With all the votes now counted, the Conservatives now have a clear majority at Westminster. They have 365 seats, while the Labour Party had a disastrous night – their worst since the 1930s.
But while England voted to ‘get Brexit done’, it was a markedly different story north of the border where the SNP cemented their position as the dominant force in Scottish politics, winning 48 of the 59 seats- a rise of 13.
Commenting on the general election result, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “While the prime minister has won a clear majority he can expect the shortest honeymoon ever.
“After nine years of failed austerity, the pressure is now on the government to boost living standards, and inject real investment into our NHS and public services.
“And there are no more excuses for Boris Johnson on Brexit. In the year to come, he must deliver a deal with the EU that protects jobs, rights at work and peace in Northern Ireland.
“Now more than ever, working people need to stand together in their unions – and get ready to fight to protect our livelihoods and our communities. We urge everyone at work to join a trade union.”
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said: “Congratulations to Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party. After three years of gridlock, the Prime Minister has a clear mandate to govern. Businesses across the UK urge him to use it to rebuild confidence in our economy and break the cycle of uncertainty.
“Employers share the Prime Minister’s optimism for the UK and are ready to play a leading role. They can bring the innovation, investment and jobs for a new era of inclusive growth. The biggest issues of our times – from tackling climate change to reskilling the workforce for new technologies – can only be delivered through real partnership between government and business.
“The starting point must be rebuilding business confidence, and early reassurance on Brexit will be vital. Firms will continue to do all they can to prepare for Brexit, but will want to know they won’t face another no deal cliff-edge next year. Pro-enterprise policies on immigration, infrastructure, innovation and skills, will help relaunch the UK on the world stage.
“Despite recent challenges, the UK remains a great place to start and build a business. A new contract between enterprise and government can make the UK a global magnet for investment, powering higher productivity and living standards across the UK.”
The leader of the country’s leading union, Unite, has warned that Labour’s Brexit stance is the immediate cause of life-long voters’ “alienation” from the party.
Len McCluskey says the drift away from Labour began during the Blair and Brown periods but was accelerated when the party went through a “slow motion collapse into the arms of the People’s Vote campaign, alienating heartland seats with `bluntly, more coalfield communities to lose than Canterburys to win.”
Writing yesterday for the Huffington Post website, Len McCluskey has urged the party to grasp that the cause of the defeat is “staring us in the face” and that it lies with too many in the party failing to accept the democratic vote to leave the European Union of 2016.
As Labour now reflects on why it failed to convince voters to back the party, McCluskey accepts that there were other failings in the campaign, citing both the “incontinent rush of policies” and the failure to apologise for anti-Semitism in the party.
However, his main argument is that too many in the party failed to accept the appeal of the Tories’ “get Brexit done” message to leave voters who felt frustrated by parliament.
McCluskey says that this was further compounded by shadow cabinet members vowing to back remain in any second referendum, totally undermining Labour’s message that it would negotiate a credible leave option to put to voters.
Boris Johnson faces an uphill battle to recover more than three and a half years of lost business investment and confidence, warns the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.
The warning from Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, comes after Mr Johnson’s Conservative party secured an emphatic win with a pledge to ‘get Brexit done’ in the UK’s general election.
Investors welcomed the news. The markets jumped and the pound experienced its biggest rally in almost three years.
Mr Green says: “With a clear majority in the House of Commons, the grinding parliamentary Brexit deadlock that has had a stranglehold over the UK will finally come to an end.
“There is now a clear mandate for Britain to leave the EU with Mr Johnson’s deal on January 31.
“The lifting of some of the crippling uncertainty has been welcomed by the markets, the pound and business.
“However, now that Mr Johnson has this ‘powerful mandate’, he must use the momentum and immediately begin to recover the more than three and a half lost years of business investment and confidence that the Brexit saga created.
“The Prime Minister and his new government need to do two things as a matter of urgency.
“First, they must set out firm and unequivocal assurances around a no-deal Brexit for the end of 2020. After the passing of the Withdrawal Agreement, they have a tight, 11-month deadline to secure a deal. As such, the UK could still leave the EU without a deal if trade negotiations are not concluded in a timely and successful manner.
“Another cliff-edge of no-deal Brexit would serve as another hammer blow for investment and economic growth.
“Second, Mr Johnson’s administration must actively seek to implement pro-business policies sooner rather than later to stoke enterprise and investment.”
Mr Green went on: “Brexit has cost Britain many tens of billions of pounds. Brexit has inflicted reputational damage on the UK on a monumental scale, which has created unprecedented uncertainty and impacted economic and social progress.
“Now that haemorrhaging of opportunity and money must end.”
The deVere CEO concludes: “The parliamentary paralysis might have ended but the Brexit process hasn’t. Now the hard work begins.
“For Boris Johnson to maintain the election bounce, he must act quickly and decisively to keep uncertainty at bay. There is much at stake.”
“The new Conservative Government has stated that austerity is coming to an end. But analysis by the Resolution Foundation prior to the election found that the Conservative manifesto plans for social security could lead to record levels of child poverty.
“We need a social security system that unlocks people from poverty. We need a labour market that provides decent and secure work. And we need public services that are there for everyone. We simply cannot go on the way we are.
“The lives and life chances of millions of people across Scotland depend on the new Government charting a different course. For the anti-poverty movement the need for change is as clear as ever. The coming years will bring challenges, but we and the wider movement in Scotland must remain resolute and work together to realise a Scotland where poverty no longer holds people in its grip.”
Vaughan Hart, Managing Director of the Scottish Building Federation, said: “Whatever the immediate priorities of respective governments at Westminster and Holyrood, what SBF wants to see remains the same.
“We want continued investment in the construction sector to build the kind of infrastructure we need for Scotland to be successful and a clear acknowledgement of the importance of the construction sector to the wider Scottish economy.
“The Prime Minister has talked about using this majority to govern as a “One Nation Party” but there isn’t a clear indication as to what that means as yet and what it might mean for Scotland. During the campaign he has promised increase spending on health and education which may well have Barnett consequentials for the Scottish budget.
“Whether he delivers on that promise or not, and we might not know if that is the case until a Budget in March, it is important the Scottish Government continue their investment in its own public infrastructure, be that housing, education or the health service. That kind of investment not only directly fuels the economy but will put in place the foundations for future growth and success.
“At the same time, we must ensure that we do not rely solely on public sector investment so I have been pleased to hear SNP Ministers during the night and morning say that they will remain focussed on the Scottish economy amid what might be a continuing constitutional debate.
“That focus will be critical if we want to create the environment the Scottish Government itself wants to see, one that is able to attract high levels of private sector investment as we have seen recently in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“We need to work together in a pragmatic manner to make sure that, when we do attract investment from either the public or private sector, we have the right skills here to deliver. SBF members have already made incredible strides but we need to make sure we do not just focus on numbers of apprentices, for example, but that the skills our young people have are the ones that are needed on the building site.
“Over the decades, the construction sector has shown incredible resilience during periods of economic downturn and political uncertainty. We have done that through continual improvement and working to deliver real economic and social benefits and I am confident we will continue to do so.”
Responding to the result of the General Election, STUC General Secretary Grahame Smith said: ‘This was clearly and simply the Brexit election. Any hope that we had that voters, particularly Leave voters in Labour’s English heartlands, would be open to considering the wider issues as stake, simply failed to materialise.
‘After more than three years of Brexit dominated politics, positive messages on tackling poverty and inequality and the on the radical polices required to tackle the truly big questions of our time – the Climate Emergency; the automation of work; the decline in our economic and social infrastructure after more than a decade of austerity, which we know are popular with the public, were unfortunately ignored.
‘As in 1987, when the Tories last won such a majority, Scottish voters have chosen a different path. They have rejected the Tories once again and the SNP’s clear message on Brexit appears to have resonated.
‘The First Minister has made it clear that she will now push for a second Independence Referendum. While Brexit makes the economic implications of an independent Scotland significantly different now from 2014, the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland need to be acknowledged.
‘The Prime Minister has said he will work to repay the voters responsible for his victory. While many obviously want ‘Brexit done’, they also want a Government that addresses their everyday issues. That means an end to austerity and insecure work, investment in public services, the protection of fundamental rights and an economy that serves everyone not just the wealthy. That won’t be delivered by the current hard Brexit deal.
‘Given the attitude of many in the Government, we can expect no relief from their anti-union onslaught. We will continue to resist. We will continue to organise, and we will overcome whatever is placed in our path in order to advance the interests of workers, their families and communities.’
Pressure group Compass, ‘the home for everyone who wants to be part of a more equal, democratic and sustainable future’. took this view:
Last night was in some ways worse than expected. We must take time to mourn hopes dashed and care for each other.
But if we are honest there are so many deep weaknesses in progressive party politics, something like this was bound to happen. So now is not the time to point fingers and blame this or that person or policy. It is time instead to step back and for progressives to explore the big issues about what’s gone wrong and what we do about it.
We can’t do that in one email. Compass will now help lead a huge conversation about real progressive renewal. We will dig deep because we want to build so high. Watch out for a series of blogs and meetings across the country that we will organise.
But it is critical to recognise that what’s gone wrong is big and it’s mostly about the political culture.
A culture that thinks it knows what’s best for people, that feels entitled to represent people and not the privilege to serve them. It’s a culture, found throughout Labour in particular, that believes in the monopoly of its own wisdom and position. A culture that does not seek to persuade or understand – that wants all of it or none of it.
Today that politics has ended up with nothing.
Instead of a future that is imposed, only a future that is negotiated really works. People don’t want things done to them or for them. In turn, this means an end to divisive binaries of Leave and Remain, the town or the city. Instead we need a really inclusive and creative politics of both.
And because a good society can only be created by us and for us, it demands respect, tolerance and openness to others. It means meeting the complexity of the world we face with an equally complex political response. Compass has worked as hard as anyone to bring the progressive political tribes together and to build a culture of compassion. But change can no longer be left to people who don’t want to change themselves. Today, it might feel like we have failed.
But there is hope – deep and emerging reservoirs of it.
Beyond the tribal walls of the party system something amazing is taking shape. People are collaborating as never before. There are isolated bubbles of resistance that need a political narrative and organisation to transform the whole system.
Serious questions now arise about the ability of the progressive parties to really renew themselves and be relevant and vibrant forces in the 21st century. But the scale of the climate crisis and the extent of wasted lives demands we dig deep but move fast.
Compass will work tirelessly to help accelerate change – to show what 21st century leadership really is, to help set out a compelling vision of a good society. We will run with big transformative ideas like basic income and a citizens’ convention to renew our democracy. On these issues, and more, huge movements for change have to be built.
We will be humble and bold, and work with passion and a sense of keen inquiry – especially with people we don’t necessarily agree with.
But more than anything, we will go where the creative life and energy is – with the people and organisations that want to work collaboratively to address the climate emergency, create a more equal society, defend human rights and know that how we behave with each other is everything.
Compass lives and breathes the progressive politics of the 21st century – we get it and we can build a better future. But we need you to do it with us. Tell us what you think happened and what you feel.
In the days, weeks and months to come we want to host the debate about progressive futures on our new site, and take to the country to create the space to discuss what has gone wrong, why and what we do next, and to build the networks of new leaders that can help us flip the old system.
Today in the rubble of a historic defeat we vow to focus, dig deep and build high. Nothing less will do.
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