Inside Politics: Johnson in dreamland as he gets his big majority

Sign up here to receive this daily briefing in your email inbox every morning

Friday 13 December 2019 10:19 GMT

Boris Johnson pledges to 'get Brexit done' before by January 31st

Wow. Boris Johnson will be feeling high as a kite this morning, in a state of ecstatic intoxication as his Tory party win an unexpectedly comfortable majority. For everyone else, the terrible hangover has begun. One Labour candidate warned he would need “strongly hallucinogenic drugs” to get through this election, and it has indeed turned out to be an extremely bad trip for the party. Jeremy Corbyn is quitting, sending his supporters into a horrible comedown from heady visions of a socialist government. Jo Swinson, meanwhile, has endured the mother of all downers – losing her seat in Scotland to the SNP. Let’s ignore our splitting headaches, crack open the Red Bull and break this thing down. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for the rest of today:

After taking the applause for his stunning landslide victory, Boris Johnson will turn his thoughts to the make-up of his government. The PM could well name senior members of his cabinet on Friday, though the need for everyone to get a little sleep may delay the unveiling of a full line-up, and a thoroughgoing reshuffle is not expected until the New Year. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn is expected to give more details about the period of “reflection” which he has called for Labour, and during which he hopes to remain as leader. And in Brussels, leaders of the remaining 27 EU states will take stock of the new political landscape on this side of the Channel at a summit of the European Council.

Daily briefing

RED MIST DESCENDS: That stunning 10pm exit poll – putting Labour on just 191 seats – had everyone in the party thoroughly spooked and creeped before Friday the 13th had even begun. John McDonnell looked white as a ghost as he came on the BBC and Sky News to deliver the leadership’s main line of excuse: it was the Brexit election, a freak accident, a one-off. In a muted count speech in Islington, Corbyn said he wouldn’t lead the party in the next election – but would stay on for a “period of reflection”. It did nothing to ease the anger of the old guard who want him gone asap. Alan Johnson raged at the Corbyn “cult” Momentum and told its co-founder Jon Lansman to “go back to student politics”. The New Labour veteran raged: “Everyone knew that [Corbyn] couldn’t lead the working class out of a paper bag.” Ruth Smeeth was among the several defeated candidates blaming Jezza for the humiliation (Labour finished up with just over 200 seats). “Corbyn’s actions on antisemitism have made us the nasty party,” she said. “We are the racist party.”

EAST DUMBFOUNDED: 2019’s “Portillo moment” came in East Dumbartonshire, where the Lib Dem leader lost her seat to the SNP by 149 votes. It was such a stunning development we might well be referring to the “Swinson moment” at future elections. She managed a dignified speech, warning of “a wave of nationalism” on both sides of the border. An undignified Nicola Sturgeon was seen on TV celebrating like Scotland had just scored a last-minute winner to qualify for the Euros. Among the big beasts slayed, Dennis Skinner and Corbyn ally Laura Pidcock – supposedly a future party leader – both lost to the Tories, while Johnson ally Zac Goldsmith lost to the Lib Dems. But schadenfreudeans hoping to take delight in defeats for Dominic Raab and Iain Duncan Smith were sadly disappointed: both held onto their seats.

THICK AS BRICKS: Credit where credit’s due: most Tories did their best not too seem too smug about their stunning victory – the party is expected to finish up on around 365 seats. Mark Francois managed to come up with the most crushingly stupid remark of the night. “In 1989 Russia’s Berlin Wall came down – in 2019 Labour’s red wall came down,” he told the BBC. Andrew Neil laughed at the idea the northern heartlands were “analogous to a wall of a totalitarian state… are you hallucinating?” Michael Gove managed to piss off Nigel Farage when the pair appeared on Radio 4 together. Gove refused to thank the Brexit Party leader for all his help. Nigel fumed: “It’s always party before country with you lot isn’t it? … They only think about themselves.” Over on Sky News, John Bercow smirked when Dominic Raab suggested a US-UK trade deal could now be done quickly. “What are those pigs I’m seeing before my very eyes?” The PM’s former spokesperson Alison Donnelly was among those pointing out Johnson’s majority ends his reliance on the ERG and might allow him to go for a “softer” Brexit next year.

REBELS SKELPED: It wasn’t a good night for the independents. David Gauke and Dominic Grieve, the former Tories who rebelled over Brexit, failed to keep their seats. It looks as if every centrist MP who defected from Labour and the Tories has lost their seat. Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger failed in their bids to take seats for the Lib Dems, as did ex-Conservatives Sam Gyimah and Antoinette Sandbach. It leaves Layla Moran favourite to be the next liberal leader. Caroline Lucas held onto the one Green seat, boosting her majority. And it proved to be a great night for the SNP, expected to finish up with just under 50 seats – allowing Sturgeon to claim a mandate for that second independence referendum. Which she would have claimed regardless of the size of her victory in Scotland.

BUBBLE BURST: Now here’s a thing. It’s almost as if likes and shares on social media don’t actually translate into general election victories. A poll-eve Labour press release boasted about “the most successful election social media campaign the country has ever seen”. Wonderful. And – another weird one this – it’s almost as if people don’t actually care who celebrities vote for. Labour thought they had the millennials covered when Amber from Love Island, Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall and Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones all tweeted their support; while boomer football gods Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher also declared themselves reds on polling day. The studio audience for Channel 4’s election night coverage clearly skewed left – there were gasps, cries and boos from when that exit poll appeared on the screen. Which won’t do the channel any favours in its ongoing feud with the Tories.

On the record

“If Boris Johnson runs the full term, it will have been 50 years since any Labour leader, other than Blair, won a general election. Can they let that sink into their heads?”

Alistair Campbell challenges the Corbynites with a sobering fact.

From the Twitterati

“Corbyn must go and take ALL the antisemites with him. Toxic and unforgivable. Lib Dems need a solid existential rethink, and ordinary Labour, Lib Dem and Green members need to start talking to each other fast.”

An angry Armando Iannucci starts planning on behalf of the opposition…

One note of caution: after 1992, Labour’s fourth consecutive defeat by the Tories, the weekend papers were full of articles about how Labour could never win again. In 1997, they won a 179 seat majority.

…while The Spectator’s James Forsyth points out the picture may not be as bleak as it seems for Labour.