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Boris Johnson Heads for Big Majority in Election That Upends Britain

Published 12/13/2019, 11:34 AM
Updated 12/13/2019, 11:46 AM
Boris Johnson Heads for Big Majority in Election That Upends Britain

Boris Johnson Heads for Big Majority in Election That Upends Britain

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on course to win a decisive election victory and put the U.K. on track to leave the European Union next month after the biggest shift in British political allegiances for decades.

An official exit poll vindicated Johnson’s gamble on an early vote to break the deadlock in Parliament over Brexit that’s paralyzed the country. After a revision, it predicted his Conservatives would win 357 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons -- 64 more than other parties combined. The pound rose by the most in more than 2 1/2 years.

First results showed the Conservatives taking some districts from the main opposition Labour Party for the first time ever as Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” mantra resonated with voters. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced he would stand down. The party was predicted to secure 201 seats, a loss of 61 and its fourth successive general election defeat.

Johnson’s projected majority -- the biggest for his party since Margaret Thatcher’s in 1987 -- would give him more power to get his own way on Brexit, especially if he needs extra time to negotiate with the EU. The only trouble spot for the Conservatives was Scotland, where support for the pro-independence Scottish National Party surged.

The plan now is to hurry legislation through Parliament to meet the current departure date of Jan. 31.

“We have a chance now to bring this whole thing to an end, get Brexit done, get that trade deal we talked about, finish it all off,” former Conservative leader and Brexit hard liner Iain Duncan Smith told Sky News. “If it was anyone else we would have been meandering along for another six months to a year, with no decisive result.”

For an interactive election map, click here

For Corbyn, the heavy losses are a disaster. He staked everything on a radical plan to hike taxes for the rich and nationalize swathes of industry, but candidates said he was toxic for voters on the doorstep.

Labour figures called for Corbyn to step down. He duly did so in his acceptance speech after holding his seat in London. Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said there was no way he could carry on.

“Tonight is an absolute disaster for the Labour Party,” Ian Murray, Labour lawmaker for Edinburgh South, told the BBC. “There has got to be a change of direction. That work either has to start tomorrow or the Labour Party has to reassess what it stands for.”

Brexit has redrawn the political map of the country, but few people predicted just by how much in this election.

Former industrial areas of northern England and Wales abandoned Labour for the first time in generations, mining and steel towns that suffered from mass unemployment under the Conservatives in the 1980s now embracing the party.

Scotland, which opposed Brexit, staged a rebellion as the SNP retook seats it lost two years ago. Officials played down the exit polls showing it had won 55 of 59 districts, but as results trickled in the swing in support backed up the prediction. That would spur leader Nicola Sturgeon to reiterate her demand for another Scottish independence referendum, something Johnson has so far ruled out.

The exit poll is based on a mass survey of tens of thousands of people after they cast their ballots. That has generally made it more accurate in predicting the outcome of U.K. elections than snapshot surveys of voters’ intentions conducted during the campaign.

As results started to come in, they seemed to bear out the results of the survey, as voters moved to the Conservatives almost everywhere, but particularly strongly in places that voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

The exit poll Parliamentary seat forecast showed:

  • Conservatives to win 368 seats
  • Labour to win 191
  • Liberal Democrats to win 13
  • Brexit Party to win 0
  • Scottish National Party to win 55
  • Green Party to win 1
  • Other parties to win 22
For Johnson, a big majority would mark the culmination of an extraordinary rise to power. After he led the pro-Brexit campaign three years ago, Johnson watched as Theresa May tried and repeatedly failed to negotiate an EU divorce agreement the House of Commons would accept.

When she called a snap election in 2017 expecting a landslide, she lost the majority she started with, plunging the U.K. into two years of chaos as a deadlocked parliament failed to agree on the way forward. May was finally forced to resign, allowing Johnson to take over as prime minister in July with a promise to deliver Brexit “do or die” by the end of October.

Despite months of threats and bellicose rhetoric, he eventually secured a new Brexit deal with the EU, but couldn’t persuade parliament to rush it into law in time for him to meet his deadline.

That was enough to prompt the premier to trigger an early election -- the next one wasn’t due until 2022 -- in the hope voters would give him the majority he needed. Johnson’s bet looks like it has paid off.

(Updates with Corbyn resignation.)

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