This was an electrifying victory for my party – but the work won't stop now

What a result. The scale of the Conservative party's success completely vindicates the prime minister’s political strategy. His domination of the political stage is complete. Brexit has hastened a realignment in British politics, which has given the Conservative party the largest majority since 1992. Any fair-minded observer cannot but admire the scale of Boris Johnson’s political achievement.

The prime minister has space on the political stage that has not been seen since Tony Blair. What will he do with it? Let’s start with what we know.

We know that he will get Brexit done, and get the withdrawal agreement passed in January, followed by a trade agreement with the EU. On domestic policy, this victory will give the prime minister the chance to govern as a One Nation Conservative, determined to level up opportunity and investment all across the country – especially in many places which have a Conservative seat for the first time.

The Labour Party will be shocked by their failure. But, although politics is a team sport, the blame for that failure should be focused on one man – Jeremy Corbyn. Anyone in Britain with a pulse knows how unpopular he is, and how deeply unfit he was for office in so many ways.

He was the single biggest factor in Labour’s defeat. This election was not about Johnson – it was a referendum on whether the British public wanted a man such as Corbyn to lead them. The answer was a resounding no.

Going forward, Labour’s challenge is immense, because their electoral base has been shrunk to the large cities, with the lowest support in smaller towns and the countryside that the party would have seen since the 1930’s. People used to talk about the "shy Tory" factor; this was a shy Labour factor – voters in heartland seats were unwilling to admit that they were departing from the party that was such a big part of their culture and history.

The Liberal Democrats have many questions to answer. Their resolutely anti-Brexit position won them good second places in many seats in very strongly pro-remain seats in the south-east (aided by pro-remain deals with the Greens and dodgy bar charts), but they ended up going down from 12 seats to 11. That is a poor return on the best-financed Lib Dem campaign in living memory. Who would give them money again? They have lost their traditional base in the South West, haven’t made any inroads in London, and have lost their leader’s seat. They will need to try and become relevant in the midst of a Labour Party that will probably come back stronger once Corbyn is gone.

However, there are political challenges for the Conservative Party, lest I imply that things will be easy from now on. We have to figure out how to marry up the aims and ambitions of the seats in the Labour heartland, often demanding higher state investment, with the views of the traditionally Conservative economically liberal south-east. How to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU and navigate our relationships with China and the US at the same time. How to improve our standing with ethnic minorities and young graduates, both becoming growing sections of the electorate. These are all tough questions. It certainly won’t be dull.

Bim Afolami is the Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden