LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited northern England yesterday to thank voters and newly elected Conservative Party lawmakers in the working-class heartland, which turned its back on the opposition Labour Party in Thursday's election and helped give him an 80-seat lead over all the other parties combined.

Speaking in Sedgefield - the constituency once held by Labour former prime minister Tony Blair - Mr Johnson acknowledged the seismic shift that helped sweep him to victory in the 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 north-east to know that we in the Conservative Party and I will repay your trust."

Mr Johnson's ruling Conservatives won their best result for three decades after promising to get Britain out of the European Union on Jan 31, a new deadline set by Brussels.

The snap general election turned into a re-run of the original 2016 EU membership referendum, whose outcome paralysed Britain's leaders and created divisions across society.

But in his victory speech in Downing Street on Friday, the former London mayor struck a magnanimous tone, vowing to listen to those who opposed Brexit and lead an inclusive government.

"I urge everyone to find closure and to let the healing begin," he said, hours after visiting Queen Elizabeth to be reappointed Prime Minister. He also promised to focus on other public priorities, notably by increasing investment in healthcare, schools and infrastructure.

"The work is now stepped up to make 2020 a year of prosperity and growth and hope," he concluded, to cheers from aides and activists outside No. 10.

Mr Johnson staked his political career on the election, which created the possibility of the pro-EU opposition coming to power and calling a new Brexit referendum that could undo the results of the first.

The gambit paid off spectacularly, with his Tories securing 365 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons - their biggest majority since the 1980s heyday of Mrs Margaret Thatcher.

It also devastated the main opposition Labour Party, which suffered its worst result since 1935.

While Mr Johnson was on a victory lap yesterday, Labour's socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn - who has pledged to stand down next year - was under fire from within his own party, where there was little sign of healing starting any time soon.

Former lawmaker Helen Goodman, one of many Labour legislators to lose their seats in northern England, told BBC radio that "the biggest factor was obviously the unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn as the leader".

Another former Labour lawmaker, Ms Anna Turley, told the BBC that the party put forward an overwhelming number of policies and voters "just did not believe we were the party that could deliver on any of it".

Parliament will reconvene on Tuesday and Mr Johnson is expected to publish legislation before Christmas needed to ratify the Brexit deal he agreed with Brussels in October.

This should be passed by January, but Britain and the EU still need to thrash out a new trade and security agreement - a process that officials have warned could take years.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson told Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Friday that he would not support her plan for a second independence referendum. Ms Sturgeon had earlier on Friday demanded another independence referendum after her Scottish National Party won a better-than-expected 48 out of Scotland's 59 seats in the British Parliament in London.

Mr Johnson spoke to Ms Sturgeon later in the day and said he would not agree to another independence vote, after Scottish voters backed remaining in Britain in a 2014 vote.

Ms Sturgeon responded shortly after on Twitter, saying she had told Mr Johnson that her political mandate to give people a choice must be respected, "just as he expects his mandate to be respected".

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS