Exit poll projects election victory for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party
The result would pave the way for Boris Johnson to execute his Brexit plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union; senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot reports from London.
Exit polls suggested that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson clinched the majority of seats in the parliamentary elections after polls closed Thursday, a strong confirmation that he could forge forward with a long-anticipated Brexit deal.
Early polling data showed that Johnson's Conservative Party, the Tories, won 368 seats in the House of Commons, an 86-seat majority ahead of the opposition Labour Party headed by Jeremy Corbyn.
UK GENERAL ELECTION: JOHNSON'S CONSERVATIVES TO WIN SIGNIFICANT MAJORITY, EXIT POLL PREDICTS
Johnson tweeted shortly after the polls closed: "Thank you to everyone across our great country who voted, who volunteered, who stood as candidates. We live in the greatest democracy in the world."
Corbyn did not admit defeat on Twitter but thanked his supporters.
"I promised @UKLabour would run the biggest people powered campaign our country has ever seen. And you, our members and supporters, have done just that. You're the heart of our party, and you have campaigned tirelessly to win so we can a build a fairer country. I thank you all," Corbyn said.
Poll aggregator Britain Elects called the anticipated outcome of the elections "likely to be the worst in seat terms for Labour since the 1930s."
In the U.S., liberal lawmakers had urged U.K. residents to vote against Johnson, who is a friend and ally to President Trump.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., posted an anti-Johnson video on Twitter insisting that conservative economic policies are hurting Britain's working class.
"This video is about the UK, but it might as well have been produced in the United States," Ocasio-Cortez wrote, touting her support for Corbyn, who has been accused of being an anti-Semite.
"The hoarding of wealth by the few is coming at the cost of peoples' lives," she said. "The only way we change is with a massive surge of *new* voters at the polls. UK, Vote!"
Jess Phillips, a Labour Party candidate for Birmingham Yardley, expressed her devastation at her party's defeat.
"There are very few words for how heartbroken I am for the community I represent who have been through enough," Phillips tweeted.
"It feels like a punch in the stomach, we will all be thinking of the harm that can be done to those we care for," she added. "I understand, I feel pain, take that anger you feel and know it has to be fuel. Maybe not tonight but tomorrow."
Labour Party activist and columnist for The Guardian Owen Jones called the results "utterly devastating."
"I’m so, so sorry guys. Just utterly devastating. Brexit just smashed us. Keeping together an electoral coalition of Remainers and Leavers as the country bitterly divided just became impossible," Jones wrote on Twitter.
Political commentators have often drawn parallels between Trump and his conservative British counterpart, and a win for Johnson could pave the way for the two allies to forge forward with a new trade deal between the nations.
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Trump has yet to make a comment about Johnson's projected win.
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