Boris Johnson and his Conservative (or Tory) Party have won the British election.
The Tories emerged as easily the largest party, with 364 seats, more than enough for a majority in the 650-seat Parliament. This was an increase of 48 seats on the number of seats they won in the last election, held in 2017. This is also their best result since 1987.
The Tories’ closest rival, the Labour Party, by contrast, had a bad night, losing 59 seats, to be left with 203, their worst result since 1935. Its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has said that he will stand down as leader in the next election.
The Scottish National Party won 48 seats, up from 35, while the Liberal Democrats managed 11 seats, with its leader, Jo Swinson, losing her seat. She subsequently resigned as leader of the party.
The rest of the seats were shared between the Green Party, the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru, and four Northern Irish parties.
At the time of writing one constituency, St Ives in Cornwall in south-western England, had still not reported its result. A storm had hampered the transport of ballot boxes to a central counting location. The seat is currently held by the Tories but the Liberal Democrats have traditionally fared well there. Whichever party emerges victorious will not have an impact on the final result.
The result means that Johnson can now concentrate on his pledge of completing Brexit, the British withdrawal from the European Union by the end of January next year.