British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited northern England on Saturday to thank voters and newly elected Conservative Party lawmakers in the working class heartland that turned its back on the opposition Labour Party in this week's election and helped give him an 80-seat majority.
Speaking in Sedgefield the constituency once held by Labour former prime minister Tony Blair Johnson acknowledged the seismic shift that helped sweep him to victory in Thursday's election.
"I know that people may have been breaking the voting habits of generations to vote for us," he told supporters.
"And I want the people of the northeast to know that we in the Conservative Party and I will repay your trust."
In a victory speech outside 10 Downing Street on Friday, Johnson called for an end to the acrimony that has festered throughout the country since the divisive 2016 Brexit referendum, and urged Britain to "let the healing begin."
Former lawmaker Helen Goodman, one of many Labour legislators to lose their seat in northern England, told BBC radio that "the biggest factor was obviously the unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader."
Anna Turley told the BBC that the party put forward an overwhelming number of policies and voters "just didn't believe we were the party that could deliver on any of it."
The front page of Saturday's edition of The Scotsman newspaper featured photos of Johnson and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon and the headline: "Two landslides One collision course."