Election results 2019: Tories take Labour seats as they head for majority

The Conservatives have taken a string of former Labour strongholds, with the party forecast to win the general election with a comfortable majority.

Leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was a “very disappointing night for the Labour Party” – and he would not lead it into the next election.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has lost her seat to the Scottish National Party.

The BBC is now forecasting the Tories will get a majority of 76, less than the 86 originally predicted.

Labour have lost seats in the North, Midlands and Wales in areas which backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum.

They are set to win 65 fewer seats than in 2017, it is suggested.

Speaking at his election count in Islington North, where he was re-elected with a reduced majority of 26,188, Mr Corbyn said Labour had put forward a “manifesto of hope” but “Brexit has so polarised debate it has overridden so much of normal political debate”.

He also took a swipe at “media intrusion” – and said he would not lead the party into the next election, but would stay on while a period of “reflection” takes place in the party.

Speaking after he was re-elected in Uxbridge, west London, with a slightly higher majority, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “It does look as though this One Nation Conservative government has been given a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.”

Some traditional Labour constituencies, such as Darlington, Sedgefield and Workington, in the north of England, will have a Conservative MP for the first time in decades – or in the case of Bishop Auckland and Blyth Valley – for the first time since the seat was created.

But Labour took Putney, in south-west London, from the Tories.

The exit poll taken at 144 polling stations, with 22,790 interviews, has been adjusted to take actual results into account.

The BBC forecast suggests the Tories will get 363 MPs – 45 more than at the 2017 election.

With more than half of all seats declared, the latest forecast suggests Labour will get 197 seats, the SNP 53, the Lib Dems 13, Plaid Cymru four, the Greens one, and the Brexit Party none.

Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel said the government would move quickly to “get Brexit done” before Christmas by introducing legislation in Parliament, if it is returned to power.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

A row has already broken out at the top of the Labour Party over who is to blame for what is expected to be its worst general election result in decades.

Leave-supporting Labour chairman Ian Lavery, who held his seat with a reduced majority, said he was “desperately disappointed”, adding that voters in Labour’s “heartlands” were “aggrieved” at the party’s Brexit stance.

Some Labour candidates have criticised Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

Gareth Snell, who said he expected to lose Leave-voting Stoke Central to the Conservatives, called for Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell to go but also blamed anti-Brexit members of Labour’s top team for pushing the party towards a Remain message.

Downing Street said in a statement that if the exit poll was correct, and Mr Johnson was returned to Downing Street, there will be a minor cabinet reshuffle on Monday.

The Withdrawal Agreement Bill, paving the way for Brexit on 31 January, would have its second Commons reading on Friday, 20 December.

A major reshuffle would take place in February, after the UK has left the EU, No 10 added, with a Budget statement in March.

‘Get Brexit done’

This is the UK’s third general election in less than five years – and the first one to take place in December in nearly 100 years – and has been dominated by Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

Mr Johnson focused relentlessly on a single message – “get Brexit done” – promising to take the UK out of the EU by 31 January 2020 if he got a majority.

Labour primarily campaigned on a promise to end austerity by increasing spending on public services and the National Health Service.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

The Liberal Democrats promised to cancel Brexit if it won the election, but opinion polls suggested their vote was squeezed during the course of the campaign.

The Scottish National Party said a strong vote for them would effectively be a mandate for a second independence referendum.

Nigel Farage said his Brexit Party had taken votes from Labour in Tory target seats, although he himself had spoiled his ballot paper “as I could not bring myself to vote Conservative”.