Conservatives win emphatic election victory

The Conservatives have won an emphatic victory at the General Election.

As the last counts were gathered in, Boris Johnson said voters had given the government a powerful mandate to get the Brexit deal done.

Donald Trump congratulated Boris Johnson via Twitter.  The Conservatives have won by a thumping majority as counts continue to take place.

Trump tweeted:

Looking like a big win for Boris in the U.K.!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2019

Locally in the south, the Conservatives regained their seats. Bournemouth MPs Tobias Ellwood, Conor Burns and Michael Tomlinson all won comfortably.

Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats has lost her seat in East Dunbartonshire to the SNP by 149 seats. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, says he will not fight another election as leader.

This is the second time Swinson has lost the seat, the first time occurring in 2015 to the SNP before she regained it in the 2017 election. She held the seat for a collective 12 years.

She is the youngest leader the Lib-Dems have ever had, taking over from Vince Cable in 2019.

In her concession speech, Swinson congratulated the SNP’s Amy  Callaghan and said: “What you said about young women and smashing boundaries I wholeheartedly agree.”

Jeremy Corbyn announced his intention to resign as leader of the Labour party. In his acceptance speech after winning a substantial majority in his Islington North constituency, he said he would not lead his party at the next general election, stating: “I will not fight another general election as leader of the Labour Party.”

He then thanked his party and his family and said Brexit was the key cause that had created divisions in the country.

Corbyn said there were still many people who supported Labour policies on the NHS, social care reform and education.

Leading Labour politicians are already starting to ask questions around their campaign and Jeremy Corbyn’s’ leadership.

Jess Phillips, touted as a possible future leader of Labour, said:

It feels like a punch in the stomach, we will all be thinking of the harm that can be done to those we care for. I understand, I feel pain, take that anger you feel and know it has to be fuel. Maybe not tonight but tomorrow.

— Jess Phillips Esq., (@jessphillips) December 12, 2019

Labour activist Brendan Cox, talking about his late wife Jo Cox who was brutally murdered in June 2016 by a far-right terrorist, tweeted:

“If Jo were here, she would be telling us not to mourn but to organise. If you care about the future of the Labour party join or re-join it now and help bring it back to its senses”

This historic election night began at 10pm with the release of  exit polls, which predicted that the Conservative party would win with a 86 seat majority, suggesting a 50 seat gain on the 2017 election which saw a minority win for the Conservatives.

The first result was  in Newcastle Upon Tyne Central which beat Sunderland South to the punch in being the first to release the count which saw a Labour victory for Chi Onwurah.

 

words by Claire McCrory