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A politics expert ate his book on live TV after underestimating Labour's election performance.

Professor Matthew Goodwin, a politics and international relations expert at the University of Kent, had claimed Labour would not win 38 per cent of the vote in Thursday's poll.

And the academic, who co-wrote 'Brexit: Why Britain voted to leave the European Union', confidently went public with his prediction.

On May 27, he tweeted: "I'm saying this out loud. I do not believe that Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, will poll 38%. I will happily eat my new Brexit book if they do".

On Thursday, Mr Corbyn's party exceeded expectations and won 40.3 per cent of the vote - leaving Prof Goodwin with little choice but to go through with his promise.

Amid mounting pressure, he tweeted on Saturday: “OK. You win. I will be eating my book on Sky News at 4.30pm.”

As promised, he stuffed pages of the book into his mouth during a live appearance on the channel in Westminster, tweeting afterwards: “Don't ever say I am not a man of my word”.