World News
United Kingdom Once Again Go to the Polls to Determine Brexit
Up for grabs are all 650 seats in the British parliament. Which has been deadlocked since the 2016 referendum on EU membership that saw a majority vote to leave.
The United Kingdom has gone to the polls to determine the immediate future of of the highly controversal Brexit. In a vote many have described as the most important in a generation.
More than 4,000 polling stations across the UK open their doors at 7am for a day of voting until 10pm.
Up for grabs are all 650 seats in the British parliament. Which has been deadlocked since the 2016 referendum on EU membership that saw a majority vote to leave.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who took over from Theresa May after she was unable to sway parliament to approve her Brexit deal. Johnson is hoping to secure both a mandate and a majority so he can lead the UK out of the EU.
Johnson needs 9 more seats
Johnson’s Conservatives need just nine more seats for a majority. This would allow him to push through his own Brexit deal with Brussels. Taking Britain out of the bloc by the end of January 2020.
The election features 3,321 candidates — from 18-year-olds to octogenarians — in constituencies covering windswept Shetland off northeast Scotland, to the Isles of Scilly. More than 750 miles away off Cornwall, in southwest England.
The first indication of the overall result will come in an exit poll at 2200 GMT. The first actual result is due from around 2300 GMT. The remainder will trickle in overnight.
Johnson has hammered home his message to “Get Brexit Done” against a backdrop of voter fatigue at the election. The third election in less than five years — and the tortuous Brexit process.
However the EU itself has indicated the chances of securing a comprehensive Brexit deal before a December 2020 is unrealistic.
It would again raise the prospect of Britain facing a “no deal” scenario. Plunging business and the British economy into fresh uncertainty.
