Boris gets wide win in UK and has free way to brexit

Make yourself brexit! That was the message the British gave in the election of Thursday by securing Prime Minister Boris Johnson the majority of seats in Parliament.

At 5.30 am, with the polling completed in 649 districts, the Conservative Party, of which Boris is the leader, had won 364 seats, more than the 326 needed to approve its policies.

Labor, which secured 203 seats, has had its smallest bench since it only won 154 seats in 1935.

As a result, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will continue to lead the government and should easily approve the UK-EU divorce by January 31, as he promised.

Considered catastrophic, the defeat of the Labor Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, occurred mainly in central and northern England districts, cities of industrial tradition that were labor territory but mostly favorable to brexit.

One of the districts that is being singled out as a turning point in central north England is Workington, which has had a labor representative in 97 of the last 100 years.

This time, the conservative candidate won by a difference of 4,000 votes. "Workington man" is the press nickname for the kind of voter Boris was trying to win in this election: older, working-class, pro-brexit white men.

Boris's party also won in the eastern district of West Bromwich, where Labor had never lost. The achievement was called "scalp scalping" by conservative media.

In an interview at dawn, the prime minister said the result demonstrates legitimacy for him to advance the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.

The main loser, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, has said he will not lead his party again in other elections, but should remain in office until the party discusses future directions.

Several factors may explain Labor's historic downfall, according to political scientists, and the main one may be the success of Boris Johnson, says Patrick Dunleavy, a professor at the London School of Economics (LSE).

"The agreement sewn by Boris Johnson is not much different from the one proposed by his predecessor Theresa May, and yet he seems to have guaranteed an overwhelming result over hers. This shows that the prime minister's charisma played a key role in the elections." says the political scientist.

Another factor was the battle fought in the north central regions of England, traditionally Labor territory, but where about 70% of voters voted for brexit in 2016, says LSE Research Rector Simon Hix.

Boris's campaign, which repeated the exhaustion of the slogan "Let´s get brexit done", seems to have secured a turnaround in the Midlands industrial region, where the prime minister spent the last few years. days before the election.

According to Hix, the prime minister's electoral success should guarantee him hegemony in British politics "perhaps not for five, but for the next ten years."

It also seems to have backfired the useful vote campaign, which tried to get Liberal Democrats to vote for Labor and vice versa in the districts where it could take a conservative from Parliament.

"The bases of the parties are very different, this transition would be difficult to make," said research expert Joe Greenwood. Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, also suffered a personal defeat unless reelected in his district.

Another reason for the disappointing Labor vote is the rejection of Corbyn, the party's most radical wing and advocate of socialist ideas, among voters and even among co-religionists.

For Tony Travers, director of the LSE's school of public policy, the result could make even more strident the true "civil war" between the center-left wing and Corbyn's left wing.

Recent research shows that most party members today are "corbynista". It was a change in internal rules that allowed all the members to vote that brought him to power against more centrist politicians.

The reactions of Labor politicians on Thursday night already exposed internal conflicts. While downtown politicians openly blamed the Labor leader, the left-most wing attributed responsibility to the brexit.

Almost invisible on the streets of London, the campaign was intense until the last minute by less public means.

At polling stations, party representatives checked the list of those who had attended and called by phone acquaintances who had not yet voted.

The battle was also fierce on social media. The two main parties are estimated to have spent £ 2m on Facebook and Instagram ads since late November.

From Tuesday (10) until Thursday morning, Labor propaganda had been seen 4.9 million times, up from 2.7 million for conservative ads, according to social media data.

First to take place in December since 1923, this was the third British election in less than five years — a period for which the legislature should last.

The previous election in 2017 was called to resolve a deadlock over brexit, the same reason as the current vote.

Despite the unfavorable weather - temperature between 4ºC and 8ºC, rain and wind - and the voting is not mandatory in the UK, turnout was described as surprising.

Queues formed in various sections throughout the afternoon and evening, and the wait was half an hour in one of them.

There were 13 people waiting at 2 pm in the school ID line where retired nurse Marilyn Murray, 76, voted.

Struggling to walk because of the breath-taking side effects of chemotherapy, Marilyn chose to walk the 300 meters that separate her home from the primary school she voted for (by the British system she could have turned to the post office).

As about 60% of voters in her district (Bethnal Green), Marilyn and her granddaughter, Savanah, 22, voted for Labor.

Most Britons over 60, however, prefer conservatives, according to polls. In Uxbridge, Boris Johnson's district, retired Diana Luxton, 74, said she did not trust the prime minister entirely, but preferred her party to the opposition.

As the British decided the fate of leaving the European Union, leaders from the other 27 countries forming the bloc were meeting in Brussels, the EU's capital, for a two-day meeting.

Following the release of the exit poll, the new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the European Union is prepared for whatever the outcome of the elections.

On Friday (13) the 27 leaders will meet with Michel Barnier, EU brexit negotiator.

Conservatives' main promises in this election are to present Boris Johnson's divorce settlement by Christmas, to fulfill the promise of reaching brexit by the end of January, to set aside another £ 20.5 billion. to the public health system (NHS) over the next five years and to hire 50,000 more nurses and 20,000 police in England and Wales.

Conservatives also promise to set up a similar immigration system to Australia, which scores points for age, education, experience and profession. In practice, this should make it difficult for less qualified foreigners to enter, except for seasonal jobs such as harvesting times.

Boris also promised not to raise the income tax, social security contributions and consumption tax.

In addition to the conservatives, another winner of this Thursday's election is the Scottish National Party (SNP), which, according to the ballot box, has managed to expand its presence in Parliament.

Ballot box mouthed party leader Nicola Sturgeon 55 of the 59 Scottish seats, which surprised even party members. At 2:30, the party had conquered 48 districts. If confirmed, the result increases the chance of a new referendum for Scotland's independence.

Their stay in the European Union was one of the reasons that led the Scots to remain in the UK in the last referendum, and the pressure is mounting with Boris Johnson's likely broad victory and brexit.

Boris, however, has already said he will not allow a new vote on Scottish independence.

For LSE political scientist Patrick Dunleavy, the likelihood of a new referendum will depend on the SNP's success in voting for the Scottish Parliament in May 2021.

If they repeat the performance of this election, he says, it will be difficult for the British Prime Minister to prevent the vote