RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: They wanted a People’s Vote. They got one! 

This wasn’t just a defiant reaffirmation of the EU referendum result, it was a damning repudiation of those who have spent the past three and a half years trying to Stop Brexit.

It also served as a timely reminder that there is life outside the Westminster bubble, that social media is not the real world.

As late as Thursday lunchtime, political commentators were confidently predicting a hung parliament on the evidence of a handful of photos on Twitter showing a few dozen young people queueing at polling stations in London.

Like children chasing a football round a school playground, they all rushed to follow the herd.

The Corbynistas were crushed. The self-deluding Remain Alliance, which thought it could bully the British people into reversing the referendum result, was routed

That gurning gargoyle John Bercow, the ex-Speaker who has done more than most to frustrate the will of the people, turned up as a pundit on Sky News

That gurning gargoyle John Bercow, the ex-Speaker who has done more than most to frustrate the will of the people, turned up as a pundit on Sky News

We were told that not only would the Conservatives fail to secure an overall majority, but there was a real chance Boris Johnson would lose his own West London seat.

In the event, Boris romped home, not just in Uxbridge, but across the country, in constituencies which had never previously returned a Conservative MP.

The Corbynistas were crushed. The self-deluding Remain Alliance, which thought it could bully the British people into reversing the referendum result, was routed.

That gurning gargoyle John Bercow, the ex-Speaker who has done more than most to frustrate the will of the people, turned up as a pundit on Sky News. 

When the official exit poll predicting an 80-seat Tory majority dropped at 10pm, he looked as if he’d just heard through his earpiece that his wife was having an affair with his cousin Alan.

Order, order!

Bercow, nominally a Tory, appeared devastated by the scale of the projected Conservative victory. He wasn’t alone. The outcome of this election was an even greater defeat for the forces of Remain than the original referendum in 2016.

They didn’t see the Leave vote coming, but once the initial shock subsided they were able to regroup and move heaven and earth to overturn it, at little cost to themselves. After all, they argued, the result was merely advisory.

Did Swinson really think that the British people were going to take her threat to cancel the result of the biggest-ever popular vote in favour of anything lying down?

Did Swinson really think that the British people were going to take her threat to cancel the result of the biggest-ever popular vote in favour of anything lying down?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks outside 10 Downing Street after winning the general election

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks outside 10 Downing Street after winning the general election

This time it was personal. This time they were on the ballot. They had everything to lose. And lose they did, on a spectacular scale. They didn’t just lose a referendum, they lost their jobs. They had it coming.

Grieve, Gauke, Soubry Loo and the rest were all sent packing. Not a single one of the turncoat Tory MPs who rebelled against their own government over Brexit managed to retain their seats.

Nor did any of those who resigned the Labour whip to join Change UK or the Lib Dems, Chucky Umunna included. What an ignominious downfall for the man dubbed (by himself, probably) Britain’s Barack Obama.

Speaking of sticky ends, were you up for Swinson?

Me, neither.

But if there was a Portillo moment, it had to be the defenestration of Liberal leader and self-proclaimed ‘next Prime Minister’ Jo Swinson.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London on December 13, after his party lose the general election

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London on December 13, after his party lose the general election

The woman who promised to abort Brexit without so much as a second referendum couldn’t even hold on to her own constituency.

(I’m no fan of Wee Burney, but the SNP leader’s animated celebration when she heard Swinson was dead meat was a joy to behold.)

Did Swinson really think that the British people were going to take her threat to cancel the result of the biggest-ever popular vote in favour of anything lying down?

The most ludicrous argument put forward by Bercow and the Stop Brexit crowd as they paralysed Parliament to prevent Boris’s withdrawal agreement being passed was that they were ‘defending democracy’.

Democracy? They don’t understand the meaning of the word.

Swinson was still at it yesterday, blaming the people for their stupidity in voting Tory.

For the past three and a half years, the mantra coming from the Remain camp at Westminster has been that Leave voters are thick racists, who didn’t understand what they were voting for.

Now the People have taken their revenge.

Labour, in particular, has paid the price for prevaricating over Brexit and reneging on its repeated promises to honour the referendum result

Labour, in particular, has paid the price for prevaricating over Brexit and reneging on its repeated promises to honour the referendum result 

Labour, in particular, has paid the price for prevaricating over Brexit and reneging on its repeated promises to honour the referendum result. 

The Blyth spartans have spoken. So have millions of other former Labour voters across the party’s traditional heartlands in the North-East, the North-West, North Wales and the Midlands.

Presumably, Labour didn’t think the people of Sedgefield were all morons when they kept sending Tony Blair back to Westminster.

They can’t all be thick racists. They are just sick and tired of being ignored, insulted and taken for granted.

In an election which we were told was about trust, voters have decided to put their trust in Boris Johnson and the Tories on everything from Brexit to the NHS.

They certainly didn’t trust Corbyn and Labour further than they could throw them.

But Corbyn still doesn’t seem to understand the calamity he has visited upon his party — or the reasons why. Yesterday he was grumbling that the problem was the election had become all about Brexit.

Eh?

Without the gridlock over Brexit, caused by Corbyn and Labour, there wouldn’t have been an election. Since it was called, they’ve tried to make it about anything but.

Voters had other ideas, fortunately. They saw through Labour’s Fantasy Island giveaway manifesto, and the lies about selling the NHS to Trump. Getting Brexit Done became an article of faith.

This was as much a vote for the sacred principle of democracy as it was for the Conservatives.

It helps that Corbyn himself was unelectable — although it is frightening to think that millions of people, particularly in London, were prepared to vote for a party led by a Seventies throwback, Marxoid, terrorist-loving, anti-Semite.

And if the post-mortem is anything to go by, the broadcast media still hasn’t come to terms with what’s happened.

Most of the analysis has concentrated not on the reasons why Boris won such a spectacular, historic victory, but on nauseating navel-gazing about how Labour can be saved for the nation. Who gives a monkey’s?

This wasn't just a defiant reaffirmation of the EU referendum result, it was a damning repudiation of those who have spent the past three and a half years trying to Stop Brexit

This wasn’t just a defiant reaffirmation of the EU referendum result, it was a damning repudiation of those who have spent the past three and a half years trying to Stop Brexit

Forget about Labour’s troubles and concentrate on what this means for Britain.

The great news is that, yet again, the British people have resoundingly rejected Left-wing extremism. The ruinous notion that the citizens of this ancient democracy are gagging to live in a highly-regulated socialist utopia has been tested to destruction.

Thanks to the Tory landslide, we shall soon be free of the shackles of the sclerotic European superstate. And don’t believe the naysayers who are already demanding an extension to our membership and trashing our chances of ever agreeing a free trade deal with Europe.

We’ve heard it all before. Under a united Tory government with a massive majority, we hold the trump cards in any upcoming negotiations with Brussels.

This was undoubtedly a personal triumph for Boris, but more importantly it was a glorious victory for freedom and democracy.

On the day after the referendum in 2016, I quoted G.K. Chesterton’s line about the ‘secret people of England who have not spoken yet’. We have now.

They wanted a second People’s Vote. They got the one they deserved.