party had lost scores of long-held seats including Sedgefield, the former constituency of Tony Blair, and North West Durham, held by Laura Pidcock — who has been seen by many Corbynistas as a future leader.

Priti Patel, home secretary, said: “This has been a hard-fought general election campaign at a cold time of year as well. We need to break the gridlock that has dominated the country for the last three years.”

Mr Johnson watched the results in Number 10 with his close adviser Dominic Cummings and his partner Carrie Symonds. In Tory HQ staffers sang the name of campaign chief Isaac Levido.



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