Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party were on track for an outright majority in Parliament, according to a UK exit poll released late Thursday, likely making a January 31 Brexit deadline a reality.

The poll predicted that the Conservative Party was on track to take 368 of the 650 House of Commons seats to the Labour Party’s 191 seats.

The poll, which is conducted for UK broadcasters, projected 55 seats for the anti-Brexit Scottish National Party and 13 seats for the Liberal Democrats.

That outcome will likely allow Johnson to fulfil his plan to take the UK out of the European Union by a January 31 deadline.

A spokesperson for Britain’s opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn said it was too early to jump to conclusions.

“It’s only the very beginning of the night, and it’s too early to call the result,” the party said in a statement.

More than 45 million Britons are voting Thursday in a snap pre-Christmas general election that will be key to determining the future of Brexit amid political deadlock and bitter divisions over the country’s European Union membership. 

A win for Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative party would likely make a January 31 Brexit deadline a reality.

A win for the opposition, however, could mean another referendum under a new prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn.

Johnson, who has said the result is on a “knife edge”, was the first party leader to vote in person, arriving at a central London polling station with his Jack Russell dog, Dilyn. People bringing their dogs with them to vote quickly emerged as a trend, giving rise to the hashtag #dogsatpollingstations.

Corbyn, who has had to brush off criticism for his neutral stance on Brexit and claims of anti-Semitism within his Labour party, flashed a thumbs-up sign before casting his own ballot in north London.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party both voted soon afterwards in Glasgow.

The polls will remain open until 10pm local time (GMT).

Source: France 24

As the campaign period draws to a close, there is every indication that the Tories are set to score a small victory and thus remain in power.

The latest opinion poll by YouGov (released yesterday evening) suggests that the Conservative party is set to secure a majority of around 28 seats in the House of Commons, enough to form a government.

However, YouGov was anxious to stress that the margin of error cannot rule out either a hung Parliament, or conversely, a larger Conservative majority.

The findings of YouGov are consistent with polling by multiple sources over the course of the campaign which has placed the Tories ahead of Labour by at least six percent.

Most significantly, an opinion poll for The Observer last Friday placed the Conservatives ahead of Labour by 15 points.  

The Observer poll placed the Tories ahead with 46 percent of the vote, Labour in second place with 31 percent and the Liberal Democrats in third place with 13 percent of the vote.

But pollsters have warned politicians and pundits alike to be cautious as recent elections in the UK, notably the Brexit referendum of June 2016 and the general election of June 2017, delivered unexpected results.

With the general election only a few days away, Nicola Sturgeon has thrown down the gauntlet at the entire British political establishment.

The leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is now calling for a fresh poll on Scottish independence regardless of Brexit.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, Sturgeon, who is also Scotland’s First Minister, said that the “contemptuous way in which Scotland has been treated” justifies a new independence referendum.

Previously Sturgeon had linked a fresh independence poll to Brexit, on the grounds that the Scottish people – unlike the English – had not voted to leave the European Union (EU).

Sturgeon defended her new position by claiming that Scotland’s “interests, voice and views” had been “ignored” over the past three years.

And to reinforce the urgency of her position, the SNP leader revealed that she will approach the UK government by the end of the year for an agreement to hold a legally binding referendum.

The SNP needs the British government’s agreement to hold a legal referendum whose outcome is guaranteed to be respected and implemented.

In addition the Scottish Parliament – which is dominated by the SNP – also has to pass necessary legislation to create the grounds for a referendum next year.

Sturgeon has repeatedly said that she wants to hold an independence poll in the second half of 2020.

The SNP leader’s new position indicates a hardening of her approach and crucially it points to her bridging the divide with more radical Scottish nationalists who are unaffiliated to the SNP.

The broader Scottish independence movement has been critical of the SNP’s cautious and legalistic approach toward achieving independence.

Now that Sturgeon has shifted toward a more radical position – by effectively setting Scotland apart from the rest of the UK – the Scottish independence movement is likely to pick up additional momentum going forward.

Source: Presstv      

As he works to deliver the much awaited divorce of the United Kingdom from the European Union, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decade-old views deemed insulting to Nigerians has surfaced.

The man who has vowed to deliver Brexit has been accused of making “racist and offensive” comments by implying Nigerians are obsessed with money. His controversial views date 20 years ago when he was a journalist.

In an October 1999 article he wrote as Editor of the Spectator, Boris took a swipe at young Brits but in so doing compared them to Nigerians saying that young people “have an almost Nigerian interest in money and gadgets of all kinds.”

In another column which has come to light, Johnson blamed single mothers for “producing a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”, saying that social housing was an enticement for them to become pregnant.

The prime minister has been under pressure in recent months over a series of comments he made during his career as a columnist, writer and editor, including referring to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles” and arguing Islam has caused the Muslim world to be “literally centuries behind” the west.

Critics have bashed Johnson for his comments which they say follow a pattern of sexist and misogynistic words and behaviour.

Source: Africa News

Britain’s five-week election campaign officially began Wednesday, when Parliament was dissolved ahead of the December 12 vote. However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s campaign launch was marred by the resignation of one of his ministers, a gaffe about the victims of a deadly tower blaze and a doctored video of an opponent released by his party.

Johnson called a snap election in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock that he says has paralysed Britain for more than three years and had started to undermine confidence in the world’s fifth largest economy.

But just an hour after meeting Queen Elizabeth to formally begin the election campaign, Johnson’s minister for Wales, Alun Cairns, resigned after being accused of lying about his knowledge about an aide who allegedly sabotaged a rape trial.

At the start of the campaign, Johnson’s Conservatives enjoy a lead over the opposition Labour Party of between 7 and 17 percentage points, though pollsters warn that their models are wilting beside the Brexit furnace.

“Let’s get Brexit done,” Johnson, 55, said outside his Downing Street official residence, adding that Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would bring yet more turmoil with fresh referendums on EU membership and Scottish independence.

“Come with us, get Brexit done and take this country forward, or, and this is the alternative next year, spend the whole of 2020 in a horror show of yet more dither and delay,” he said.

Boris Johnson✔@BorisJohnson

We will have a General Election on December 12th. It’s now up to you, the great British public, to make your voice heard.

Do you want to #GetBrexitDone or have two more referendums next year with Corbyn?

Johnson said Corbyn hated wealth and was thus like Soviet leader Josef Stalin – who sent millions to their deaths in labour camps. Corbyn said such remarks were “nonsense” that the super-rich came up with to avoid paying more tax.

Earlier, Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly spent the morning defending distributing a doctored video clip of a rival Labour Party politician instead of touting Johnson’s election campaign launch.

Another prominent Conservative, Jacob Rees-Mogg, apologised on Tuesday after he suggested that victims of the blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower should have used common sense to ignore firefighters’ instructions to stay in the burning building.

Election gamble

Johnson, 55, hopes he will win a big enough majority in parliament to get the Brexit deal he agreed with Brussels last month ratified and lead Britain out of the EU at the end of December or in January.

After failing to deliver Brexit on October 31, Johnson said his party offered the only way to deliver Brexit and painted Labour’s Corbyn as a socialist wrecker determined to bring in yet more political crisis.

Jeremy Corbyn✔@jeremycorbyn

We will:

reduce NHS waiting times

get Brexit sorted in six months

kick start a Green Industrial Revolution

build a million genuinely affordable homes within 10 years

We will end:

in-work poverty

food bank use

rough sleeping

tuition fees

“They pretend that their hatred is directed only at certain billionaires – and they point their fingers at individuals with a relish and a vindictiveness not seen since Stalin persecuted the kulaks,” Johnson wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “They would destroy the very basis of this country’s prosperity.”

Millions of people were executed under Stalin and many more perished from abuse and disease in a vast network of prison camps, known as the Gulags. Relatively affluent farmers, known as kulaks, were among the groups targeted.

Speaking at a campaign event in the English town of Telford on Wednesday, Corbyn said Labour would deliver real change and share power and wealth with people who “don’t have friends in high places”.

“They quite shamefully think the victims of Grenfell fire died because they didn’t have the common sense to save themselves,” Corbyn said. “I’ll tell you what’s common sense -don’t put flammable cladding on people’s homes.”

He also cautioned against believing the consensus view that Johnson was assured victory, citing the 2017 election when Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, bet on calling a snap election when also far ahead in the polls but lost her majority.

“In the 2017 election, there were queues of experts …  lining up at the beginning of the campaign to write off the Labour Party, and what happened then?” Corbyn said.

On Tuesday Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson said she firmly refuses to back Corbyn and wants to become prime minister herself.

“I am absolutely, categorically ruling out Liberal Democratic votes putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10,” Swinson said at the launch of her party’s election campaign in London. The Liberal Democrats are currently running in third place with around 18 percent of the vote.

“On the biggest issue of the day, he has prevaricated and will not give a straight answer — even now, when you will ask him if he is Remain or Leave — he will not tell you how he will vote,” Swinson told reporters.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Hundreds of Catalan separatist supporters staged a pot-banging protest in Barcelona on Sunday (October 3) against the presence of Spanish royal family which is due to attend the Princess of Girona Awards ceremony on Monday (October 4).

Demonstrators gathered peacefully at Diagonal avenue, outside the venue where Spain’s King Felipe and his family will attend the event, chanting, banging pots and pans and showing signs against the Spanish monarchy.

“We are here in this demonstration because we don’t like the king of Spain coming here like it was one of the places of his kingdom,” said Jordi, a protester and filmmaker who attended the protest.

Catalan police prepared an special security plan and shielded the venue entrances.

Barcelona has witnessed a series of pro-secession protests since October 14 when Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine politicians and activists to up to 13 years in jail for their role in a failed independence bid in 2017, prompting widespread anger in the region and sending shockwaves through Spain’s political landscape as the country heads for a general election on November 10.

(Source: Reuters)

Thousands rallied in Glasgow on Saturday calling for Scotland to become an independent country, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon telling the crowds that their goal was “within touching distance”.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader was the headline speaker at the event in George Square, the first time she has addressed an independence rally since the 2014 referendum campaign, with a crucial general election looming next month.

“Make no mistake, the general election we face now on December 12 is the most important election for Scotland in our lifetimes,” she told the crowds.

“The future of our country is on the line.

“We must come out in our numbers and vote in this election,” she added, insisting that the “prize” of independence was “within touching distance.”

“We must seize that prize,” she urged.

Sturgeon is expected, before Christmas, to formally ask Johnson for a Section 30 order, which would give Scotland’s devolved government permission to stage a referendum.

Supporters waved the St Andrews cross emblazoned with the word “Yes” and Catalan flags in solidarity with the fellow independence campaign.

Others wore kilts and played bagpipes, including one musician who had flames leaping from his instrument.Scotland voted against independence in a 2014 referendum by 55 percent.

But nationalists argue that the 2016 British referendum in favour of Brexit means another independence referendum is necessary — because Scotland voted by 62 percent to stay in the European Union.

Nationalists also argue that some people voted against independence thinking it would guarantee their place inside the EU.

Sturgeon promised supporters on Saturday to “lead you to an independence reference next year”.

“It’s time for Scotland to choose our own future, time for Scotland to be an independent country,” she added.

A small number of pro-Union protesters carrying Union Jack flags staged a counter-demonstration.

(AFP)

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused US President Donald Trump of meddling in UK politics “to get his friend” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson elected.

Corbyn made the remarks on Saturday in Swindon, a town in southwest England, during his campaign for a general election to be held on December 12.

“Donald Trump is trying to interfere in Britain’s election to get his friend Boris Johnson elected,” Corbyn said on Twitter.

Corbyn added if Trump “isn’t pleased at the prospect of a Labour government being elected in Britain”, then he’s “entitled to his choice,” adding that he’s willing to speak with Trump in order to discuss his stance on climate change policies.

Corbyn’s comments came after Trump told Nigel Farage’s radio show that it would be “so bad” if Corbyn was elected prime minister.

During their conversation, the US leader said, “Corbyn would be so bad for your country. He’d be so bad, he’d take you in such a bad way. He’d take you into such bad places”.

Corbyn has promised to leave the European Union with a customs union, trade agreement and dynamic protection if he wins the election.

He further promised to hold a referendum at the end of a three-month period to determine whether Britons want to leave the bloc or not.

Britain was scheduled to leave the EU on October 31. However, the country’s parliamentarians did not approve Johnson’s deal with the bloc, prompting the EU to extend the Brexit deadline.

Johnson then called for a general election.

Recent surveys have speculated that after the general election, no single party will hold a majority of seats in parliament.

The Conservatives are projected to fill 35% of seats in parliament after the general election, while the Brexit Party is projected to win 13% of seats, according to a recent YouGov survey.

If the Brexit Party splits the Leave vote, Corbyn could end up as the new prime minister. Mr. Corbyn is hoping to curry support from the Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats, who may be able to act as a “kingmaker” when the final results come in.

Source: Presstv