General Election 2019: Conservatives romp to victory

From the Exit Poll, the result was fairly clear. A solid-to-stonking victory for Boris Johnson was in hand.

Now, with 649 of 650 seats declared, the boffins calculating the result led by Prof John Curtice seemed to get the numbers well within the ballpark, once more.

As it stands, the Conservatives lead with 364, Labour has 203, the SNP are on 48 and Lib Dems take 11.

This result saw some historic moments. Labour heartland seats were lost to the Conservatives, including of Parliament's longest-serving members, Dennis Skinner.

This, combined with more losses for Labour in Wales and across England meant any small chance of electoral success fell by the wayside with no chance of revival. Jeremy Corbyn has since pledged to resign.

He is not the only party leader on the way out. In a shock result, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost her East Dunbartonshire seat to the SNP by 149 votes.

This was only one of the SNP's victories (though they unexpectedly fell casualty to Lib Dems in one other Fife seat). The SNP also wiped out Labour in all but one of their Scottish seats and knocked out over half of Scottish Conservative MPs. This showed a tale of two elections, with Conservative popularity rising significantly in England and doing the exact opposite in Scotland. No doubt this will once more invigourate the independence movement led by the SNP.

For the conservatives, Brexit is now doable. They have the votes (and then some) to get the UK out of Europe in haste. Whether the government can deliver on a quick trade deal by the end of 2020 is questionable, but, for now, they can be confident of delivering on the promise of leaving the EU in January.

New MPs are sworn in on Tuesday, with the opening of Parliament scheduled for later next week. Cabinet and ministerial appointments can be expected around the same time. Parliamentarians then break for a (much needed) Christmas recess at the end of next week.

That's that, then.