UK election: Exit poll forecasts PM Boris Johnson’s victory

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win an enormous victory in Britain’s election with a parliamentary majority of 86 seats, an exit poll showed on Thursday, empowering him to deliver Brexit on Jan. 31.

The survey showed Johnson’s Conservatives would win a landslide of 368 seats, more than enough for a very comfortable majority in the 650-seat parliament and the biggest Conservative national election win since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 triumph.

If the exit poll is accurate and Johnson’s bet on a snap election has paid off, he will move swiftly to confirm the Brexit deal he struck with the European Union so that the United Kingdom can leave on Jan. 31 – 10 months later than initially planned.

Official results will be declared over the next seven hours.

John McDonnell, the second most powerful man in the Labour Party, said the election had been dominated by Brexit which has divided the country since 2016.