Victory for nationalism? Johnson's win puts UK's future in doubt

Boris Johnson's resounding election triumph will allow him to take Britain out of the EU next month

But could the results spell trouble for the the UK - and the union that has bound England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for centuries.

While the Conservative Party swept the opposition aside across much of England on a promise to get Brexit done

Scottish nationalists captured 48 of the 59 parliamentary seats in Scotland.

Giving SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon fresh ambition to seek another independence referendum.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) SNP LEADER NICOLA STURGEON, SAYING:

"

I don't pretend that every single person who voted SNP yesterday will necessarily support independence, but there has been a strong endorsement in this election of Scotland having a choice over our future, of not having to put up with a Conservative government that we didn't vote for, and not having to accept life as a nation outside the European Union. So that independence referendum that was very much at the heart of the SNP's campaign, there is a renewed, refreshed, strengthened mandate for that."

In Northern Ireland, supporters of a united Ireland won more seats than those who want to remain part of the UK.

And anti-Brexit parties took a majority of seats in the province for the first time.

Nationalists said the result paved the way towards a vote on whether there should be a united Ireland.

Throughout the election campaign, Johnson said he was committed to the union

and denied accusations that his Brexit deal would create an economic barrier between the British mainland and Northern Ireland.

But the result has given Scottish and Irish nationalist leaders hope that the United Kingdom is headed for a breakup.