“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.

“Congratulations to Boris Johnson on his great WIN!” the US president tweeted. “Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new Trade Deal after BREXIT. This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative than any deal that could be made with the E.U. Celebrate Boris!”

The European Union seemed at least partly relieved that the UK now finally had a majority government – something it had not had since 2017 – to end the uncertainty over Brexit.

In Brussels on Friday, European Council President Charles Michel said: “We expect as soon as possible a vote by the British parliament on the withdrawal agreement. It is important to have the clarity as soon as possible”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Johnson on his party’s “clear” win, while other leaders hailed the end of three and half years of Brexit chaos, including three delays.

The second reading of Johnson’s Brexit withdrawal bill is likely to be heard in parliament before Christmas, probably at the end of next week.

“The big argument of whether Britain is a member of the EU has been settled in this election,” said the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who is now the editor of the London Evening Standard.

“Let’s get this all done as quickly as possible.”

The biggest loser in Thursday’s election was Corbyn, the left-wing leader of the opposition Labour Party.

His ambiguous stance on Brexit and his ambitious plans for the renationalisation of key infrastructure failed to convince voters.

The party has also been wracked by allegations of anti-Semitism and Corbyn’s support for the Palestinian cause led to accusations he supported terrorist groups like Hamas.

Corbyn said early Friday that he would not lead the party in any future election, although he did not stand down.

Could Boris Johnson’s election victory spell end of the United Kingdom?

In contrast, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, who lost one seat, her own, to the Scottish National Party (SNP), said she was resigning as party leader.

Indeed, the huge gains made by the SNP north of the border, which largely wants to remain in the EU makes a second Scottish independence referendum, and eventual succession now almost inevitable.

Similarly in Northern Ireland, with the Conservative ally the Democratic Unionist party losing seats to Republicans, a united Ireland was now looking more likely, and there were concerns of a return to the troubles of the last century.

“RIP UK,” tweeted Jonathan Powell, who negotiated the Good Friday peace agreement as chief of staff to the former prime minister Tony Blair.

One of the first seats to be called was Blyth Valley, an old mining and shipbuilding town, which was won by the Conservative nurse Ian Levy. The seat had been Labour since 1950.

Johnson, like Trump’s popularity in the old rust belt states of America, struck a chord among poorer, white working-class voters.

“What people in the north have been saying is that Jeremy Corbyn and his politics does not represent them as working-class people,” said Blair’s former communications chief Alistair Campbell, who was expelled from the Labour Party in May after he asked for people to vote Liberal Democrat to try and stop Brexit.

“Fundamental truths have to be faced, otherwise the Labour Party faces oblivion.”

“This is the utter failure of Corbyn & Corbynism. There is no other way of looking at it,” tweeted Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge.

Perhaps perversely, the few new seats won by Labour were in London, although the party lost Kensington in west London. Labour gained the affluent riverside borough of Putney due to mass concerns over Brexit.

The average house price in Putney is £787,917 (US$1,055,848) according to the property website Zoopla. In Blyth, Northumberland, taken by Labour – the average price is £136,870.

Even so, now firmly entrenched in Downing Street with his younger girlfriend Carrie Symonds, Johnson now has the herculean task of delivering on his promises.

His campaign was short on detail, and in many ways just reversing some of the most unpopular policies of the Conservative government that he had supported for the past 10 years.

Johnson gained a thumping majority, but with a divided map, a patchwork that will make it difficult to govern. As well as the inevitable collision course with Scotland, the prime minister will have to deliver on his promises to recharge the north of England so that they can see tangible results in the next five years. How exactly he plans to do this is likely to be revealed in the Spring budget.

His task may be made easier by the fact that once the UK has left the EU, it will be free from the shackles of EU state aid rules and spend to develop run down areas, leading to a more interventionist economic policy.

However, he could still find the Brexit negotiations to secure a trade deal with Brussels more difficult than he thought.

“Every page of that agreement will now have to be debated. What this majority means is Boris has nowhere to run,” said businesswoman Gina Miller who took the government to court several times over Brexit.

“He won on a sound bite. Now he is going to have to deliver on the detail and I’m not sure he’s capable of understanding it.”

Farage said earlier this week that if the UK trade deal with the EU remained aligned on “everything from fisheries to financial services”, then it won’t really be a Brexit at all.

The UK will also find itself torn between the US, its second largest trading partner, and China, its third but also a potentially large investor in industry in the north of England and the midlands.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse