Johnson Vows Swift Brexit following Decisive Election Victory

Tobias Hoonhout

Following a landslide victory, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in his victory speech “no ifs, no buts, no maybes” in finalizing Brexit by the end of January.

With all but one district declared on Friday morning, Johnson’s Conservatives had won 364 seats — 47 more than they won in the last election — to earn a large majority, their largest victory in over 30 years.

“We pulled it off. We broke the deadlock, we ended the gridlock, we smashed the roadblock and in this glorious pre-breakfast moment before a new dawn rises on a new day and a new government,” Johnson said.

“This election means that getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people,” Johnson said. “With this election I think we have brought to an end all of those miserable threats of a second referendum.”

The decisive electoral victory has effectively consolidated support for the Brexit deal that Johnson negotiated after succeeding Theresa May as prime minister, as Johnson intended when he called the general election. He now enjoys wide latitude to pursue a negotiating strategy and timeline of his choosing, free of interference from the Democratic Irish Unionist Party and the leftist coalition of Labor and Liberal Democrats, who were intent on holding a second referendum.

Johnson spent much of his speech addressing the voters Conservatives had flipped. In traditional Labour strongholds in north and central England, Johnson’s campaigning on “get Brexit done” succeeded. Conservatives won the seat of Blyth Valley, an area that had been held by Labour since 1950, and Bishop Auckland, who elected the first Tory member of Parliament in its 134 year history.

“I have a message to all those who voted for us yesterday, especially those who voted for us Conservatives, one nation Conservatives for the first time,” Johnson said. “You may only have lent us your vote and you may not think of yourself as a natural Tory . . . I and we will never take your support for granted. And I will make it my mission to work night and day, flat out to prove you right in voting for me this time and to earn your support in the future.”

Johnson also laid out a large portion of his platform, including promises to “massively increase our investment” in Britain’s national health service, “record spending” on schools, an “Australian-style points based immigration system,” and “colossal new investments” in infrastructure and science to make the country “the cleanest greenest on earth.”

More from National Review