General election: Trump and populist world politicians lead congratulations after Boris Johnson's victory

Populists including Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen join Donald Trump in hailing Tory success

World leaders have hailed Boris Johnson's return to Downing Street with a thumping majority (World leaders have hailed Boris Johnson's return to Downing Street with a thumping majority)

Donald Trump had led the reactions by world leaders to the results of Thursday’s election, being one of the first to tweet his congratulations to Boris Johnson.

“Britain and the United States will now be free to strike a massive new Trade Deal after BREXIT,” the president tweeted in the early hours of Friday morning.

“This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lucrative than any deal that could be made with the E.U. Celebrate Boris!”

There was similar celebration from other populist leaders across the world. Matteo Salvini, the hard-right leader of Italy’s opposition and former deputy prime minister tweeted “Go Boris go!” after the exit poll revealed the Conservatives were heading for a comprehensive win.

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right and Eurosceptic National Rally party in France, also praised Mr Johnson’s “overwhelming victory” and hailed the British people for overcoming supposed intimidation to take back their destiny.

But other reaction from world leaders was more muted. Angela Merkel’s official spokesman tweeted her congratulations on the “resounding win”. “I look forward to working with you for the friendship and strong cooperation between our nations,” he said.

The new head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said once the final results were known she would “immediately listen to the new prime minister just to be reassured and have reaffirmed what the pathway is”.

“We are all set for whatever the case is. We have the structures internally and are ready to negotiate whatever is necessary.”

The prime minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, told reporters as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels the election was “obviously a giant success for Boris Johnson”.

“He is a charismatic leader. He won and now they will leave, unfortunately. That is bad news for Europe.”

His counterpart from Bulgaria, Boyko Borissov, however, tweeted that he was sure his nation would continue to maintain high levels of co-operation with the UK and work well together.

The deputy prime minister of Ireland, Simon Coveney, tweeted his congratulations to Mr Johnson, but added his government was focused on trying to restart Northern Ireland’s shuttered assembly.

“The Irish government and my department now stand ready to seize the momentum and focus on getting Stormont up and running for all the people and parties in Northern Ireland.”

Earlier, the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar had said his hope was that the election would produce a “decisive” outcome and a stable government, to ensure smooth negotiations during the next phase of Brexit.

Other world leaders have highlighted other aspects of the result. Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said the Tories’ win was a “victory of values” over antisemitism.

And in Catalonia, the separatist head of the local government praised Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party for almost sweeping the board north of the border.

“Congratulations to the friends of @theSNP and First Minister @NicolaSturgeon for this magnificent result that demonstrates the democratic will for independence and the European commitment of the Scottish people,” Quim Torra tweeted.