Exit polls last night indicated a comfortable majority of 86 for the Conservatives while the SNP closed in on near total domination in Scotland.
A BBC/Sky/ITV poll put the Tories on 368 seats which would allow Boris Johnson to get his Brexit deal through Parliament. It was a disastrous night for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour were on course to lose 52 seats, leaving the party with 191. Its early loss to the Tories in Blyth Valley, a Labour seat since 1950, set the tone for the night.
The SNP was predicted to take 55, all but four north of the border but its leadership was cautious last night, warning that many Scottish seats were marginal and hard to predict. A result on that scale would reinforce SNP claims to a second independence referendum on the back of Brexit.
The Liberal Democrats decision to campaign on a stop Brexit ticket looked to have backfired as they were on course to take just 13 seats. Plaid Cymru were predicted to get three and the Greens one.
The pound soared against the dollar and the euro as the exit poll emerged.
Johnson greeted the poll by tweeting: “Thank you to everyone across our great country who voted, who volunteered, who stood as candidates. We live in the greatest democracy in the world.”
Corbyn thanked activists as the “heart of our party” while shadow chancellor John McDonnell admitted the exit poll was “extremely disappointing”. Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner said it represented a “devastating result for us”.
