Exit polls suggesting a decisive victory for Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are an indication that Britain witnessed a ‘Brexitquake’ and that Labour turned its back on its traditional voting base, ex-MP George Galloway tells RT.
Galloway, a former Labour MP, told RT that the “stunning” result for the Tories proved that the Twitter bubble — where activists warned of a coming Labour “Youthquake” — proved that it was indeed just a “bubble.”
While Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will likely bear the brunt of the blame, Galloway believes the defeat is not entirely his fault, as he found himself “boxed in” to an anti-Brexit position by a strong Remain contingent in his party.
I cautioned for the last two years that Labour would be doomed if they turned their back on their traditional supporters, who supported Brexit strongly.
“All my warnings have been vindicated,” Galloway added. As if to prove Galloway’s point, the news of a first seat seized by Conservatives came from traditional Labour heartland, Blyth Valley, which they held ever since the constituency was formed 1950.
Also on rt.com Victory for Brexit, but not Brexit Party: Farage says he’s ‘comfortable’ with winning no seats in UK electionThe EU will now have to abandon its “foot dragging” with regard to Brexit and realize that Britain is not going to change its mind, Galloway said.
That idea is now a dead duck… Britain will leave one year from now.
The former MP said that if Johnson is sensible, he will use the break from the EU to “repair relations with the rest of the world,” including with Russia, China and the “special relationship” with the US.
The view that Corbyn will be blamed for such a disastrous result was shared by Afshin Rattansi, host of RT’s Going Underground. He said fingers will be pointed at the leader of Western Europe’s largest socialist movement as the inevitable election post-mortem begins.
“There will be people within the Blairite factions of the Labour Party who will be blaming Jeremy Corbyn for a poor result,” he said, adding that there will be many Corbyn supporters casting doubt on the exit polls before the final results are known on Friday.
Rattansi also said there will no doubt be debate over what role the more conservative media played in “spreading the Tory narrative” that only Johnson’s leadership would “make Britain successful again.”
The fact that Johnson's majority is looking to be so large proves that the election was not simply the 'Brexit' election and that people must have been voting with other issues in mind, political journalist and broadcaster Adel Darwish told RT.
The result shows that many people "actually were afraid of a Liberal government" and its economic policies in particular. "If it was only a Brexit election, [Johnson's] majority would have been much less.”
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