Partial results and an exit poll pointed to Boris Johnson's Conservatives winning their biggest majority in parliament since the heyday of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. — AFP/VNA Photo

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed a political "earthquake" after securing a sweeping election win, which clears the way for Britain to finally leave the European Union next month after years of political deadlock.

With almost all results declared for the 650-seat parliament, Johnson's Conservative party had secured 362 seats -- its biggest majority since the heyday of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

By contrast the main opposition Labour party endured a terrible night, losing 59 seats to 203, forcing leader Jeremy Corbyn to announce plans for his departure.

The anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats announced they would replaced Jo Swinson as leader after she lost her seat in western Scotland to the Scottish National Party (SNP).

The pound had risen late Thursday on hopes that Johnson will now deliver his promise to "Get Brexit Done" after years of uncertainty over Britain's future.

With a large majority of MPs, he will be able to get the divorce deal he struck with Brussels through parliament in time to meet the next Brexit deadline of January 31.

Ratifying the deal would formalise the end of almost five decades of EU-UK integration, although both sides still need to thrash out a new trade and security agreement.

France's European affairs minister, Amelie de Montchalin, was the first EU politician to welcome the indications of "a clear majority, something that has been missing in the United Kingdom for several years".

It signals a personal victory for Johnson, a former London mayor and foreign minister who helped lead the Brexit campaign to victory in the 2016 EU referendum.

US President Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations on a "great win", and said London and Washington would be able to strike a "massive new trade deal" after Brexit.

"This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative than any deal that could be made with the E.U. Celebrate Boris!" he said.

Taking the north

The Conservatives had been ahead in opinion polls for weeks but the scale of their victory, after a wet and windy winter election, was unexpected.

The party took a string of traditionally Labour seats that had not voted Tory for decades, but many of which had backed "Leave" in 2016.

"We must understand now what an earthquake we have created," Johnson later told party staff, according to the Press Association news agency.

He earlier declared when he was re-elected as an MP that voters had given him "a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done".

Johnson now has up to five years to govern until he is obliged to call another election.

Labour collapse

Labour by contrast was heading to its worst result since 1935, with around 203 seats, after what Corbyn admitted had been a "very disappointing night".

He said he would be stepping down after a period of "reflection", and would not be leading the party into the next election, which is due by 2024.

Corbyn had promised a second referendum on Brexit, in a bid to appeal to half of British voters who still want to stay in the EU.

But he had focused Labour's campaign on a radical programme of economic change, including re-nationalising some key industries, which failed to woo traditional voters.

Speaking in the early hours of Friday morning, Corbyn defended his "manifesto of hope" and maintained his policies were "extremely popular" during the campaign.

But he said: "Brexit has so polarised and divided debate in this country, it has overridden so much of a normal political debate."

Corbyn is personally unpopular and dogged by accusations of sympathising with proscribed terror groups and failing to tackle anti-Semitism within the Labour party.

This is Labour's fourth successive electoral defeat -- and the second under Corbyn.

Brexit 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would leave the European Union on Jan. 31 after his sweeping election win.

"We will get Brexit done on time by the 31st of January, no ifs, no buts, no maybes," Johnson told cheering supporters on Friday. — AFP/REUTERS