Boris Johnson is set to win UK election with a clear majority (GBP jumps 300 pips)

The U.K. pound jumped more than 2% after an exit poll projected an 86-seat majority for the Conservative Party in the U.K. general election.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to remain in power with an exit poll showing his Conservative Party winning a clear majority of parliamentary seats in a general election on Thursday.

The result of the election will have a decisive effect on the direction that Brexit takes, three-and-a-half years since the U.K.’s referendum on EU membership.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit divorce deal has been agreed in principle by the U.K. Parliament, but is yet to be fully ratified by lawmakers. There has been deep divisions over the deal on offer, and how close the U.K. should stay aligned to the EU after its departure from the bloc. The future of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland has also been a major sticking point.

The impasse and political chaos in the House of Commons ultimately led to Thursday’s snap general election as Johnson lost the slim majority he held in the U.K.’s lower chamber of Parliament. The vote is the first to be held in the winter months since 1974 and the first December election since 1923.

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