Given how Boris Johnson’s “win” is being portrayed on both sides of the Atlantic, I feel compelled to share facts about what actually happened. The truth is nothing like what the media and pundits are saying.
The Actual Vote Totals
- Boris Johnson’s Tories got 43.6 percent of the popular vote.
- The Tories got 56 percent of the seats in the House of Commons.
All of the parties supporting Brexit got 46 percent of the vote.
All of the parties opposing Brexit or supporting a second vote on Brexit got 51 percent of the vote.
You wouldn’t know it from the media’s coverage, but a fairly decent majority of people voted against the Tories and Brexit. Even if you add the votes of the conservative parties together, they still lost by five percent.
Explaining the Results
When choosing members of the House of Commons, the UK uses a system of counting votes called First Past the Post. Under this system, the candidate with the most votes in an electoral district wins that seat. This is true even if a majority of voters in that district backed other candidates. Although the UK has several parties, First Past the Post gives the Tories and Labour a huge advantage in winning seats.
This means that Boris Johnson and the Tories got a huge systemic win for Brexit. But the facts clearly indicate a majority of the people don’t want Johnson as prime minister, don’t support the Tories, and don’t want to leave the European Union.