British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks to supporters at Sedgefield Cricket Club, in County Durham, northeast England, on Dec. 14, 2019.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is moving quickly to capitalize on his election victory and plans to take the first step toward pulling Britain out of the European Union this week.
His big election victory could change that. It has radically altered the traditional Conservative base and infused the party with dozens of MPs from ridings that had been held by the Labour Party for decades. Many of those seats are in Northern England and Wales, parts of the country that could be hardest hit by a disorderly Brexit.
Sara Hagemann, academic director of the LSE’s School of Public Policy, said many of the voters who backed the Tories in Labour areas voted for Mr. Johnson to get Brexit over with, but they aren’t typical Conservatives who support free enterprise and fiscal prudence. They are much more likely to favour government intervention and public spending. “Certainly there will be a different sort of Conservative Party going forward,” she said.