The United Kingdom has voted in a general election seen as a critical juncture in the Brexit crisis engulfing British politics.

Thursday’s high-stakes ballot came after months of political deadlock over the UK’s drama-filled bid to quit the European Union, with MPs split over how to execute the result of the 2016 referendum on membership of the bloc.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party offered starkly different visions for resolving the impasse and rebuilding the UK after a decade of austerity during a febrile campaign in the lead up to the vote.

08:00 GMT: Brexit now inevitable, says Merkel ally

Boris Johnson’s victory in the British parliamentary elections meant that the country’s departure from the European Union was now inevitable, senior German conservative lawmaker Norbert Roettgen tweeted on Friday.

“It’s no secret that personally I wanted the UK to #remain in the EU,” wrote Roettgen, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

“But the British people have decided and we have to accept their choice: With Johnson’s victory Brexit has become inevitable. Our goal now has to be to keep relations with the UK as close as possible,” he added.

07:25 GMT: PM Johnson victory speech

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has delivered his official victory speech from London saying that the Conservative Party had “pulled it off”.

Adding that the election had put an end to the threat of a second referendum, Johnson said that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union by January 31, 2020.

“No ifs, no buts,” said Johnson.

06:15 GMT: The results so far

With 642 of 650 seats having declared results, here’s what the next Parliament will look like:

Conservatives: 358 seats

Labour: 203 seats

Scottish National Party: 48 seats

Liberal Democrats: 11 seats

Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland): 8 seats

Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland; abstentionist – do not take up seats in Westminster): 6 seats

Plaid Cymru (Wales): 4 seats

Social Democratic and Labour Party (Northern Ireland): 2 seats

Green Party: 1 seat

Alliance (Northern Ireland): 1 seat

The Conservatives took 43.5 percent of the total UK vote share (though only 25 percent in Scotland, and 47 percent in England), with Labour taking 32.4 percent of the UK vote share. The Liberal Democrats had 11 percent of UK votes, the SNP 3.9 percent of UK votes, while 2.7 percent of UK voters chose the Greens and two percent chose the Brexit Party.

AL Jazzera