PM Boris Johnson wins historic UK election

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson is greeted by staff as he returns at 10 Downing Street after meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, where she invited him to become Prime Minister and form a new government. Pic/AFP

London: Election-weary British voters gave Prime Minister Boris Johnson a "powerful new mandate" in the historic polls as his Conservative Party on Friday won a commanding majority in Parliament to allow him to finalise UK's divorce deal with the European Union next month.

Johnson, 55, who vigorously campaigned on a simple slogan "Get Brexit done," vowed that he will work "flat out" to repay the trust of the voters after the Conservatives' most emphatic majority since the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.

A 365-seat haul gave the Conservative Party a solid 80-seat majority in the 650-strong House of Commons. Addressing a victory rally, Johnson hailed a "new dawn," which "unarguably" broke the Brexit deadlock and vowed not to let down the "sacred trust" placed in him by the voters, who turned out for the first winter election in decades to register a 67 per cent turnout.

Johnson, who won his own seat in London's Uxbridge and South Ruislip, hailed the Conservative Party's triumph as a "powerful new mandate" to move forward with his deal to leave the 28-member economic bloc on January 31.

"It does look as though this One Nation Conservative government has been given a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done, and not just to get Brexit done but to unite this country and to take it forward," he said.

"We did it, we pulled it off didn't we? We broke the deadlock, we ended the gridlock, we smashed the roadblock," Johnson, who was accompanied by his girlfriend Carrie Symonds and their pet dog Dilyn at the rally.

"With this election I think we've put an end to all those miserable threats of a second referendum," he said, as he got the crowd to repeat "Get Brexit Done" numerous times during an energetic victory speech.

80
The majority with which the Conservative Party won

Indian-origin MPs register strong result

A record 15 Indian-origin politicians entered the UK's House of Commons on Friday after a historic election won by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Indian-origin candidates across both the ruling Conservative and Opposition Labour parties registered equally strong results of seven wins each in the UK's General Election on Thursday, with around a dozen MPs retaining their seats alongside some new faces, taking their number in the UK's lower house to 15.

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