LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain’s Brexit election (all times local):
6:40 a.m.
The American president has taken to Twitter — where else? — to congratulate British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on “his great WIN” in the U.K.’s general election.
Donald Trump also wrote that “Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new Trade Deal after BREXIT.”
Trump claimed that such a trade deal “has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative” than any trade deal with the European Union. Right now, however, the 28-nation bloc is Britain’s largest trading partner.
Results pouring in early Friday showed Johnson’s Conservatives easily winning at least 358 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, ensuring it will form a majority government.
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5:30 a.m.
Britain’s election was a flat-out disaster for left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced calls for his resignation.
Results pouring in early Friday showed a substantial shift in support to the Conservatives from Labour. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives easily won more than 326 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, ensuring it will form a majority government.
Labour looked set to win around 200 seats, in what could be their worst showing since 1935. In the last election in 2017, the Conservatives won 318 seats and Labour 262.
Corbyn called the result “very disappointing” for his party. He said he would not lead Labour into another election but would stay on as the party reflected on what went wrong.
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5:10 a.m.
Britain’s Conservative Party has reached a total of 326 seats in the House of Commons, ensuring it will form a majority government.
Counts by broadcasters BBC, ITV and Sky News say the party has reached the threshold, with results from dozens of seats still to come.
Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called the election “historic.” He ran on a promise to take Britain out of the European Union by Jan. 31 if he won a majority.
The opposition Labour Party looks set for its worst result in decades, winning roughly 200 seats.
The Conservatives’ “Get Brexit done” message helped them win previously Labour-held seats in parts of the country that voted in 2016 to leave the EU.
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4:30 a.m.
The leader of the Scottish National Party says her party’s gains in the British election give her a “renewed, refreshed, strengthened mandate” to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence.
Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC in early Friday that despite Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party being on course to win a solid majority in Parliament, he has “no right” to take Scotland out of the European Union. Scotland voted overwhelmingly against Brexit in the 2016 referendum.
Sturgeon said Johnson can’t block the Scottish people from “choosing their own future.” She conceded that Johnson now has “a mandate to take England out of the EU but he must accept that I have a mandate to give Scotland a choice for an alternative future.”
Scotland voted against independence five years ago in what was billed as a once-in-a-generation referendum.
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4 a.m.
The leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, has lost her seat in Parliament, while her party is struggling to make election gains.
Swinson was narrowly defeated in her Dunbartonshire East constituency by the Scottish National Party.
The pro-EU Liberal Democrats had high hopes of gaining new seats in Britain’s election because of its strongly pro-EU stance. But so far it looks likely to only win a dozen or so of the 650 House of Commons seats -- fewer than it held before the election.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are on course to capture a solid majority in Thursday’s vote. Swinson said many people in Britain would feel “dread and dismay” at the election outcome, but that the Liberal Democrats would continue to “stand up for hope.”
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3:50 a.m.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it looks like his Conservative Party has won “a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done” in the country’s general election.
He says the work of delivering Brexit will begin as soon as all the results are in from Thursday’s vote.
Johnson called the election “historic” as he was announced the winner of his Uxbridge constituency in suburban London. The Conservatives appear to be on course to win a solid majority of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
His main rival, the opposition Labour Party, looked to be facing a notably heavy defeat, losing dozens of seats.
