Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party set to win UK election with a clear majority, exit poll shows

Source: CNBC

December 12, 2019 at 19:17

The result of the election will have a decisive effect on the direction that Brexit takes, three-and-a-half years since the U.K.’s referendum on EU membership.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to remain in power with an exit poll showing his Conservative Party winning a clear majority of parliamentary seats in a general election on Thursday.

The exit poll by Ipsos Mori — commissioned by Sky News, the BBC and ITV — was released soon after voting stations around the U.K. closed at 10 p.m. London time. It’s a survey of thousands of voters which has been reliably accurate in recent years.

The poll projected that the Conservatives would win 368 seats in Parliament, a gain of 50 seats from the 2017 election. The U.K. pound quickly jumped more than 2% on the news.

A party usually needs more than 320 seats to have a majority in the House of Commons in order to pass bills. The opposition Labour party was predicted to lose 71 seats with a figure of 191. The centrist Liberal Democrats were predicted to get 13 seats, the Brexit Party none and the Scottish National Party 55 seats.

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