Johnson vows to get Brexit done after sweeping win

Prime minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed a political ‘earthquake’ in Britain after a thumping election victory which clears the way for the country to finally leave the EU next month after years of paralysing deadlock.

With all but one result declared for the 650-seat parliament, Johnson’s Conservative party has secured 364 seats — its biggest majority since the heyday of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Condemning more than three years of political wrangling over Brexit, Johnson vowed in his victory speech on Friday to ‘put an end to all that nonsense’ and ‘get Brexit done on time by January 31, no ifs, no buts’.

By contrast the main opposition Labour party suffered its worst electoral performance since before World War II, forcing leader Jeremy Corbyn to announce plans for his departure.

With such a large majority of MPs, Johnson will be able to get the divorce deal he struck with Brussels through parliament in time to meet the January 31 deadline.

‘We must understand now what an earthquake we have created,’ Johnson later told party staff, according to the Press Association news agency.

He earlier declared when he was re-elected as an MP that voters had given him ‘a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done’.

Labour was heading to its worst result since 1935, losing 59 seats to 203, after what Corbyn admitted had been a ‘very disappointing night’.

He said he would be stepping down after a period of ‘reflection’, and would not be leading the party into the next election, which is due by 2024.

This is Labour’s fourth successive electoral defeat — and the second under Corbyn.

The anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats also did poorly and announced they would replace Jo Swinson as leader after she lost her seat in western Scotland to the Scottish National Party.

By contrast the Scottish National Party, which wants to stop Brexit and deliver an independent Scotland, gained 13 seats to reach 48.

Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party failed to win any seats, but he claimed to have helped Johnson standing down his own candidates in Tory-held seats.

Johnson has promised to put his Brexit plan to parliament before the Christmas break, although it will not likely be ratified until January.

He has then just 11 months to agree a new partnership with the EU before a post-Brexit transition period ends in December 2020.

US President Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations on a ‘great WIN!’ and said London and Washington would be able 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 EU Celebrate Boris!’ he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday offered Britain’s Boris Johnson close cooperation and friendship, after the Tory leader scooped a decisive general election victory.

‘Congratulations, Boris Johnson, for this clear election win. I look forward to our further cooperation towards the friendship and close partnership of our countries,’ said Merkel in a statement posted by her spokesman on Twitter.

The Kremlin said it was not sure the Conservative victory would bring ‘good relations’ with Russia, which have been strained in recent years.

‘I don’t know to what extent such expectations are appropriate in the case of the Conservatives,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said, ‘This is not just a political victory, it is first and foremost a victory of values.’

‘The spectre of anti-Semitism loomed large over this campaign, and the British public overwhelmingly voted against it.’

‘Congratulations @BorisJohnson on a resounding victory and being returned as UK PM,’ tweeted Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. ‘Looking forward to the stability this brings and a new deal for Oz with the UK.’

EU Council president Charles Michel said the bloc was set for talks but would do its utmost to protect European priorities.

‘My point is very clear: we are ready. We have decided what are our priorities,’ Michel said as he arrived at an EU summit where leaders would discuss the aftermath of the UK vote.

European leaders will charge EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Friday with negotiating a close trade deal with Britain, after prime minister Boris Johnson’s apparent election win set the stage for an orderly Brexit.

‘We are ready for the next steps and we will see if it’s possible for the British parliament to accept the Withdrawal Agreement and take a decision,’ he said.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen agreed, adding that Brussels would congratulate the winner and work quickly to draft a mandate for post-Brexit trade talks.

It was a night of exquisite highs and demoralising lows for Britain’s partisan press.

‘Rejoice!’ the Daily Mail told its readers, calling Johnson’s election performance a ‘sensation’.

The right-wing Daily Express, which has been one of the most fervent supporters of Britain’s split from the European Union, called the main opposition Labour party’s performance ‘humiliating’.

‘Boris has done it!’ it cheered.

The mood could have hardly been more different in the left corner of the UK press.

‘Nightmare before Xmas,’ the Daily Mirror said in huge letters on its front page. ‘Big win,’ it added in tiny letters under a picture of Johnson.

The pro-European Guardian newspaper called the outcome a ‘shock’.

‘It is a triumph where the margin of victory makes it a Herculean task to reverse it over a single parliament,’ the leftist New Statesman magazine wrote.

But the Financial Times noted that Johnson’s whopping majority meant that he was no longer dependent on support from the most anti-European lawmakers in his party.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net