UK election: jubilant Boris Johnson shatters expectations with thumping victory

Prime Minister Boris Johnson stormed to victory in the UK general election with the largest Conservative majority since 1987, turning the country’s political map upside down and making Brexit now almost inevitable.

Final results on Friday showed that the Conservatives won 365 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, a gain of 47, to Labour’s 203 seats, down 59. It was the opposition party’s worst defeat since 1935, with voters resoundingly rejecting leader Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of socialism. Polls ahead of the vote predicted a tight race, possibly a hung parliament.

But clear victory for Johnson, who campaigned on a slogan of “get Brexit done”, means he will be free to take the UK out of the European Union by January 31, with a trade deal in place by the end of 2020.

“With this mandate and this majority we will at last be able to [get Brexit done] because this election means that getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people,” said a jubilant Johnson in his victory speech.

“And with this election I think we’ve put an end to all those miserable threats of a second referendum.”

US President Donald Trump was quick to congratulate the UK leader, who is often seen as a British version of himself. Johnson, like Trump, rode to victory after his party cut into the traditional Labour deindustrialised heartlands of the UK’s north, that has suffered under years of Conservative austerity and lack of investment.