The end of the EU affair: the UK general election of 2019

Abstract

The UK election of 12th December 2019 – the third election in five years and the second snap election in a row – returned a Conservative majority government led by Boris Johnson and the lowest number of Labour MPs since 1935. Three-and-a-half years after the 2016 referendum, the government finally had sufficient parliamentary support for Brexit, and at the end of January 2020 the UK left the European Union. The result of the election can largely be explained by the continuing importance of Brexit. The previous election, held in 2017, had seen an increase in party sorting along Brexit lines – Leavers had shifted towards the Conservatives, whilst Remainers shifted towards Labour. The 2019 election saw a continuation of that process on the Leave side, as the Conservatives continued to win over Leavers, but a slight reversal on the Remain side, with some Remainers abandoning Labour for more avowedly pro-EU parties such as the Liberal Democrats.