The general election has delivered political certainty with the Conservative Party on course to achieve a majority of around 75 seats (7am).<\/p>\n
Boris Johnson secured the largest Tory majority in a generation and once again promised to “get Brexit done”.<\/p>\n
The Withdrawal Bill is now expected to be brought back to Parliament immediately and be passed ahead of the January 31 deadline. A Budget and a more significant Cabinet reshuffle is likely to follow.<\/p>\n
It is the fourth consecutive election loss for the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn announcing he will not lead the party into another election.<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrats will also be looking for a new leader after Jo Swinson lost her Dunbartonshire East seat as the SNP strengthened its stranglehold in Scotland.<\/p>\n
There were Conservative gains in a number of constituencies that have returned Labour MPs for decades, including Blyth Valley, Workington, Burnley and Leigh.<\/p>\n
The pound had risen sharply when the exit poll was published, rising nearly 3% against the dollar to an 18-month high of $1.35 – up from $1.20 in August. The pound reached its highest level against the euro since the 2016 referendum.<\/p>\n
Just before 7am, with a handful of seats still to declare, the Conservatives had won 361 seats, Labour 203, the SNP 48, Liberal Democrats 11 and 22 others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Johnson to ‘get Brexit done’ while Labour and Liberal Democrats begin search for new leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2052770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-2052769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\n