Last Updated on December 13, 2019, 2:38 AM AST by Anthony Morris
It was the election that nobody wanted and had everybody talking. The result looks truly stunning. An exit poll prediction suggests that the Conservative Party is set to win the election with a large majority of 86. A majority they have not enjoyed since the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.
Though, the exit poll is not the confirmed result as most seats are yet to declare, the early results, which have seen the Tories take a whole host of seats from the Labour Party, all point to the exit poll being very accurate indeed.
The Labour Party look set to lose seats across the north of England and Wales where people voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in 2016 in what will be their worst result since 1935.
Explanations for this result vary depending on who you ask. Allies close to Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, have been quick to claim that this election was a ‘Brexit election’ and that the Party’s message was not as clear as that of the Government’s.
They have been very quick to dismiss calls from others that this has been a failure of Mr Corbyn and his socialist policies pointing to the 2017 election where, under his leadership, the Labour Party made gains and secured over 40% of the vote.
His critics within the Party have said that the problem has been Mr Corbyn himself and that his failure to act on anti-semitism within the Party as well as his radical reform plans were ultimately unpalatable for the wider public.
On the other side, Mr Johnson will be smiling. His message of ‘Get Brexit Done’ has clearly cut through and despite his deliberate attempts to avoid scrutiny over his record and his character, his strategy has been a winning one. Under his leadership, many seats that have never had Conservative MPs in their history now will.
Mr Johnson said he didn’t want to call this election but was forced to due to Parliament blocking Brexit. He has purged his Party of its more moderate MPs removing the whip from a number of senior members including Winston Churchill’s grandson. With this majority, he has a mandate to carry out his Brexit deal and much more.
The current projection according to the exit poll: Conservatives: 358 Labour: 201 Liberal Democrats: 13 SNP: 55 Plaid: 4 Green: 1 Others: 19
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
