UK Labour Chairman Admits That Party Had 'Desperately Bad Night' After Election Defeat

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2019) The Labour Party had a "desperately bad night," chairman Ian Lavery said on Friday morning, after his party suffered its worst election results since 1935 in Thursday's general election, which saw the Conservative Party win a majority in the House of Commons.

Lavery made these comments after his party won just 203 of the 649 seats in the House of Commons that have so far declared their results.

"We've had a desperately bad night, of course I'll accept that," he said as broadcast by media.

Labour's chairman went on to praise the work of hundreds and thousands of people who campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party. After polls closed on Thursday evening, leader Jeremy Corbyn praised Labour Party members and supporters for running the largest "people powered campaign" the United Kingdom has ever seen.

Looking ahead, Lavery reinstated that his party was up for the challenge, despite Labour's last election victory being 14 years ago, when the party was headed by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"Quite frankly I cannot see the communities which the likes of ours represent being able to cope with another five years of Tory austerity. I cannot believe that we can accept another five days of Tory austerity, so we've got a lot of work to do. Yes of course it's a big challenge, but we're up for that challenge," the Labour chairman remarked.

With 649 of 650 Constituencies having declared their results, Boris Johnson's Conservative Party has secured a comprehensive election victory, which many have attributed to his rhetoric of completing Brexit. With one constituency left to declare, Labour have lost 59 seats in the Commons in a shocking defeat. Corbyn announced on Friday morning that he would stand down as the head of the party.