UK election results 2019: Boris Johnson storms to victory

Elections in the UK are dominated by the major traditional parties due to the first past the post system, but that doesn't mean that other candidates don't run. In fact, the country has a peculiar tradition of novelty candidates, who tend to run in opposition to big name politicians.

As a result they get the opportunity to appear alongside key figures such as the Prime Minister or the leader of the opposition at the results ceremony, giving rise to some surreal scenes.

This time around Prime Minister Boris Johnson has contested his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency against two novelty candidates: Lord Buckethead and Count Binface.

Lord Buckethead (above), a Darth Vader-esque character, is based on an obscure villain from the 1984 Star Wars parody Gremloids (or Hyperspace). 

Buckethead also called for tactical voting in an attempt to depose Johnson.

The politician -- or someone running under the same moniker -- stood against former PMs Theresa May in 2017, John Major in 1992 and Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

Count Binface (above) is a new challenger, although neither of the two are predicted to trouble Johnson.

Asked how he thought he had performed, Binface couldn't resist a dig at Johnson's biggest rivals.

"Very badly but not as badly as the Labour party seems to have done, so you know, it's all relative," he told CNN.

And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had a run-in with a protester dressed as the Sesame Street character Elmo at a polling station.

Corbyn's security team held Elmo back as the character chased Corbyn holding a sign reading: "Bobby Smith. Give me back Elmo."

Bobby Smith is the name of the fathers' rights campaigner that ran as a candidate against then Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017 as a representative of the Give Me Back Elmo Party.

And one of the UK's smallest parties -- the Monster Raving Loony Party -- fields novelty candidates in multiple seats around the country.

It is currently led by a figure known as Howling Laud Hope, and its policy proposals include replacing Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident, with "a tuning fork," and giving the vote to anyone over the age of five who can hold a crayon.

It's just gone 1:45 a.m. in the UK, and just over 20 seats have been called.

The picture they paint is clear; Boris Johnson is heading back to Downing Street, likely with a sizeable majority, while the Labour Party is hurtling towards disaster.

The trickle is about to turn into a flood as many more results come in over the next hour.

And this trend won't necessarily repeat itself everywhere; Labour will hope to make gains in London and in Remain-leaning areas of southern England.

But that will be little consolation for a party that, just hours ago, had been murmuring about the possibility of unseating Boris Johnson in his constituency.

Over in the Conservative camp, it's all smiles.

Throughout the campaign, a huge amount of attention was paid to the so-called Workington Man -- the archetypal working class voter, in a traditional Labour seat that voted for Brexit.

This is the voter the Conservative Party identified as the one it must win over.

And they have. The Tories have gained Workington comfortably, picking up 20,448 votes to Labour's 16,312. Labour had won the seat with a similar majority last time.

Moments later, the same result occurred in Darlington -- the Tories gained the seat from Labour with an 8% majority.

It means the Conservatives' electoral strategy has paid off spectacularly, while Labour has found itself cut adrift in its own heartlands.

Only a few results are in, but they're painting a dire picture for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party -- and the recriminations are well underway.

Corbyn, the socialist leader who dragged the party to the left after his upset win in the 2015 leadership contest, has now led the party to one of its worst ever electoral results, if the exit poll is correct.

His ally John McDonnell told the BBC that Brexit dominated the campaign, with Boris Johnson's message resonating. But plenty of Labour candidates, MPs and insiders have blasted his leadership -- and called for his allies to follow him out of the door.

It's increasingly unlikely Corbyn will survive this result. What's up in the air is the role Momentum, the left-wing campaigning group that has remodeled the Labour Party since his 2015 victory, will play in the party going forward.

Meanwhile, Phil Wilson -- the incumbent Labour party candidate in Tony Blair’s old seat of Sedgefield -- vented his fury at party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the wake of the exit poll predicting a big Conservative win.

“For @UKLabour leadership to blame Brexit for the result is mendacious nonsense. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was a bigger problem. To say otherwise is delusional. The Party’s leadership went down like a lead balloon on the doorstep. Labour’s leadership needs to take responsibility,” he tweeted. 

His anger followed similar verdicts from other Labour figures, including Ian Murray, who wrote: "Every door I knocked on, and my team and I spoke to 11,000 people, mentioned Corbyn. Not Brexit but Corbyn. I’ve been saying this for years. The outcome is that we’ve let the country down and we must change course and fast."

We're repeatedly told that you can't trust the polls these days -- but the UK's exit polls are usually fairly accurate.

In 2017, they underestimated the Conservatives' vote share by three seats. In 2015, they undershot it by 14.

But in the two elections before, they predicted the winning parties' seat tally exactly right.

Here's a look at the first papers' front pages from tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, depending on their political stance they've reacted differently to the news that Boris Johnson is on course for a majority.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson could be anxious as ballots are counted in her seat, in the wake of an exit poll that predicted gains for the Scottish National Party across Scotland.

Swinson survived the previous SNP sweep in Scotland in 2015, but the party ran her close -- and the results tonight could see a similar outcome.

Ian Austin, a former Labour lawmaker representing the constituency of Dudley North, said Thursday night that a Conservative Party victory would be the "right thing" for the United Kingdom, after exit polls projected a significant win for the Conservatives. 

"Heartbreaking for Labour, but the right thing for the country," the former Labour lawmaker told CNN on Thursday. 

Austin resigned from the Labour Party in February 2019, and has since called for constituents to vote for the Conservative Party. 

In an interview with CNN's Matthew Chance ahead of the election, Austin said that he too would vote for the Conservative Party. 

"For the first time in my life I have decided to vote for the Conservatives, and I have done that because I think that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to run our country," Austin said. 

Meanwhile in Brussels, diplomats and officials are breathing a sigh of relief. 

Contrary to the view of many remain voters in the UK, this is not going down badly with the people on the other side of Brexit. 

While at a push, most EU leaders would prefer that the Brexit vote hadn't happened, further uncertainty was by far the worst outcome as far as they were concerned. They wanted clarity, and now they might have it. 

Officials are already talking about a big majority meaning that Johnson can push for a closer relationship between Europe and the UK, even if his Euroskeptic backbenchers hate the idea.

France's European affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, said that "what France has asked for for a long time is clarity. This result brings that," and that the most important thing with Brexit is "not the way we divorce, it's what we build afterwards."