In the UK, early parliamentary elections were held. The main confrontation erupted between the two main parties of the country - the Conservative (KP) and the Labor parties (PL).

According to the results of the vote, conservatives led by current Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a landslide victory - 364 out of 650 mandates in the House of Commons.

Thus, they took the majority of seats in parliament, which allows them to fully control the process of the country's exit from the European Union - Brexit.

“The conservative government has received a powerful new mandate to implement Brexit,” Johnson said. “These are historic elections that give us the opportunity to realize the will of the British people, to change this country for the better, and this is what we will begin to do tomorrow.”

As Johnson noted, Britain will leave the European Union by January 31, 2020.

At the same time, Labor leader Jeremy Corbin called the results disappointing - his party was able to get only 203 seats, losing 59 seats compared to the previous election.

“I will not lead the party in future general elections,” Corbin said. “This, of course, is a very disappointing night for the Labor Party.”

According to him, for some time he will lead the party. Corbin believes that such election results are explained by Brexit, which "divided the country so much."

In the last elections, which were held in 2017 and were also early, the Conservative Party secured 317 seats in the House of Commons, and Labor - 262.

It is expected that December 13, Boris Johnson is due to visit Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who will give him a mandate to form a government. In addition, he will deliver a speech on the Conservative plans for the next five years.

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  • © Tom Nicholson

"Britain must complete a three-year saga"

Recall that the reason for the early parliamentary elections was another delay in brexitis - this time until January 31, 2020. This decision of the European Union was preceded by the fact that the British parliamentarians three times rejected the draft agreement on the conditions for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.

As a result of this, Boris Johnson had to ask Brussels to give more time so that the country would avoid “hard brexitis,” that is, exit without an agreement. At the same time, the British prime minister initially promised to "die in the gutter", but to withdraw the country from the EU before October 31.

Please note that the predecessor of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017 also hoped for early elections to strengthen his position. However, it failed - the Tory representation in the House of Commons was reduced, and the majority of the conservatives were able to save solely due to the fact that they entered into a coalition with the Democratic Union Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland.

KP insists on leaving the European Union in accordance with the agreement reached by Johnson in negotiations with representatives of Brussels. The Labor Party, on the other hand, intended to revise this agreement and put it forward for a second referendum on leaving the European Union.

The current elections have allowed to strengthen the position of the Conservative Party to record levels. The last time the party had such representation was only in the 1980s under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. At the same time, for the Labor Party this is practically the worst result in history - for 80 years the party had more seats in the House of Commons and only in the 1930s less.

At the same time, not only the issue of Brexit, but also their entire political program, became fatal for the PL, stated Andrey Kulikov, head of the research company Europe Insight.

“They lost both in those districts where in 2016 in a referendum they voted to leave the EU, and in those who voted to stay there. Thus, the UK electorate as a whole did not like the program with which the Labor Party went to the polls, and I do not exclude that I also did not like the figure of Jeremy Corbin as the party leader. This affected the fact that the conservatives received such a great advantage. At the same time, I must emphasize that they also defeated the Small Party Alliance, which came together to counter Brexit. Thus, the electorate really supported what Boris Johnson insisted that Britain should finally leave the EU and complete the three-year saga, ”he told RT.

According to Kulikov, Brexit will now be carried out according to the plan of the Conservatives - it remains only to ratify the agreement in the European Parliament.

“I think that the conservatives will soon complete all legislative work regarding their exit from the European Union. They have already announced that in the near future they will again submit to the parliament a bill on leaving the EU. And I'm sure that they will hold it in the near future. That is, the question will only be for the agreement to be ratified by the European Parliament, ”the analyst said.

Relations with Russia

It is worth noting that the Conservative Party has retained control of the UK government since 2010. During this time, relations between the UK and Russia have deteriorated significantly.

This is due to the events in the south-east of Ukraine, for which London considers Moscow to be responsible. In addition, the British authorities do not recognize the referendum in Crimea in 2014, according to which the region reunited with Russia. Britain is also critical of Russian support for the legitimate president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in his fight against terrorists in the Arab Republic.

Relations between countries significantly worsened after the incident in the British city of Salisbury. In March 2018, an ex-GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia were found unconscious near his home there.

According to the British authorities, they were allegedly poisoned with the so-called “Novichok” chemical warfare agent (A-234). London blamed Moscow for this, despite the fact that no evidence of Russian involvement was provided. This was followed by the expulsion of Russian diplomats from the UK and other Western countries.

And before the election, Labor published data that Johnson was negotiating with the US authorities to partially sell the National Health Service to US companies. After this scandal, the media reported that Russia could allegedly be behind the leak.

According to Kulikov, strengthening the positions of the conservatives leaves little chance of restoring relations between Russia and the UK.

“This can really be expected,” he emphasized. “This will spur another wave of calls for new sanctions.” Moreover, if Brexit is completed, London will receive the right to impose sanctions on its own, and not wait for a unanimous opinion or approval of the European Union. ”

Scottish question

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has also strengthened its position in the elections - 48 seats, instead of 35 earlier. As its leader, Nikola Sturgess, noted, SNP won almost all areas of the home region.

“We now have a mandate to offer the people of Scotland a choice about their own future,” she said.

She agreed that the election gave Johnson a mandate to divorce Britain from the EU, but emphasized that this does not apply to Scotland.

“Boris Johnson has a mandate to withdraw Britain from the European Union. But he absolutely does not have a mandate to withdraw Scotland from the EU, ”Sturgess emphasized.

Recall that in a referendum on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, the majority of Scots voted against - 62% wanted to remain in the pan-European union. The Scottish National Party stands for independence from the United Kingdom.

Johnson’s implementation of the process of leaving the European Union jeopardizes the continued existence of the UK as a single state, says Yuri Post

“Exit from the EU for them will be a clear sign that it is time to leave the UK and ask to join the EU as an independent state. So this decision carries the risk of the United Kingdom as a single state, ”he stressed in an interview with RT.