Boris Johnson, the leader of the British Conservative Party, has secured a five-year term as UK Prime Minister with a comfortable parliamentary majority which will now allow him to make sure Brexit happens next month. Brexit is the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. Following a June 2016 referendum, in which 51.9% voted to leave, the UK government formally announced the beginning of the process to withdraw the country from the bloc. The BBC reports that the Conservatives swept aside their main challengers Labour in its traditional heartlands, in results of the general election announced Friday morning. According to the latest exit poll, it is expected that Johnson will return to Downing Street with an outright majority of 74 seats which puts the Prime Minister in better position to push for his plan to get Britain out of the EU. It was the UKs third general election in less than five years - and the first one to take place in December in nearly 100 years – and Johnson said it would give him a mandate to get Brexit done and take the UK out of the EU next month. Speaking after he was re-elected as MP in Uxbridge, west London, Johnson said: It does look as though this One Nation Conservative government has been given a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done. Johnson became prime minister in July without a general election, after the Conservative Party elected him as leader to replace Theresa May. A minor cabinet reshuffle is now expected on Monday. But, perhaps most importantly, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which paves the way for Brexit on January 31, would have its second Commons reading on Friday, December 20. The Brexit date - when the UK leaves the EU – is set for January 31, 2020, and with a large Conservative majority in the House of Commons, it should be relatively straightforward to pass Johnsons deal. Johnson agreed a deal with the EU, but it still needs to go through Parliament. The withdrawal of the UK from the EU, or Brexit, however, will be far from done as a complicated process is expected to follow. The Prime Minister will, experts say, now negotiate a multi-part deal governing the UK’s future relationship with the world’s largest trading bloc, a process experts think could take years. Jeremy Corbin, the leader of Labour Party and the de facto leader of opposition has announced he will resign following the poor performance of his party in the elections.
