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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Matthew Weaver , Claire Phipps and Andrew Sparrow

Shock result as UK election returns hung parliament - as it happened

How the 2017 election night unfolded … in 3 minutes

Our live blog continues here:

Updated

May to visit palace to form government

Theresa May will go to the palace at 12.30pm believing she can form a government.

Steve Baker, the chair of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group of backbench MPs, has thrown his weight behind Theresa May.

“My principal thought is that it’s essential that Conservative MPs support Theresa May as prime minister, and make it possible to form the most stable government possible,” he told the Guardian.

In the run-up to the article 50 vote earlier this year, Baker played a key role in coordinating Conservative MPs, and liaising with Downing Street on their behalf.

Updated

Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, is the latest senior Tory to stand behind Theresa May but she suggested calling the election had been an error.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “This is a result obviously that she absolutely did not want and none of us wanted. That’s going to make life difficult. I think she should carry on. She is entitled as prime minister to see if she is able to form a government. People do want there to be clarity about leadership, we’ve got the very important Brexit negotiations starting in 11 days.”

Asked if she had confidence in May’s leadership, Morgan said: “I think Theresa May is a competent and more than capable prime minister and leader of the party, but clearly there has been a misjudgment in the way we started off thinking there was going to be a significant win for the Conservative party, that hasn’t happened, we need to understand why.”

Updated

The former Labour foreign secretary and one-time Labour leadership hopeful, David Miliband, has expressed his surprise and delight at the result. “So good brutal Brexit rejected,” he tweeted.

Updated

The European council president, Donald Tusk, reminds the UK of the ticking clock on the Brexit negotiations.

Updated

The result has transformed the UK political landscape.

Hung parliaments are good news for whips, civil servants, journalists and opposition parties. Anyone who thrives in the engine room of politics is going to love the next few months and years. But the real winner in a hung parliament is the political leader, or even the political idea, that rises above the short-term and points a way to less turbulent times. Who that leader is, or what that big idea might be, is one of the many fascinating uncertainties the country now faces.

Groups campaigning for the rights of the 3.5 million EU citizens in Britain and 1.2 million UK nationals on the continent have said that with Brexit negotiations now likely to start with a hung parliament, it is even more vital that all political parties undertake to secure citizens’ rights after Brexit.

In a joint statement, Nicolas Hatton, the co-chair of the3million and Jane Golding, the chair of the British in Europe Coalition, said the new government must “ringfence citizens’ rights from other aspects of the article 50 withdrawal agreement to make them legally binding in the event negotiations fail”.

The groups also want new legislation to enable all EU citizens to claim their individual rights by March 2019. “There is a huge task ahead, considering 3 million people need to be documented to continue to live normally in Britain after Brexit,” said Hatton.

Golding added: “The EU has made a generous, unilateral offer to UK citizens in the EU and is prepared to guarantee the vast majority of our rights. Now the election is over, we need urgently to know the UK’s response to that offer so we can see an end to the uncertainty facing thousands of families.”

Updated

Nigel Dodds
Nigel Dodds Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

The Democratic Unionists will only support a Conservative government if Northern Ireland is not granted any unique special status that would keep the region halfway inside the EU, the party’s leader at Westminster has confirmed.

Nigel Dodds, who was re-elected in his North Belfast seat, said the DUP would insist there would be no post-Brexit deal that could decouple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

It will be one of the DUP’s key preconditions in negotiations with the Tories to help them form a new administration.

With one eye on the Brexit negotiations, which begin within the next 10 to 11 days, Dodds said: “There are special circumstances in Northern Ireland and we will try to make sure these are recognised.

“As regards demands for special status within the European Union, no. Because that would create tariffs and barriers between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market which is the rest of the United Kingdom.

“While we will focus on the special circumstances, geography and certain industries of Northern Ireland, we will be pressing that home very strongly. Special status however within the European Union is a nonsense. Dublin doesn’t support it.

“Brussels doesn’t support it. The member states of the EU would never dream of it because it would open the door to a Pandora’s box of independence movements of all sorts. The only people who mentioned this are Sinn Féin.”

The DUP won 10 of the 18 Northern Ireland seats with Sinn Féin winning seven and the remaining seat in North Down still in the hands of the Independent Unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon.

Updated

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, says the Brexit negotiations should start when the UK is ready, but that the (two-year) timetable and the EU’s position is clear.

Bohuslav Sobotka, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, says the UK is not ready to start negotiations.

Updated

A t-shirt in support of Momentum, grassroots movement supportive of Jeremy Corbyn
A t-shirt in support of Momentum, grassroots movement supportive of Jeremy Corbyn Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Momentum, the Labour organisation set up to support Jeremy Corbyn, hailed the results as a success for a superior ground game and campaign techniques deployed for the first time.

The 24,000-strong organisation helped mobilise activists in targeting marginals and exploit social media in support of the overall Labour campaign.

Adam Klug, Momentum’s national organiser, said: “The ground game was crucial to this in terms of mobilising and enthusing activists, many of them first-time canvassers. Momentum played a major part in this.

“I think it is the end of the old way of doing politics.”

While most of the media focus was on Corbyn, Labour was engaged in a largely unseen effort on the ground, using its large base of volunteers as a counter to the Conservatives’ higher spending.

Klug had been a primary teacher when he volunteered in 2015 to work in Corbyn’s first leadership contest and went on to work full-time for Momentum, which grew out of the campaign.

He and his colleagues have not yet celebrated. “We did not win,” said Klug, who said the organisation would continue campaigning, building for the next time.

Labour had won more seats than he had expected. Had all the speculation that Corbyn would have to resign or face another leadership challenge now gone? “I think definitely,” Klug said.

During the election, Momentum developed a tool to help direct volunteers to the nearest marginals: the site attracted 100,000 unique users.

“This was five times the size of Momentum. We reached out way beyond our bubble,” Klug said.

One in four UK Facebook users had viewed a Momentum video in the final week of the campaign, he said. They also developed an app to help people engage in phone-canvassing from their homes or anywhere else rather than go to phone banks.

With the help of about half a dozen volunteers from the Bernie Sanders campaign, it introduced techniques pioneered during the US campaign, with a big effort aimed at training canvassers. Three thousand came to training days throughout the UK, about two-thirds of them first-time canvassers, Klug said.

Momentum asked for volunteers to take Thursday off to get people to the polls. Klug said about 10,000 volunteered, knocking on an estimated 1.2m doors.

Updated

Theresa May hopes to cling on as prime minister despite failing to secure a parliamentary majority after the snap general election resulted in a surge of support for Labour.

Senior Conservatives confirmed that May has no intention of resigning and is instead working to form a government, most likely by making a pact with Northern Ireland’s DUP, which has 10 MPs. “We won the most seats and the most votes,” one Tory source said.

The DUP is socially conservative and enthusiastically pro-Brexit – and could also press for a boost to public spending in Northern Ireland. Party sources said they were in regular contact with the Conservatives.

May has the right to remain in office and try to assemble a working government – but she is under intense pressure from senior colleagues, many of whom blame her for a botched manifesto launch and a wobbly campaign.

Updated

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, says Labour wants to form a minority government.

Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Neil he said: “If we can form a minority government, I think we can have a stable government. We would be able to produce a Queen’s speech and budget based upon our manifesto, which I think could command majority support in parliament, not through deals or coalitions but policy by policy. That would prevent another election.

“We are not looking for a coalition or deals.”

Updated

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DUP: 'difficult for May to survive'

Arlene Foster
Arlene Foster Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, has hinted she expects May to stand down.

“It will be difficult for her to survive given that she was presumed at the start of the campaign, which seems an awfully long time ago, to come back with maybe a hundred, maybe more, in terms of her majority,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.

“Now we’re in the position we find ourselves in tonight so it will be an incredibly difficult evening for her.”

Foster said any discussions about an informal agreement with the SNP would be over the weekend. “It’s too soon to say what we are going to do yet, we need to see the final makeup of parliament and we need to reflect on that,” she said.

“There will be contact made over the weekend, but it is too soon to work out what we are going to do.”

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn has declared his party the victors after addressing staff at Labour headquarters.

“We put forward our policies – strong and hopeful policies – and have gained an amazing response from the public. I think it’s pretty clear who won this election,” he told the BBC.

Asked if he hoped to form a government, he said: “We’re ready to serve the people who have given their trust to us.”

Corbyn also repeated his call for the prime minister to resign.

“She fought the election on the basis that it was her campaign; it was her decision to call the election, it was her name out there; she was saying she was doing it to bring about strong and stable government. Well, this morning, it doesn’t look like a strong government, it doesn’t look like a stable government, it doesn’t look like a government that has any programme whatsoever,” he said.

Corbyn added:

“My party has had a huge increase in its vote, gained seats all over the country, in every region of this country and in Scotland and Wales. I think everyone in the Labour party, and everyone who supported the Labour party yesterday – young people, old people, everyone in between – I think they should be very proud of what we have achieved.”

Updated

The first evidence of turnout levels among younger voters is that it rose 12 points to 56% of 18- to 34-year-olds since 2015, according to an “exit poll” by the NME/The Stream.

The survey, based on 1,354 respondents, confirms that a majority of younger voters opted for Labour, with 60% of under-35s saying they had voted Labour.

This rose to 66% of 18- to 24-year olds saying they had voted to back Jeremy Corbyn’s party. The survey found that 36% were first-time voters and that half went to the polls with a friend or family member, with Brexit the main factor in their decision to vote.

Mike Williams, NME’s editor-in-chief, said: “A lot of talk during this election has been about whether young people would bother to get out and vote. They did, in huge numbers, and on a scale not seen in the UK in recent years. We at NME are incredibly proud to see this and it’s further proof that young people in the UK are massively engaged with politics in 2017.”

Updated

Here’s audio of Corbyn’s statement

Corbyn 'Labour ready to serve'

Jeremy Corbyn says Labour is “ready to serve this country”.

He says the Brexit negotiations will have to go ahead and that he wants a “job first” Brexit. He says delaying negotiations is out of Britain’s hands.

Corbyn repeats his call for Theresa May to resign.

He says it was pretty clear Labour won the election on a “strong and hopeful” programme.

Updated

Manfred Weber, the leader of the powerful European People’s party in the European parliament, says the Brexit clock is ticking and Britain had better get itself a “negotiations-ready” government soon.

The planned start date of Brexit talks on 19 June is now “uncertain”, the German conservative said in a tweet.

In a second tweet, he added: “Our position is clear: we want good cooperation with the UK, but Brexit means leaving the EU with all its benefits.”

Updated

McDonnell: 'Labour ready to form government'

John McDonnell
John McDonnell Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said Labour is “ready to form a government”, labelling any Conservative-DUP arrangement a “coalition of chaos”.

He told Sky News: “We’ve always said, whatever the circumstances, we’re ready to serve the country and we’re ready to form a government.

“In our position, that’d be a minority government and the way that would operate is we’d put forward our own Queen’s speech and our own budget as well, and then would expect other parties to vote for it.”

McDonnell later took aim at Theresa May, saying she was “a lame duck prime minister” who was unlikely to remain in her post for long.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I can’t see them holding together. If they do seek to do a coalition with the DUP, well, pardon the expression but someone used it during the campaign, but it is a coalition of chaos as far as I can see.
So I can’t see a stable government coming from that.”

He dismissed any suggestions of making deals with other parties as he said he was confident that a range of MPs from different parties would back a Queen’s speech put forward by Labour.

The shadow chancellor said part of the success was that voters and MPs had finally recognised Corbyn as “the strong, principled leader that he is”.

Updated

Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany’s Social Democrats who is hoping to oust Angela Merkel at elections in September, has tweeted that he has called Jeremy Corbyn and they have arranged to meet in the near future.

Given that Schulz is struggling in the polls – his party is on 24% compared with 39% for Merkel’s CDU – it’s more likely he is after advice than offering a helping hand.

But since the German centre-left has in the past focused on fostering links with Labour centrists, the move sends out a significant signal nonetheless.

Updated

Theresa May 'no intention of resigning'

Senior Conservatives have confirmed that Theresa May has no intention of resigning this morning. They plan instead to work on forming a government – most likely by making a pact with the DUP, which has 10 MPs in Northern Ireland and could deliver her a wafer-thin majority.

“We won the most seats and the most votes,” a Tory source said. But some senior ministers are furious with the prime minister, and likely to seek to exact concessions in exchange for continuing to back her leadership.

Meanwhile, Labour will press for her to resign, after asking the public to give her a personal mandate to negotiate Brexit and instead losing more than 10 seats.

Updated

Recriminations against CCHQ are starting at the Tory grassroots while ministers wait to see what May’s next move will be.

These are some tweets from Tony Homewood, the election agent for the Conservatives in Wakefield which the party had hoped to win from Labour’s Mary Creagh.

“This is one of the most sensational political upsets of our time,” writes a jubilant Owen Jones.

In his latest column, he apologises to Corbyn and his team for ever doubting them.

Now that I’ve said I’m wrong – perhaps one of the sweetest things I’ve had to write – so the rest of the mainstream commentariat, including in this newspaper, must confess they were wrong, too. They were wrong to vilify Corbyn supporters – from the day he stood – as delusional cultists. They were wrong to suggest Corbyn couldn’t mobilise young people and previous non-voters. They were wrong to suggest he couldn’t make inroads in Scotland. They were wrong to suggest a radical left programme was an automatic recipe for electoral catastrophe. No, Labour hasn’t formed a government. But it is far closer than it has been for a very long time. The prospect of a socialist government that can build an economy run in the interests of working people – not the cartel of vested interests who have plunged us into repeated crisis – well, that may have been a prospect many of us thought would never happen in our lifetime. It is now much closer than it has ever been. So yes – to quote a much-ridiculed Jeremy Corbyn tweet: the real fight starts now.

Updated

Here is a handy breakdown of the winners and losers from this unpredictable election.

Four seats yet to declare

Aside from Kensington, which is taking a breather, we are awaiting three more seats, all in south-west England: Cornwall North, Cornwall South East, and St Austell and Newquay.

All four are currently held by the Conservatives.

Updated

Zac Goldsmith gives a victory speech after winning Richmond Park
Zac Goldsmith gives a victory speech after being elected again as MP for Richmond Park. Sarah Olney, a Liberal Democrat, had won the seat from Goldsmith in a byelection six months ago, but fell short by 45 votes this time around. Photograph: Mark Thomas/Rex/Shutterstock

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Updated

Things are close in Kensington – so close that the tired tellers have been told to go home for a rest and come back later.

With the result on a knife edge between the Conservative Victoria Borwick and Labour’s Emma Dent Coad, the count has been suspended without a result and will resume later today or possibly tomorrow.

Updated

The Conservatives held on to St Ives by 312 votes. The Lib Dems had been hoping to snatch the seat from the Tories.

The Conservatives have made it to 315 seats - one ahead of the exit poll projection. They are now projected to secure 319 seats, seven short of a majority.

Updated

A strong surge for the Liberal Democrats in St Ives was not enough: the Conservatives have just about held on by 22,120 votes to 21,808.

Derek Thomas therefore sees off Andrew George, who had hoped to retake the seat he held until 2015.

Turnout was 76%.

Updated

The pound has hit a five-month low against the euro, at €1.1322, after the hung parliament shock.

Labour beats Tory minister in Reading East

Labour has taken Reading East from the Conservatives, with a 16-point swing taking Matt Rodda to 49% against 42.3% for the Tories’ Rob Wilson, the civil society minister.

Updated

As the Conservatives could be relying on Democratic Unionist party support to effectively govern, here are some of the more interesting parts of the DUP manifesto, for those of you who haven’t already memorised it:

  • The party is pro-Brexit, with a pledge to get “the best Brexit deal”.
  • “Support the maintenance of the pensions ‘triple lock’”, which the Conservatives have said they will scrap and replace with a less costly “double lock”.
  • “Resist any assault on important universal benefits like the winter fuel allowance”, which the Conservatives have said they will now only give to the poorest pensioners.
  • “The TV licence fee is a highly regressive tax which was designed for a different era”, the manifesto said, recommending that it be cut and then abolished.

Updated

Gus O’Donnell
Lord O’Donnell. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

The former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell says Theresa May will have to stay in post for now, but the result will make it very difficult for her to negotiate Brexit.

Speaking to the BBC, O’Donnell said: “The prime minister has to stay as prime minister for now.

“I think those negotiations on Brexit will be non-existent. It takes two sides to negotiate. The EU will say ‘Who are we negotiating with? Is this a prime minister who is going to be around for very much time? What’s their position?’

“What we will basically have, which the EU is very good at, is lots of process and no substance, for quite some time.

“While there will be nothing happening for a while, we [will] eventually get to the point where that two-year [article 50] deadline, which can only be extended if the 27 unanimously agree to extend it, starts to bite.

“That is really good for the 27. They will threaten us with ‘OK, if there is no deal, well you are out’, WTO terms, that’s very bad for us. So this is not good news for our Brexit position.”

Updated

The BBC’s political editor says the prime minister is going nowhere – in the resigning sense.

Updated

Northern Ireland has become a two-party country, with the Social Democratic and Labour party and Ulster Unionist party wiped off the Westminster map.

Sinn Féin will not technically be on that map either, with Gerry Adams confirming that it would not take its seats even to bolster a Labour minority administration, but the party won three more seats to bring home seven.

The Democratic Unionist party’s 10 (up two) could be the election’s defining moment, as Theresa May – assuming she stays at the helm – will be looking for help to bolster her minority government.

Updated

New readers, welcome to the morning after, as we try to make sense of a night that consisted mostly of “what the …?”, “who the what now?” and schadenfreude.

So, it’s a hung parliament. The opinion polls didn’t know it, apart from that YouGov one from which everyone reeled back, blinking, but the exit poll did. And for many, that news at 10pm meant plans for sleep were as doomed as Theresa May’s easy landslide.

Read our roundup of the night, with added sarcasm, here.

Updated

Labour’s Ian Austin has held on to his Dudley North seat with a majority of 22. He won 18,090 votes (up 4.7 percentage points on his share of the vote in 2015), beating the Conservative Les Jones, who got 18,068 votes (up 15.6 percentage points on the Tory 2015 result).

The Ukip vote was down 18.5 percentage points. Ukip got 9,113 votes in 2015, but just 2,144 yesterday.

Updated

And here are some of the best pictures from a dramatic night.

Zac Goldsmith retakes Richmond Park

Just six months after he lost – running as an independent – to Lib Dem Sarah Olney in a byelection, Zac Goldsmith (now a Tory again) has won back the Richmond Park seat.

Those key numbers:

  • Goldsmith 28,588
  • Olney 28,543

Goldsmith wins with a majority of 45.

Zac Goldsmith waits for the results for the constituency of Richmond following two recounts
Zac Goldsmith waits for the results for the constituency of Richmond following two recounts Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Updated

Here is a picture gallery of the front pages of the final editions of today’s national papers.

This is from Adrian Wooldridge, the political editor of the Economist.

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These are from my colleague Heather Stewart.

This is from the BBC’s Chris Mason.

Updated

The Hansard Society recently published a report on what happens when parliament meets after the election. This chart shows the key dates. MPs are due to assemble on Tuesday, when they will elect a Commons Speaker, but the first proper debate will not start until the Queen’s speech, a week on Monday, and that will not be put to a vote until the following Tuesday. That vote may be the first proper test of the new government.

Key dates.
Key dates. Photograph: Hansard Society

Updated

Caroline Lucas
Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader, gives a speech after being re-elected to represent Brighton Pavilion. Photograph: Adam Holt/Reuters

Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, has held his Fife North East seat by two votes.

Updated

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, is alarmed by the prospect of Brexit being watered down. He thinks even David Davis, the Brexit secretary, is making concessions.

Farage seems to be referring to this quote (see 5.16am).

Updated

All the results from Wales are in. Here is what the new political map of the country looks like.

The results include this Plaid Cymru gain.

The former Labour leader Ed Miliband says Theresa May’s authority has been destroyed.

Updated

The general election result will be seen as a disaster in Brussels, where officials have been eager to get on with Brexit negotiations with a prime minister in command of her party. EU leaders are yet to comment, as the result is not yet finalised.

But Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, said: “Could be messy for the United Kingdom in the years ahead. One mess risks following another. Price to be paid for lack of true leadership.”

Sophie in ‘t Veld‏, the Dutch MEP who set up the European parliament’s taskforce examining the UK’s treatment of EU nationals, tweeted: “Cameron gambled, lost. May gambled, lost. Tory party beginning to look like a casino.”

Updated

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Caroline Lucas wins Brighton Pavilion

The Green party returns to the Commons. Its sole MP, Caroline Lucas, increases her majority in Brighton Pavilion to 14,689 with 30,139 votes.

Turnout was 76%.

Her Green party co-leader, Jonathan Bartley, was quick to congratulate her:

Updated

This is from Coffee House, the Spectator blog.

But the Spectator’s James Forsyth said earlier he thought she would not resign this morning.

With 629 results in (out of 650), here are the latest party figures.

Conservatives: 42% (up 5)

Labour: 40% (up 10)

Lib Dems: 7% (down 1)

SNP: 3% (down 2)

Ukip: 2% (down 11)

Greens: 2% (down 2)

Updated

Hung parliament confirmed

The Conservatives will be the largest party but they cannot now win a majority.

Rumours have been swirling overnight that Theresa May’s campaign in marginal seats could have backfired and the Conservatives may have lost in many of the constituencies she visited. Now that results in 95% of the seats have been reported, the picture is becoming clearer.

The Guardian’s analysis of the campaign trail shows May made 70 stops throughout the UK and spent more than half her time in Labour constituencies. May’s campaign visited 47 marginal seats, where the majority was less than 15% in the 2015 election.

The results have been called for 43 of the constituencies May visited and of those, only 16 were won by the Conservatives.

Of those seats, nine were retained by the Conservatives and five were lost by Labour to the Conservatives. Labour and Labour Co-operative has retained 20 of the marginal seats where May campaigned, taken two from the Conservatives and one seat from the SNP.

Updated

Jeremy Cliffe, the Economist’s Berlin correspondent, says EU leaders are unlikely to delay Brexit talks to allow Britain to sort out who’s running the country.

Turnout running at almost 69%

This is from the Press Association’s Ian Jones.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former work and pensions secretary, has told Sky News that he does not think there should be a Tory leadership contest. He said the country could not afford to wait, because it needed to get on with the Brexit negotiations.

At the start of the campaign there was alarm within Labour ranks after a poll suggested the Tories could win a majority of seats in Wales for the first time since the 1850s – before the era of mass democracy.

The turnaround has been remarkable and ended in a strong night for Labour in Wales. The party unexpectedly took Cardiff North as well as Gower in the south and the Vale of Clwyd in the north – both seats that it had lost in 2015 – and finished with its highest share of the vote since 1997.

It suffered no losses, fighting off Tory challenges in Bridgend and Wrexham, constituencies that Theresa May had visited.

The reason for Labour’s success is two-fold.

Strategists in Cardiff are keen to portray this as Welsh Labour triumph with Carwyn Jones selling a Welsh manifesto to Wales’s citizens and injecting a Welsh sensibility into the national one.

But the Corbyn effect cannot be denied.

Owen Smith, who stood against Corbyn for the Labour leadership – and held on to his Pontypridd seat comfortably – said: “He’s definitely got something. He beat me fair and square and he’s done very well in this election. He’s to be congratulated for that.”

And the former Welsh secretary Peter Hain said of Corbyn: “To his great credit he has energised the party.”

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If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure. You can give to the Guardian by becoming a monthly supporter or by making a one-off contribution. - Guardian HQ

Jubilant Scottish Labour supporters in Glasgow
Jubilant Scottish Labour supporters in Glasgow. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

So far, 192 female MPs have been elected – a record high, the Press Association reports. There were 191 women in the last parliament, accounting for 29.4% of MPs. And that was a big improvement on 2010, when 143 women were elected, at the time a record high.

Updated

Another large majority and vote share for Labour’s Diane Abbott, who has been off the campaign trail due to ill health: she stays, to no one’s surprise, in Hackney North and Stoke Newington with 42,265 votes and a 75% share.

Updated

On the BBC Prof John Curtice, its elections expert, has just said that his analysts cannot see any circumstances now in which the Tories could win a majority.

He also said that academic literature shows that often calling a snap election can backfire. Voters suspect that the election is being called to pre-empt some bad news in the pipeline, he said.

Labour’s Stella Creasy has been returned in Walthamstow with a stonking 80.5% of the vote and a 31,924 majority:

The Green party continues to play a good social media game:

The Lib Dems have won back Oxford West and Abingdon from the Conservatives – and with 11 MPs are into double figures.

Layla Moran, with 26,256 votes, up 15 points on 2015, has seen off junior public health minister Nicola Blackwood, on 25,440.

This, from David Davis earlier, is worth noting. Davis, the Brexit secretary, seemed to admit that the government could lose its mandate to take the UK out of the single market and the customs union.

More from the Theresa May will she?/won’t she? (quit) saga.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

There is a recount at Richmond Park, where Zac Goldsmith, now back with the Tories after a brief (unsuccessful) foray as an independent candidate, is hoping to win back his old seat from Lib Dem Sarah Olney, who’s held the constituency for barely six months.

The Lib Dem fightback failed to materialise in the Somerset constituency of Wells. The party’s candidate, Tessa Munt, fought a vibrant campaign and thought she may have won by tapping into the youth vote, but the Tory James Heappey held the seat he took in 2015.

Labour, which has never won here, was delighted to have doubled its number of votes to 7,129.

Munt’s campaign had been boosted early on when she took the Wells county council seat from the Tory leader on the authority. A well-known and well-liked local figure who held the seat from 2010-15, she made the case that voters should pick a candidate who would fight for them rather than fixate on the national picture.

As soon as the result was announced, Munt said she would fight for the seat again.

“I think we can be very proud and take great heart that so many young people were involved in our campaign but in voting generally,” she said. “They’ve stepped up, they’ve offered their opinions.”

Tessa Munt listens as Heappey delivers his victory speech.=
Tessa Munt listens as Heappey delivers his victory speech. Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian

The Labour candidate, Andy Merryfield, said the election had been a farce, a power grab by Theresa May. But his party has been thrilled by the response it has had in the constituency.

Heappey said it had been a bruising campaign. He said: “I hope to continue our work on improving our connectivity, on getting a fairer deal for our public services, on making sure we get an industrial strategy that works for Somerset and on getting the right deal on Brexit.”

Updated

Labour wins Enfield Southgate

Labour has won back Enfield Southgate, the site of the legendary 1997 Portillo moment.

Bambos Charalambous has taken the seat with 24,989 votes to Conservative David Burrowes’s 20,634.

That’s a 9.7% swing from Conservative to Labour.

Updated

On the BBC Chuka Umunna has just said he would consider serving in the shadow cabinet (or cabinet?) if offered a job by Jeremy Corbyn. Umunna, who was shadow business secretary under Ed Miliband, is on the opposite wing of the party to Corbyn, and has not been a vocal supporter of his.

But all night Labour figures previously sceptical about Corbyn have been lining up in the broadcast studios to pay tribute to him. And they have done it quite sincerely even if, in some cases, perhaps reluctantly. Corbyn’s achievement really has been striking.

Nicola Sturgeon is facing the biggest political decision of her career as she absorbs the seismic shock of the defeats of Alex Salmond, her mentor and former leader, and Angus Robertson, her deputy in the Scottish National party.

With the national results pointing towards a hung parliament, Sturgeon will face intense pressure to drop her quest for a second independence referendum in order to join a progressive anti-Tory alliance with Labour and the Lib Dems at Westminster.

Salmond said the SNP should press for an anti-Tory pact as he lost Gordon. But Salmond and Robertson’s defeats also mean the SNP has lost its two most experienced and influential political operators, increasing the sense of crisis for Sturgeon.

Amber Rudd wins in Hastings & Rye

It was extremely close – and went to a recount – but the home secretary clings on.

The final result:

  • Amber Rudd (Cons) 25,668.
  • Peter Chowney (Lab) 25,332.

Her majority is now just 346.

Updated

Soubry says May should 'consider her position'

Anna Soubry, the Conservative former minister, has said that Theresa May should “consider her position”. Effectively that amounts to calling for her resignation.

Asked if May could remain prime minister, she said:

That is a matter for her.

That sounds like a no, David Dimbleby said. Soubry went on:

It is bad. It is a matter for her ... She is in a very difficult place. She’s a remarkable and very talented woman and she doesn’t shy from difficult decisions. But she now has to, obviously, consider her position ... Theresa did put her mark on this campaign. She takes responsibility, as she always does and I know she will, for the running of the campaign. It was a tightly knit group. And it was her group that ran this campaign.

Soubry also said that May had run “a pretty dreadful campaign”. That was being generous, she said.

Updated

Australia’s former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd has tweeted in glee about the failure of the supposed mastermind behind Theresa May’s campaign, Sir Lynton Crosby.

Crosby earned his knighthood, as far as we can ascertain, for services to the Tories and has been running campaigns for them since Boris Johnson was first elected London mayor.

It seems Rudd is still harbouring some ill feelings about his loss to conservative Tony Abbott in 2013. Abbott’s campaign was notorious for its laser focus on three-word slogans: “Axe the Tax” in reference to the carbon price scheme and “Stop the Boats”, an anti-refugee rally cry, both come to mind.

Crosby is also credited with helping keep Labor in opposition for 11 long years when John Howard was prime minister.

Crosby’s magic for John Howard, Australia’s second-longest-serving PM, came to an end with Rudd’s election in 2007. That loss was in part due to the deeply unpopular Work Choice industrial relations changes that Crosby had been hired to sell to a sceptical public.

Further bad blood may be explained by the two being on different sides of the five-year long legal fight over plain packaging of tobacco, which was instituted by Rudd’s government as a world first in 2011. Tobacco giant Philip Morris, a client of Crosby Textor Fullbrook, took legal action against the Australian government and lost.

Updated

Key election statistics so far

On the basis of 540 results that are in (out of 650), here are the overall figures for numbers of seats, gains, losses, number of votes etc. The figures are from the Press Association.

Conservatives

Total: 248

Gains: 15

Losses: 25

Total votes: 11,009,108

Vote share: 41.59%

Change: +5.94

Forecast: 320

Labour

Total: 228

Gains: 30

Losses: 3

Total votes: 10,719,321

Vote share: 40.50%

Change: +9.44

Forecast: 260

Lib Dems

Total: 10

Gains: 7

Losses: 3

Total votes: 1,820,022

Vote share: 6.88%

Change: -0.63

Forecast: 13

SNP

Total: 33

Gains: 1

Losses: 18

Total votes: 892,052

Vote share: 3.37%

Change: -1.90

Forecast: 35

Ukip

Total: 0

Gains: 0

Losses: 0

Total votes: 503,428

Vote share: 1.90%

Change: -10.84

Forecast: 0

Greens

Total: 0

Gains: 0

Losses: 0

Total votes: 401,295

Vote share: 1.52%

Change: -2.09

Forecast: 1

In Brighton Kemptown, previously held by the economic secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, the Tories have lost to Labour.

The Greens stood aside in this seat to give Labour a better chance of ousting the Conservatives and it has worked:

  • Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Lab) 28,703
  • Simon Kirby (Cons) 18,835

Updated

Did Theresa May’s campaign in marginal seats backfire? It had been suggested that the Conservatives may have lost in all of the constituencies she visited – but this isn’t quite the case.

A Guardian’s analysis of the election campaign trail shows Theresa May made 70 stops throughout the UK and spent more than half her time in Labour constituencies. May’s campaign visited 47 marginal seats, where the majority was less than 15% in the 2015 election.

It’s far too early in the night to say who all of those 47 seats were won by. However, the results have been called for 24 of those constituencies and only seven were won by the Conservatives.

Of those seats six were retained by the Conservatives and only one constituency, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, was lost by Labour to the Conservatives so far. Labour has retained 12 of the marginal seats where May campaigned and taken one seat from the SNP.

Updated

The Tories have won Banff and Buchan, with a massive 20% swing from the SNP to Conservatives.

Anna Soubry, returned by a very slim majority as the Conservative MP for Broxtowe, says this has “been a dreadful campaign”. Social care and scrapping free school lunches are among the things she cites as damaging the Tory sell on the doorstep.

Asked by David Dimbleby whether Theresa May should resign, she says:

It’s a matter for her … it’s bad. I think she’s in a very difficult place … She needs to consider her position. It’s a dreadful night.

She says lots of “remarkable” Conservatives have lost their seats tonight.

Updated

In Northern Ireland the final results are in with Sinn Féin winning back the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency from the Ulster Unionists. The overall outcome is 10 seats for the DUP and seven for Sinn Féin, the latter party still boycotting Westminster. This leaves the DUP in a very strong position in terms of potentially helping to form the next government.

Updated

Harriet Harman tops both Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn’s vote tally, returning as MP for Camberwell and Peckham:

The former Scottish National party leader and first minister Alex Salmond has lost his Gordon seat to the Tories, in one of the greatest shocks in recent electoral history.

His ousting led the Tories, who have now won 10 Scottish seats with more to declare, to demand the SNP drop its quest for a second independence referendum.

In a 30-year long parliamentary career at both Westminster and at Holyrood, Salmond has been one of the most enduring figures in modern Scottish politics, twice as leader of the SNP and the architect of the party’s remarkable Holyrood landslide in 2011, which led to the independence referendum in 2014.

Speaking after his defeat, Salmond said his parliamentary career had been “the privilege of my life. I’m grateful for these times. For the activists in the SNP who have made the many electoral successes possible.”

He said the public “had not seen the last of him”, and added:

The SNP has lost many fine parliamentarians this evening and that is a grievous blow to the SNP.

Although the SNP is on course to have the largest number of Scottish seats, its Westminster party is now completely hollowed out. Salmond’s very close ally Angus Robertson had earlier lost his nearby seat of Moray, as the Tories rode the tide of pro-Brexit and anti-independence sentiment across rural Scotland.

Updated

The Conservatives have retained South Thanet.

Last week its candidate there, incumbent Craig Mackinlay, was charged in connection with his expenses in the 2015 election (please, no comments on this ongoing legal issue below; they will have to be removed).

The shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has just been re-elected in Holborn and St Pancras with an enormous majority of 30,509.

It’s not quite as large as Corbyn’s majority, but with 41,343 votes Starmer just edges his party leader on the overall vote tally.

Updated

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron at the declaration in Westmorland and Lonsdale
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron at the declaration in Westmorland and Lonsdale – with his vanquished rival, Mr Fish Finger, in the background. Photograph: Dave Thompson/Getty Images

Updated

Here is the latest forecast from the BBC.

On these numbers, Jeremy Corbyn would not be able to form an administration. Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems would be on 310 votes – eight short of the Tory total. And that is not taking account of the prospect of the Northern Ireland unionists helping out the Tories.

Updated

Alex Salmond loses Gordon to Conservatives

Colin Clark takes the seat from the former SNP leader.

Clark won 21,861 to Salmond’s 19,254, a majority of 2,607.

Updated

Cabinet ministers are divided over whether Theresa May should resign, according to the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

A recount is under way in Richmond Park, where Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate, is trying to regain the seat he held until defeated by the Lib Dem Sarah Olney in the byelection last year.

Updated

In his victory speech at his count, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said he expected Boris Johnson to launch a leadership challenge immediately.

John McDonnell at the declaration in his Hayes and Harlington constituency.=
John McDonnell at the declaration in his Hayes and Harlington constituency. Photograph: James Gourley/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Labour’s Naz Shah has boosted her majority in Bradford West. In 2015, she beat George Galloway by about 11,000 votes.

This time her majority over the second-placed Conservative candidate George Grant is closer to 22,000, with Shah on 29,444 votes, and Grant on 7,542.

Updated

Here is the Press Association’s latest forecast.

Tory minister Gavin Barwell loses seat

The Conservative housing minister Gavin Barwell has lost his seat.

Labour’s Sarah Jones has taken Croydon Central with 29,873 votes to Barwell’s 24,221.

Updated

Sign up for experimental results notifications for the UK general election

Sign up for experimental results notifications for the UK general election

As the later editions of Friday’s newspapers appear, it seems Theresa May’s media supporters are turning on her:

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon has branded the election a disaster for Theresa May.

In chaotic scenes in Glasgow, she claimed the night a victory for the SNP, saying losses were inevitable given the high watermark of 2015 when it went into the election with just 11 seats.

“One of the biggest issues tonight UK-wide is the fact this is a disaster for Theresa May. She called this election ... tonight she has had an absolutely disastrous performance.

She said she was “not going to make any rash decisions at 4am in the morning”, adding that she had heard the same rumours about Alex Salmond’s seat as others.

Updated

Kate Hoey, one of the most prominent pro-leave Labour MPs, has won again in Vauxhall with a hefty majority of more than 20,000. She won with 31,522 votes, pushing her Lib Dem challenger, George Turner, into a distant second on 11,326.

Turnout was 67%.

Updated

The Conservatives have won Clacton, which, under the former MP Douglas Carswell, was Tory, then Ukip, then independent.

The Ukip vote has dropped calamitously since Carswell won it for them in 2015. He did not stand this time and Giles Watling succeeds him.

Updated

Theresa May's speech – summary and snap analysis

Theresa May sounded broken as she delivered her “victory” speech at her count. It was very short, but it provided the first clue we’ve had as to how she intends to react to tonight’s result.

Here is the key passage.

At this time, more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability. And if, as the indications have shown, and this is correct, that the Conservative party has won the most seats, and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do ...

As we ran this campaign, we set out to consider the issues that are the key priority for the British people: getting the Brexit deal right, ensuring that we both identify and show how we can address the big challenges facing our country, doing what is in the national interest. That is always what I have tried to do in my time as a member of parliament and my resolve to do that is the same this morning as it always has been.

As we look ahead and wait to see what the final results will be, I know that the country needs a period of stability. And whatever the results are the Conservative party will ensure that we fulfill our duty in ensuring that stability so that we can all, as one country, go forward together.

It was interesting that May seemed to admit there was a chance Labour could end up with more votes than the Conservatives.

By talking about a period of stability, and stressing that the Tories have won most seats, she was asserting the Conservative party’s right to try to form a minority government. (She is right; constitutionally, the serving government gets first go at trying to get a Queen’s speech through parliament.)

But what was really striking was how May pitched this in terms of what the Conservative party would do, rather than what she would do personally. There was something slightly valedictory about her reference to always trying to do what is in the national interest. There was also a curious bit at the start of the speech when she talked about looking forward to continuing to work on improving the constituency. It is likely that May has not taken any final decisions, but she sounded like someone preparing mentally to make way for a successor.

Updated

Seats so far

It’s moving fast so this will be out of date as soon as it’s posted, but a snapshot:

  • Labour 193
  • Conservatives 183
  • SNP 29
  • DUP 10
  • Lib Dems 9

Keep more up to date here:

Labour has won Canterbury, soaring up by more than 20 points on its 2015 result to score 45% of the vote to the Conservatives’ 44.7%.

On a big turnout of 72.7%, Rosie Duffield has eased out Julian Brazier, who had been MP for Canterbury since 1987.

A recount is under way for Hastings and Rye, where the home secretary, Amber Rudd, is at risk of losing her seat to Labour.

Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat
Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat. Photograph: Kevin Coombs/Reuters

Updated

Ed Davey back

The former cabinet minister Ed Davey is back for the Lib Dems in Kingston and Surbiton, with 27,810 votes, beating the Conservative James Berry.

Updated

Lots of switches in Scotland.

Labour has just won back Gordon Brown’s former seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from the SNP.

The Conservatives have taken Aberdeen South, as well as Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock from the SNP.

But the SNP held on in Perth and North Perthshire, although Pete Wishart’s majority was cut to just 21.

Labour has snatched a seat from the SNP in Glasgow on the back of a huge revival in support for the party in several seats.

There were huge roars in the Emirates Arena when 28-year-old Paul Sweeney romped over the line for Corbyn with 13,637 votes in Glasgow North East, a 232 majority over the SNP’s Anne McLaughlin.

“When I walked in here tonight, I had no expectation of this. I’m hoping this revival is not confined to Glasgow,” said Sweeney as his mother welled up beside him.

Labour’s Paul Sweeney celebrates with his mum, Anne
Labour’s Paul Sweeney celebrates with his mum, Anne. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

“We thought the majority was unassailable, but in the past few weeks there’s been a huge Corbyn lift as well as a rise in the Tory vote on the back of the unionist dynamic.”

He overturned what was believed to be the largest swing in the country in any election – 39.3% – when SNP had taken the seat.

The SNP retained all other seats but the surprise was the surge in support for Labour which came within a whisker of its rivals in three constituencies – Glasgow North, Glasgow South West and Glasgow East, where Kate Watson came in touching distance of David Linden.

Updated

Paul Nuttall loses in Boston and Skegness

The Ukip leader has failed in his attempt to win a parliamentary seat in Boston and Skegness, the area with the highest leave vote in last year’s Brexit referendum.

He came a distant third behind the Tories and Labour:

  • Matt Warman (Conservative) 27,271
  • Paul Kenny (Labour) 10,699
  • Paul Nuttall (Ukip) 3,308
  • Philip Smith (Lib Dem) 771
  • Victoria Percival (Green) 547

Updated

Tim Farron wins in Westmorland and Lonsdale

There were reports of fingernail-biting and in the end the Tories did run the Lib Dem leader close. But he lives to #libdemfightback another day. Here are the results:

  • James Airey (Con) 22,909
  • Eli Aldridge (Lab) 4,783
  • Tim Farron (Lib Dem) 23,686
  • Mr Fish Finger (Ind) 309

Updated

May says Conservatives will ensure stability

Theresa May is speaking now at the count in Maidenhead where she has just been re-elected.

She thanks the returning officer and her staff. And she thanks the police. And she thanks those who have supported her.

It is a huge honour being MP here, she says.

Looking more widely, returns are still coming in, she says.

But she says this country needs a period of stability.

If the Conservative party has won the most seats and most votes, it will be incumbent on it to ensure that stability.

She says she set out her priorities: getting the Brexit deal right, doing what is best for the country.

She says he resolve is the same as before.

The country needs a period of stability, she says.

And that’s it.

Daniel Zeichner has won Cambridge for Labour by a massively increased margin – up from just 599 to more than 12,000. In his victory speech, he said the media would be surprised to discover that “much of the country has turned out to be much more progressive than they could have imagined”.

“Our country has been transformed tonight by a vote for hope and for optimism,” he said. He thanked students in the city “some of whom I fear took time off from their finals to campaign”. He said younger voters were much more engaged here than ever before.

“Cambridge is a young city. We believe that’s the section of population that didn’t vote before – that generation is feeling squeezed. I think that will be a story nationwide,” he said. “I was hearing this morning that there were many more younger people voting. We saw students from Anglia Ruskin voting in bigger numbers.”

Daniel Zeichner has held his seat
Daniel Zeichner has comfortably held his seat. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer

Zeichner, who is Corbyn’s shadow transport spokesman, said the issue of Brexit had largely evaporated from doorstep conversations by the end of the campaign. “There was much more about school funding. It was as if the protest vote on Brexit had been expressed in the local elections, and things moved on,” he said.

Outside in the streets outside the Guildhall, in Cambridge’s Market Square, young, drunken voices were audible singing a chorus of “Jeremy, Jeremy;

Updated

Despite reports that Jon Cruddas had lost his seat in Dagenham & Rainham to the Conservatives, Labour has held on there.

The Greens’ attempt to win Bristol West from Labour has not worked.

Thangam Debbonaire has retained her seat, with 47,213 votes.

The Green candidate, Molly Scott Cato, came third with 9,216, a dash behind Conservative Annabel Tall on 9,877.

Updated

After winning his seat by a vast margin, Jeremy Corbyn said Theresa May should step down. He said: “The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate. Well the mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough for her to go actually.”

He added:

This election was called for the prime minister to gain a larger majority in order to assert her authority. The election campaign has gone on for the past six weeks – I’ve travelled the whole country. I’ve spoken at events and rallies all over the country.

And you know what? Politics has changed. Politics isn’t going back into the box where it was before. What’s happened is, people have said they’ve had quite enough of austerity politics, they’ve had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, under-funding our health service, under-funding our schools, our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society.

And I’m very, very proud of the campaign that my party has run, our manifesto, for the many, not the few. And I’m very proud of the results that are coming in all over the country tonight of people voting for hope for the future, and turning their backs on austerity.

Theresa May re-elected in Maidenhead

Some consolation for the prime minister: she has won her own seat.

  • Gerard Batten, Ukip, 871
  • Lord Buckethead, 249
  • Tony Hill, Lib Dems, 6,540
  • Howling Laud Hope, Monster Raving Loony party, 119
  • Andrew Knight, Animal Welfare party, 282
  • Theresa May, Conservatives, 37,718.
  • Pat McDonald, Labour, 11,261.

Updated

And Labour takes back Cardiff North.

When Jeremy Corbyn visited here at the start of the campaign and held a rally on the common there was concern among many Welsh Labour stalwarts that he was going to lead the party to bitter defeat.

The body language between Corbyn and the Welsh first minister and Welsh Labour leader, Carwyn Jones, was awkward, to say the least. But the enthusiasm from the mainly young crowd was striking.

This used to be the seat of Julie Morgan, the wife of the late Rhodri Morgan, Jones’s predecessor as Labour leader in Wales, who died during the campaign.

The victory by Anna McMorrin here will be celebrated long and hard.

Corbyn says May should go because she has lost seats, lost votes and lost confidence

This is what Jeremy Corbyn said about Theresa May.

The prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate. Well the mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence. I would have thought that is enough for her to go actually ...

Updated

The Democratic Unionists have successfully defended their seat in East Belfast. Gavin Robinson romped home with 23,917 votes, 8,474 ahead of his nearest rival, the cross community Alliance party’s Naomi Long.

Despite Long playing the pro-EU remain card in this constituency it failed to dislodge Robinson even in middle-class ends of the constituency. His majority is up by 2,597 from the last general election. Alliance’s anti-Brexit strategy appears to have seriously backfired.

The East Belfast result underlines the DUP surge. We are now almost exclusively in two-party land in Northern Ireland with the DUP likely to win 10 parliamentary seats while Sinn Féin takes seven, leaving the only other remaining seat in the region in the hands of the independent unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon.

The DUP have also just defended North Belfast with Nigel Dodds gaining 21,240 against Sinn Féin’s John Finucane, who ran the sole unionist candidate close with 19,159 votes.

Corbyn says May should resign

Jeremy Corbyn called on Theresa May to resign.

(The Sky coverage cut away just before he got to this bit in his speech.)

Updated

The SNP has retained Glasgow East with the election of the newcomer David Linden, but Labour exceeded its own expectations as it came a close second.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought that one day I would be elected to the Houses of Parliament,” said Linden to an ecstatic reception in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

Labour’s Kate Watson, also a first-timer, made a massive dent in the SNP vote helping to slash its 10,387 majority slashed to just 75.

The 20-year-old Tory candidate Thomas Kerr, who only weeks ago was elected a local councillor, also made big gains for the Conservatives, tripling their vote.

Corbyn says politics has changed and people have had enough of austerity

Jeremy Corbyn has just been re-elected in Islington.

He starts his speech by thanking the police for their work, especially last weekend. That shows the importance of having a properly funded police force.

He says it is a great honour to be elected to represent Islington again. He says listening to what people want is an important part of representing them.

He says the turnout in Islington is the highest since 1951, and he has got the highest majority ever in the borough.

Theresa May called the election to assert her authority, he says.

And politics has changed. It is not going back in its box. People have had quite enough, he says.

He says he is very proud of the campaign he has run, and the Labour manifesto. People are turning their back on austerity.

Updated

The Lib Dem fightback in south-west England has shown a glimmer: they’ve just taken back Bath from the Conservatives.

Wera Hobhouse has defeated Ben Howlett with a big swing:

Labour has taken back the UK’s most marginal seat – Gower in south Wales. The Tories won the seat with a majority of just 27 in 2015. Before that it had been a Labour seat since 1906.

This time Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi won with 3,269 votes.

The Conservative Guto Bebb, who held on to the seat of Aberconwy in the north, albeit with a much reduced majority, said he had not expected losses for the Tories in Wales.

He said it was too soon to think of Theresa May’s position: “I think something complex and interesting has happened. I think this has been building over the past four or five weeks. I think something more fundamental is going on.”

The Conservative Brexit minister David Jones retained Clwyd West in north Wales – but his majority was cut in half.

Danczuk loses deposit in Rochdale, as Labour holds Bury South

The Conservatives have failed to snatch Bury South from Labour, despite reporting a strong swing away from Labour in Jewish areas of the north Manchester seat. In some wards with a large orthodox population the Tories claimed to have won 80% of the vote, thanks to a widespread dislike of Jeremy Corbyn among that community.

Yet Labour’s Ivan Lewis, a former frontbencher who has represented the seat since 1997, won a 5,965 majority, increasing his vote to 27,165 – 7,000 more than he polled in 2015. His Conservative challenger, Robert Largan, won 21,200, an increase of almost 4,000 votes on the last general election.

In his victory speech Lewis called his win “a triumph of hope over fear” and said he had won because young people “came out in their droves” to vote for a positive future.

Ukip’s vote fell sharply in Bury South, down to 1,316 from 6,299 in 2015.

Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, the trouble magnet that is Simon Danczuk has had a terrible night, losing his deposit in Rochdale. He went into the contest with a 12,442 majority, but after being barred from standing for the Labour party following various grubby scandals decided to chance his arm as an independent. It didn’t work: the veteran politician Tony Lloyd (who gave up his Manchester Central seat in 2012 to become Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner) won 29,035 votes to Danczuk’s 883, giving Labour a 14,819 majority. The Conservatives were second, on 14,216.

Jeremy Corbyn re-elected in Islington North

Islington North now and Jeremy Corbyn has, to nobody’s surprise, been re-elected.

Here are the key numbers:

  • Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, 40,086
  • Toby Clarke, Conservative, 6,871
  • Keith Angus, Lib Dems, 4,946
  • Caroline Russell, Green, 2,229

The Monster Raving Loony party got 106 votes.

Labour wins Ipswich from Conservatives

Sandy Martin has beaten Ben Gummer by 24,224 to 23,393.

Gummer is a key May confidante and was heavily involved in the Conservative manifesto.

Labour takes Glasgow North East from the SNP

The SNP’s losses continue. Anne McLaughlin has been defeated by Labour’s Paul Sweeney.

Updated

Theresa May and her husband, Philip, arrive at the Magnet leisure centre in Maidenhead for the count
Theresa May and her husband, Philip, arrive at the Magnet leisure centre in Maidenhead for the count. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Vince Cable retakes Twickenham

Clegg is out but Cable is back: he’s won back his old seat from the Conservatives.

  • Vince Cable, Lib Dems, 34,969.
  • Tania Mathias, Conservatives, 25,207.
  • Katherine Dunne, Labour, 6,114.

Updated

Johnson suggests Tories must do more to listen to people's concerns

Boris Johnson has just held his seat in Uxbridge and Ruislip South.

He thanks the police, and pays tribute to everyone in London who has got on with the democratic process after the terror attacks.

It is early to comment on the results, he says, but it is clear that the Tories have to listen to people’s concerns.

It is early to comment on the events unfolding tonight in this general election, but one thing is absolutely clear, I think, to all of us who are being elected as MPs tonight across our fantastic country, and that is we’ve got to listen to our constituents and their concerns.

He says he will rededicate himself to looking after the people.

And that’s it. It was a very perfunctory speech, although in the line about “listening” to concerns, there was, perhaps, a hint of a suggestion that the Conservatives need to do more to address the concerns of people about austerity.

Updated

Angus Robertson’s loss of Moray to the Conservatives is the biggest electoral shock suffered by the SNP in decades, and is tied directly to the area’s very strong pro-Brexit and anti-independence sentiment.

The party’s Westminster leader was the most powerful figure in the party behind Nicola Sturgeon, and had been seen as one of the most effective opposition MPs in the Commons, consistently outperforming Jeremy Corbyn during prime minister’s questions.

A member of the intelligence and security committee, Robertson had long been one of the party’s most acute political strategists and was a very close ally of the former SNP leader Alex Salmond. Robertson famously orchestrated the SNP’s move to support Nato membership as it attempted to take a more centrist stance in advance of the 2014 independence referendum.

Moray came closest of any part of Scotland to backing leave in the EU referendum, with remain winning by just 122 votes. The seat is next to Scotland’s largest fishing ports, home to highly vocal anti-EU trawlermen. It also voted 58% in favour of remaining in the UK in the 2014 referendum.

His defeat there implies the Scottish Tories are likely to have a very good night.

Updated

Labour is conceding defeat in Walsall North, my colleague John Harris reports. David Winnick had been MP there since 1979.

Nick Clegg loses in Sheffield Hallam

The former Liberal Democrat leader is out: losing by 19,756 to Labour’s Jared O’Mara on 21,881.

Updated

Tories win East Renfrewshire from SNP

In East Renfrewshire, the Conservatives’ Paul Masterson, with 21,496 votes, has ousted the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald on 16,784.

Blair McDougall, for Labour, came third with 14,346.

That’s a surge for the Scottish Conservatives of 18 points.

Sky News has produced its own forecast for the final results. (The broadcasters share the exit poll, but after that, as the results come in, they produce their own analysis.)

They expect the Tories to get between 308 and 328 seats. Their central forecast is 318, which is four up on the exit poll, but four below the BBC’s forecast. (See 2.29pm.)

A significant result from Bridgend in south Wales. Theresa May made what was seen as a provocative visit to the town at the very start of the election campaign, and the assembly seat of Bridgend is held by the Welsh Labour leader and first minister, Carwyn Jones. Madeleine Moon held the seat for Labour, increasing her share of the vote from 37% to 51%.

A Labour source said: “A few weeks ago, the Tories were arrogantly briefing that they would wipe Labour out in Wales at this election, and that anything less than a majority of seats would be a disappointment. The Tory campaign in Wales has since imploded.”

There were conciliatory words from Labour’s Owen Smith, who stood against Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership – and held on to his Pontypridd seat comfortably.

“He’s definitely got something,” he told the BBC. “He beat me fair and square and he’s done very well in this election. He’s to be congratulated for that.”

Asked if he would hug Corbyn, he replied: “For sure. He may not want to hug me but I would hug him.”

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, told the BBC that it was mistake for the Conservatives to choose a remain politician to oversee Brexit. He said Theresa May had now lost her credibility.

On ITV he went even further:

He also said he thought that a second referendum on Brexit was now a real possibility – and that that would bring him back into frontline politics.

Farage paid tribute to Labour. He said Jeremy Corbyn was a good campaigner, and that his party had managed to win over remainers in places such as London and leave supporters in the north.

Updated

The exit poll says yes:

Labour’s Daniel Zeichner looks set to hold Cambridge, the seat that he narrowly won from the Lib Dems in 2015. This is a big blow for the Lib Dems, who needed just a 0.58% swing to win the seat back, and who believed that the 74% remain vote in Cambridge in last year’s referendum would make it an easy victory.

In the end Europe wasn’t the issue that swung it here – there was much more interest in education and the NHS. There was a 10% jump in turnout , up to 71.4% – higher than it has been since 1997. The Labour team says the rise is down to more young voters being engaged.

Northern Ireland’s longest-serving MP has been returned again, with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson holding Lagan Valley.

Donaldson secured 26,762 votes, an increase of more than 7,000 from the 2015 general election.

His nearest competitor, the Ulster Unionist Robbie Butler, received 7,533 votes.

Updated

A telling observation from the Press Association’s Scotland political editor:

The Labour party has spent the past six weeks fearing the worst in Hartlepool. With dire predictions of a Tory landslide, many felt this coastal town could be the first in the north-east to fall like dominoes to the Conservatives.

In the end, it wasn’t even close. Labour beat the Conservatives by 6,500 votes – double the number that separated Labour from Ukip two years ago – and Hartlepool stuck to its 53-year tradition of sending a Labour MP to Westminster.

What happened? Most Labour people believe a surge of young and first-time voters turned out in large numbers to back Jeremy Corbyn, who does not typically go down well with older, “traditional” Labour voters in towns such as Hartlepool. And Brexit, an issue the Tories hoped would swing the seat in their direction, hardly featured at all in voters’ minds.

Ukip got whacked – 4,801 votes down from 11,052 – and the party will surely expect to get another battering in the council elections next time around.

In his victory speech, Labour’s Mike Hill – a long-serving Unison representative – said he had won by fighting a “positive campaign celebrating the aspirations of the people of our town”.

He said:

Hartlepool is going places, it really is. Labour will rebuild our communities and I will put this town on the map.

Updated

BBC revises exit poll, forecasting Tories to get 322 seats

The BBC has now updated its exit poll, and converted it into a forecast.

Here are the key figures:

Conservatives: 322 (up eight on the figure in the 10pm exit poll)

Labour: 261 (down five)

If this is accurate, the Tories would be just four seats short of a majority.

That means, with the support of Northern Ireland unionists, they could expect to pass a budget and a Queen’s speech, and outvote Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems on key legislation.

SNP loses East Dunbartonshire to Lib Dems

Jo Swinson returns for the Liberal Democrats, taking back her old seat from the SNP’s John Nicolson.

The Conservatives have lost control of Bury North, with Labour’s James Frith beating the incumbent, David Nuttall, by 4,375 votes.

It was the 10th most marginal seat following the 2015 general election, when Nuttall beat Frith by just 378 on a recount. Ukip stood aside to give Nuttall, a foxhunt-supporting Brexiter, a clear run, but he was no match for the army of young Labour campaigners who flooded the seat from the student-heavy areas of south Manchester.

Labour ran a local campaign, lambasting the Conservatives for trying to close two NHS walk-in centres, and for cutting school budgets.

Frith, a 40-year-old father of three with another baby on the way, runs his own social enterprise, working with young people.

Bury North is a bellwether seat: it went Labour in 1997 in the Tony Blair landslide, and then Tory again with David Cameron’s win in 2010.

In his victory speech a visibly shell-shocked Frith castigated Tory cuts, saying “economics is about humanity as well as balancing the books”.

A result in Bury South is imminent, with Labour’s Ivan Lewis expected to keep the seat he has occupied since 1997.

Updated

SNP loses Midlothian to Labour

Labour has taken Midlothian from the SNP. Owen Thompson has lost to Danielle Rowley on a swing of 11%.

Tories win Ochil and South Perthshire from SNP

Luke Graham has taken it from Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (who herself won the seat from Labour in 2015), with the Conservatives up 21 points – a 16% swing.

Jeremy Corbyn arrives at the Sobell leisure centre in Islington for the count.

Updated

Ken Clarke has won Rushcliffe for the Conservatives for the 14th time.

Labour’s Melanie Onn has held on in Great Grimsby, a middling Tory target.

The Labour to Conservative swing was 3.1%; the Ukip vote – as is proving the pattern of the night – collapsed.

According to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, senior Tory now accept the exit poll is broadly right.

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary and now clear favourite to become next Conservative leader, has arrived at his count in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

Johnson speeches are not always noted for their accuracy, but his face is incapable of telling a lie. This time two years ago, when people were expecting David Cameron to lose seats, triggering a possible leadership contest that could result in Johnson replacing him, Johnson looked rather glum as he arrived at his count.

This evening, as you can see, he looked rather chipper. But he did not comment on how the election was going.

BBC
BBC Photograph: BBC

Updated

Angus Robertson loses in Moray

The SNP’s Westminster leader has lost his seat to the Conservatives’ Douglas Ross.

  • Ross 22,637
  • Robertson 18,478

That’s a swing of 14% from the SNP to the Tories.

Updated

Labour has won Bury North from the Conservatives’ David Nuttall.

James Frith won 25,683 votes to Nuttall’s 21,308.

My colleague Helen Pidd reported earlier this evening that Labour was hopeful of victory here, the 10th most marginal seat in 2015, when Nuttall had a majority of just 378.

Updated

Ealing Central and Acton was number two on the Tory target list.

It’s been retained by Labour’s Rupa Huq with an increased majority – and a significant Conservative drop:

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was on hand to welcome the capital’s newest Labour MP, Marsha de Cordova, who ousted the Tory minister Jane Ellison in Battersea:

Updated

Results are pouring in now. To try to keep up, you can see the latest declarations and check each seat on our live results tool:

Labour bling in Boston and Skegness – as worn by the party’s candidate, Paul Kenny
Labour bling in Boston and Skegness – as worn by the party’s candidate, Paul Kenny. Photograph: Paul Childs/Reuters

Watson says that, by May's own logic, Corbyn is entitled to become PM

Here are some key excerpts from Tom Watson’s speech at his count. (See 1.38pm.)

  • Watson said Jeremy Corbyn was entitled to become prime minister, according to Theresa May’s own logic.

We still don’t know what the final result of this election is. It is too early to say. But it looks likely to be a very bad result for Theresa May.

She said: ‘It is a fact that if we lose just six seats, we will lose our majority and Jeremy Corbyn will become prime minister.’ We do not yet know the final result, but we intend to hold her to that ...

The next few hours – maybe the next few days – look very uncertain. But one thing we can be sure of is that Theresa May’s authority has evaporated. She is a damaged prime minister whose reputation may never recover.

One thing is for certain: people want hope. And when they’re offered it, they vote for it.
  • Watson said May had been punished for fighting “one of the most negative, pessimistic and defensive campaigns in British history”.

I visited more than 50 constituencies during this campaign and at each one of them I pointed out that Theresa May had promised six times not to call a snap election. I said it was our job to make sure she would profoundly regret calling an election based on political opportunism. And tonight, whatever the final result is, it looks we have done that.

She thought she was going to get a Margaret Thatcher-style majority. That now seems way out of her reach.

The prime minister fought one of the most negative, pessimistic and defensive campaigns in British history and the British people delivered their verdict on that.

She boasted she was strong and stable. The public saw that she was weak and wobbly. She boasted that she was a bloody difficult woman. The public saw that she was a woman who was finding it all bloody difficult.

  • He praised the way Corbyn fought the campaign.

Labour fought a people-powered campaign, pitting passion and principle against the Tories’ corporate millions, and we did better than many said we would. People responded well to Jeremy Corbyn’s candour and energy just as they saw through Theresa May’s refusal to engage.

  • He said the voters “saw through the untruths, distortions and propaganda of the Murdoch machine who tried to frighten people into voting Tory”.

Updated

Also confirmed is that Labour has taken Stockton South from the Conservatives.

And it has gained Leeds North West from the Lib Dems’ Greg Mulholland.

Updated

Tory minister Jane Ellison loses in Battersea

Labour’s Marsha de Cordova has taken Battersea with 25,292 votes.

She has defeated the Conservative minister Jane Ellison, on 22,876, in the strongly pro-remain area. Ellison was financial secretary to the Treasury.

Updated

Count taking place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow
Count taking place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. It looks set to be a tense night for the SNP. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

This is from the Mirror’s Jack Blanchard.

We are awaiting declaration numbers but some are calling the results in Shipley:

And in Stockton South:

Updated

Watson says Boris Johnson will now be "sharpening his knife" for leadership challenge against May

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, is now being interviewed by David Dimbleby.

Dimbleby suggests it’s a bad night for people such as Watson in the Labour party who were critical of Jeremy Corbyn. Watson says it is the media that has really lost out. They demonised Corbyn.

Q: Is Corbyn now safe as leader?

Watson says he was safe anyway. He won two leadership elections.

He says he can now see “Boris Johnson sharpening his knife” for a leadership challenge against Theresa May.

Updated

The BBC has published change in share of the vote figures so far. Here they are:

Labour: up 8 points

Conservatives: up 7

Lib Dems: down 1

Ukip: down 12

Greens: down 1

Updated

In Northern Ireland it looks like the Democratic Unionist party is resurgent after the losses it took in March’s assembly election.

Jeffrey Donaldson has been re-elected in his Lagan Valley constituency with a massive 26,762 votes – an increase of nearly 8,000 on his majority in the last general election. More significantly the DUP candidate in South Belfast, Emma Pengelly, looks likely to unseat the nationalist SDLP politician Alasdair McDonnell.

The DUP may also be about to regain South Antrim from the Ulster Unionist party.

Northern Ireland politics is now a tale of two big parties. Sinn Féin is claiming victory in Foyle over the SDLP’s Mark Durkan. The mood is gloomy among SDLP activists in the Titanic centre in Belfast.

Updated

Conservatives gain Angus from SNP

The first Tory gain of the night comes in Scotland, where Kirstene Hair has defeated the SNP’s Mike Weir.

Updated

A big result in north Wales with Labour retaking the Vale of Clwyd, which the Tories won in 2015.

The former Welsh secretary Peter Hain believes Labour may also take back Gower in the south, another seat lost to the Conservatives two years ago.

Hain told the BBC: “This is a real blow to Theresa May. She may have lost ground in Wales. It’s a good night for Welsh Labour and a bad night for the Tories.”

Hain did not vote for Corbyn as Labour leader and suggested that he hadn’t been seen as prime ministerial material in Wales. But he said: “To his great credit he has energised his party.”

Hain said May had campaigned negatively while Corbyn had given hope, especially to young people, on the NHS, housing, care for the elderly.

But party sources in Cardiff are also saying that the Welsh Labour element is having an effect.

A source said:

It is still early days but it does seem that our distinctly Welsh Labour campaign, led by Carwyn Jones, has connected with voters across Wales.

We are confident that we will perform well in our current Labour seats, with gains likely in other battleground seats.

Given that at the beginning of the campaign polls put us 10 points behind and losing more than ten seats, this is a remarkable turnaround, and shows the strength of our Welsh Labour campaign – with parliamentary candidates campaigning as one with Welsh assembly colleagues.

Updated

Justine Greening holds on in Putney

Justine Greening, the Conservative education secretary, has held on in a close-fought race in Putney.

Greening won with 20,679 votes, a 44% share – but Labour surged to 19,125, a 41% share.

That’s a 10% swing from the Tories to Labour.

Updated

Labour takes Vale of Clwyd from Tories

Labour’s Chris Ruane has scooped this in Vale of Clwyd with 19,423 votes.

James Davies is second for the Conservatives on 17,044.

Labour’s vote is up 50% on last time.

Turnout was 68% and the swing from Con to Labour was 3.4%.

Updated

Here is some more news from counts around the country. These are from the Press Association.

Lib Dem sources say the party is expected to gain Dunbartonshire East from the SNP.

Scottish Labour source says the party is “confident” in Edinburgh South and East Lothian.

Labour sources say they are on track to hold Hyndburn, a Conservative target.

Labour sources claim they will hold Birmingham Northfield, a key target for the Tories.

Labour and Tory sources agree the result is too close to call in Ipswich, which is a Conservative seat targeted by Labour.

The result is too close to call at Labour’s Walsall North, Tory and Labour sources say.

A Ukip source claims that the Labour seat Dagenham and Rainham will be won by the Conservatives.

Labour sources say the party is on course to win East Lothian from the SNP.

Labour party sources say they are “very confident” of retaining Tory target Hammersmith.

Labour sources are “very confident” of taking Brighton Kemptown from the Tories.

A Labour source suggests the party is on course to take Battersea from the Tory junior minister Jane Ellison.

A DUP source says it looks “fairly safe” that the party will take South Antrim from the UUP.

SNP sources say it looks as if they have lost the seat of Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk to the Conservatives.

George Osborne, the former chancellor, says he is getting messages from his friends in the Conservatives that they are struggling in southern towns, such as Milton Keynes and Reading.

A source at the Surbiton count says the former Lib Dem minister Ed Davey is on his way back to the Commons.

Updated

A Labour supporter at the ote count for Boston and Skegness
A Labour supporter at the vote count for Boston and Skegness. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, has been re-elected MP for West Bromwich East.

He says it will be a very, very bad result for Theresa May.

He says she said it would be a fact that, if she lost six seats, Jeremy Corbyn would be prime minister.

We are going to hold her to that.

She fought a negative campaign. She said she was strong and stable, but she was weak and wobbly, he says.

Updated

Robert Halfon has held Harlow for the Conservatives:

SNP holds Paisley and Renfrewshire South

Mhairi Black, who was thought earlier this evening to be in a close-run race, holds Paisley and Renfrewshire South for the SNP on 16,964 votes.

The SNP vote was down 10 points on last time; Labour in second place was also down four points. The Conservatives were up by 12 points to third.

That’s Black’s second win and she is still only 22.

Updated

Labour holds Tooting with increased majority

Rosena Allin-Khan holds for Labour on 34,694.

Conservative Dan Watkins is second on 19,236.

The Labour majority is up by about 12,000 – striking, as this seat was thought to be a Tory target.

Updated

This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Another catchup:

The Conservatives’ Andrew Jones has held Harrogate & Knaresborough.

Derek Twigg has held Halton for Labour.

Labour has won in Leigh, the seat vacated by Andy Burnham.

And Frank Field has held Birkenhead for Labour, with 76.9% of the vote, up 9.2 points.

Jenny Chapman has won for Labour with 50.5% of the vote in Darlington, significantly up from the 42.9% she achieved in 2015. The Conservatives had been hopeful of winning the seat after the shock victory of their party’s candidate Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley mayoral election in May. But the Tory candidate, Peter Cuthbertson, has come away with 43.2% of the vote, up on the 35.2% he won last time, but miles behind Labour.

“I had no speech for this outcome,” Chapman told the audience. “What a shock.”

She continued:

What I need to say to the people of Darlington is: you have stepped up. You’ve turned out in bigger numbers than last time and you’ve shown the country that you believe in a future for Britain that is not the one that was put on offer to you by the Tory government.

That you want something different. You want opportunities, you want fair pay, you want an NHS that’s secure, you want properly resourced education and schools. That is what they want. That is why I am here and what I came into politics to be part of and I am so, so proud of my town tonight.

Updated

Plaid Cymru’s Adam Price has said he feels “conflicted”. At this stage it’s not looking as if the nationalists will add to the three Westminster seats they went into the election with. Hopes that they might have taken seats such as Ynys Môn (Anglesey) in the north-east are foundering.

“It’s clear that our vote has been squeezed,” Price said. The assembly member and former MP said at the start of the campaign there seemed to be a distrust of Corbynism in Wales but towards the end it looks as if Labour voters returned “home”.

He argued that the “turn” was the Conservative manifesto. But if it is a hung parliament, Price said three Plaid seats could make the party more influential than it had been for 40 years.

Turnout is up across the country. For example: Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney on 61%, a significant jump from 2015 when it was 53%.

Labour’s Stephen Kinnock – not a Corbyn fan – said: “I think what we’ve seen is that Theresa May has messed up big time. It’s great to see that after all of these years of people writing off social democracy in Europe and writing up obituaries for the Labour party it looks like a very positive result for us. We’ve managed to get young people to come out and vote for us and seem to be taking votes off Ukip in some areas.”

Labour holds Llanelli with 1.4% swing from Tories

Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, has held Llanelli.

Here are the results in full.

Nia Griffith (Lab) 21,568 (53.46%, +12.12%)
Stephen Davies (C) 9,544 (23.66%, +9.31%)
Mari Arthur (PC) 7,351 (18.22%, -4.73%)
Ken Rees (UKIP) 1,331 (3.30%, -12.95%)
Rory Daniels (LD) 548 (1.36%, -0.59%)
Lab maj 12,024 (29.81%)
1.40% swing C to Lab

Electorate 59,434; Turnout 40,342 (67.88%, +2.84%)

2015: Lab maj 7,095 (18.39%) - Turnout 38,574 (65.03%)
Griffith (Lab) 15,948 (41.34%); Williams (PC) 8,853 (22.95%); Rees
(UKIP) 6,269 (16.25%); Saxby (C) 5,534 (14.35%); Phillips (LD) 751
(1.95%); Smith (Green) 689 (1.79%); Caiach (PF) 407 (1.06%); Jones
(TUSC) 123 (0.32%)

A Labour supporter in a Bernie Sanders T-shirt at the Harrow count
A Labour supporter in a Bernie Sanders T-shirt at the Harrow count. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Labour takes Rutherglen & Hamilton West from SNP

Labour has taken its first Scottish seat from the SNP’s Margaret Ferrier:

It’s a 16-point drop from the SNP and a win for Labour’s Ged Killen, on 19,101 to Ferrier’s 18,836.

Updated

Labour holds Wrexham

The Tories were hoping to snaffle this one. It remains unsnaffled.

  • Ian Lucas, Labour, 17,153
  • Andrew Atkinson, Conservative, 15,321
  • Carrie Harper, Plaid Cymru, 1,753
  • Carole O’Toole, Lib Dem, 865

Turnout was 70%.

Corbyn says Labour has 'changed the face of British politics'

Jeremy Corbyn says he has changed the face of British politics. He has issued a statement saying:

I’d like to thank all our members and supporters who have worked so hard on this campaign, from door knocking to social media, and to everyone who voted for a manifesto which offers real change for our country. Whatever the final result, we have already changed the face of British politics.

Tories hold Swindon South

Robert Buckland has been returned for the Conservatives with 24,809 votes in Swindon South.

It was a close result: Labour’s Sarah Church was second on 22,347.

Are the Conservatives in trouble in Wales?

We haven’t had the declaration yet in Vale of Clwyd but some are calling it for Labour:

There’s also Labour confidence in Cardiff North:

And in Aberconwy and Gower:

How share of vote has changed in results so far

We have had 15 results in so far.

Labour has won 10 seats, and its share of the vote is up 9.2%.

The Tories have won five seats. Their share of the vote is up 7.6%.

That is equivalent to a 0.8% swing from the Tories to Labour.

The Ukip share of the vote is down 13.5%, the Greens down 2.1% and the Lib Dems are down 1%.

Updated

The Conservatives have held South Basildon and East Thurrock – up 13.6 points on 2015, with Labour second, up 7.3.

And Labour has held South Shields: there, they are up 10.2, with the Tories on second, up 9.3.

In both places, the gains have come from Ukip, which has slumped 19.8 points in South Basildon and East Thurrock; and 14.6 in South Shields.

Updated

These are from ITV’s political editor Robert Peston. It’s a very sound overview of what it could all mean.

Labour holds Darlington

Jenny Chapman holds it for Labour with 22,681 votes.

Peter Cuthbertson, for the Conservatives, is second on 19,401.

Then it’s:

  • Anne-Marie Curry, Lib Dem, 1,031
  • Kevin Brack, Ukip, 1,180
  • Matthew Snedker, Green, 524

The turnout was 68%.

Labour and the Tories were both up eight points on 2015, a swing from Labour to the Conservatives of just 0.2%.

Prof John Curtice says this was supposed to be the seat that showed Theresa May she was on her way to her landslide. It’s not panning out that way so far.

Updated

This is what is being said at counts around the country. These are all from the Press Association.

A Labour source said it is looking “OK” for the party in Hammersmith, where Andy Slaughter is hoping to retain his seat, but it is “early days”.

Conservative sources are saying the party looks likely to lose Gower to Labour.

Labour sources confident the party will retain Coventry South.

Marginal seat of Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East is too close to call, Tory and Labour sources say.

Labour sources are confident that they will retain Wirral South, which is a Conservative target.

A Labour source played down speculation that the party was on the brink of a spectacular success in Kensington, suggesting the vote share might be up but the seat was “probably not in play”.

A Labour source says Clive Lewis looks set to hold Norwich South with more than 60% of the vote, according to the party’s sampling.

Conservative sources say they are “increasingly pessimistic” they will win their target seat of Wirral West from Labour.

Labour sources are confident of holding Stockton North, which was a Conservative target.

Turnout in Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North seat was 73.6%, compared with 67.4% in 2015.

Tory party sources say Labour is ahead in City of Chester, where Labour had a majority of 93 in the 2015 election.

Conservative sources say they are on track to hold Sutton and Cheam, which was a Lib Dem target seat.

A senior local Labour source says it is “50-50” in Hastings and Rye, where the home secretary, Amber Rudd, is standing.

Labour is likely to hold Hartlepool, according to senior Labour and Conservative sources.

A Scottish Labour source says the party is now confident of gaining seats in Scotland.

Party sources say Labour is on course to hold Chorley.

The result in the Lib Dem seat of Carshalton and Wallington is too close to call, Conservative sources say.

Updated

One of the less remarked upon elements of the early results, largely because it was widely expected, is the near-disappearance of Ukip, particularly in the north-east, the area where not so long ago the party liked to think it might supplant Labour.

In the four early declarations from the region – two in Newcastle, two in and around Sunderland – the Ukip vote fell by anything from 9.4% to 14.3%. The highest proportion of the votes was 6.8% in Washington and Sunderland West, where in 2015 Ukip came second, with almost 20% of the vote.

Yes, this was anticipated – Ukip had been bumping around at about 4% or so in the national opinion polls, and a month ago was virtually wiped out in local elections. But it is nonetheless worth noting how a party that took almost 4m votes – if only one seat – in 2015 had now been so quashed.

The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, always knew it would be a difficult election in the wake of the EU referendum, and with Theresa May taking in the role of chief proponent of a tough Brexit. Ukip ended up standing candidates in fewer than 400 seats, with the party openly saying it had stood aside for many pro-Brexit MPs.

Nuttall sought to reshape the party with a controversial “integration agenda” focused on the Muslim community, including policies a ban on wearing full-face veils in public, efforts redoubled after the recent terrorist attacks. But early results indicate this has not helped.

Updated

A quick whip through some latest results:

Labour has held Middlesbrough and Workington.

The Conservatives have held Basildon & Billericay.

Updated

This is from the Times’ Sam Coates.

Osborne says election result 'completely catastrophic' for May

Here is another comment from George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, on the exit poll.

If the poll is anything like accurate, this is completely catastrophic for the Conservatives and for Theresa May.

Osborne is on ITV with Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor.

Updated

The Conservatives have held Broxbourne, with Charles Walker on 29,515 votes to Labour’s 13,723.

Labour is up 10 points there on 2015, with the Conservatives up six.

The swing from Conservative to Labour is 2.2%.

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, is on the BBC. Laura Kuenssberg asks if he can guarantee that Theresa May won’t be forced to resign if the exit poll proves correct. Fox declines to answer, saying it is too early to know what the result will be. It is time for patience, he says.

Updated

Conventional wisdom has it that Gordon Brown’s decision not to hold an early election in 2007 was a terrible mistake. After he wobbled over “the election that never was”, his reputation was badly damaged.

It might be time for a rethink. In the light of tonight’s result, Brown’s decision now doesn’t look so foolish ...

If – and it is a big if – the Democratic Unionist party ends up shoring up a minority Conservative government, it will do so with one eye on what is currently operating in the Irish Republic.

One DUP source told the Guardian tonight that the party may back a Tory administration on a “confidence and supply” basis rather than formally join any coalition or take up the odd ministry in Downing Street.

The source said the agreement would be similar to the one Ireland’s main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, adheres to at present in the Irish parliament. Fianna Fáil is not inside the Fine Gael-led minority government but props up that administration by refusing to back any no confidence votes aimed at bringing down the fragile coalition in Dublin.

Updated

The Conservatives have also retained Nuneaton, with Labour second. Both are up about six points on 2015, suggesting both benefited from the Ukip slump – Paul Nuttall’s party came third but down 11 points on last time.

Marcus Jones wins on 23,755; Labour on 19,016; Ukip 1,619.

Updated

This is from David Gauke, the chief secretary to the Treasury. He told Sky News that Theresa May was “the best qualified person” to lead the country.

If those projections are right, let’s be clear, the Conservative party would win far more seats than the Labour party. I haven’t seen a share of the vote projection, I’d assume from the numbers we have, we would also have the largest share of the vote.

So it seems pretty clear Theresa May would continue as prime minister. There would be a Conservative minority administration.

With all those caveats repeated, I think Theresa May continues to be the dominant figure in the Conservative party.

She won the party leadership with a massive majority, she is the best qualified person to lead not only the Conservative party but the country.

And I think, given we have got really important negotiations beginning in 11 days’ time, I think the responsibility of those of us who hope to be elected as Conservative MPs in the next few hours is to continue to support her to deliver the job that we have as a country – which is to get a good Brexit deal.

There is more than a touch of special pleading about this. If the exit poll turns out to be true, and May has taken a small but serviceable Tory majority and thrown it away, it is hard to see her surviving for very long.

The bookies have been sending press notices out about Boris Johnson’s odds of becoming next Tory leader. Paddy Power have him on 2/1.

Updated

The Conservatives have held Kettering, with 57.9% of the vote for Philip Hollobone.

That’s up 6.1 points on 2015 – but Labour, in second place on 36.5%, are up 11.4 points.

The Lib Dems were third.

Updated

Seats so far

Not many results in at this stage, but a brief roundup:

  • Labour 6
  • Conservatives 1
  • Everyone else 0

You can keep track of seat-by-seat live results here:

Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, told the BBC that she thought it was possible that Labour could form a government.

Updated

Labour holds Newcastle North

Catherine McKinnell holds the seat for Labour.

There’s a small – 0.6% – swing from Labour to Conservative.

Labour politicians were torn in the first hour after the exit poll about whether to believe the numbers. One candidate in a safe seat said turnout had soared in their constituency.

“People who never vote [are] coming out. If replicated means YouGov [were] right,” they said. “Just depends if nationally it translates to local – or if vote has racked up in areas like this at expense of others.”

Another Labour hopeful in a marginal Midlands seat was far more sceptical. “I don’t believe it. This does not take account of postal votes. There is no way we have gained 34 seats,” they said. “Look at the swing against in Sunderland. That could cost us seats in areas like mine.”

Two others in Labour-Tory marginals also privately voiced similar concerns.

Lib Dem sources were also playing down expectations but refused to be drawn on any speculation about coalitions. “No deals, no pacts, no coalitions,” a party spokesman said.

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

As the UK went to the polls on Thursday, Annabelle Dickson and Tom McTague, at Politico, predicted that the Labour leader might have a secret weapon. They wrote:

‘If we are to believe what the polls are telling us, the group that has swung to Labour the most is actually the group most likely to be Tory – wealthy older voters in the southeast and southwest,’ said pollster Andrew Cooper …

This demographic is likely to have children or grandchildren who are hoping to go to university, making Labour’s promise to scrap tuition fees particularly attractive. They are also likely to have parents in or approaching retirement, who face the prospect of losing a big chunk of their inheritance under Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’ plan to pay for social care from the proceeds of people’s homes when they die.

Some surprising predictions are afloat that Labour might take Kensington from the Conservatives, which would be an extraordinary upset, but possibly an endorsement of the Politico analysis.

Updated

Labour has held Newcastle-upon-Tyne East.

Nick Brown, the Labour chief whip, has been re-elected.

Labour holds Washington and Sunderland West

Sharon Hodgson wins with 24,639, a 12,940 majority over the Conservatives.

But there’s a swing to Conservatives: they’re up 10 points and Labour up six, both benefiting from the collapse of the Ukip vote.

This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

“I am told that ‘the men in grey suits are livid’,” Forsyth says.

Labour: Tories are being punished for taking British people for granted

Labour is starting to feel more confident about the exit poll. It has just put out this statement, from a spokesperson.

If this poll turns out to be anywhere near accurate, it would be an extraordinary result. Labour would have come from a long way back to dash the hopes of a Tory landslide.

There’s never been such a turnaround in a course of a campaign. It looks like the Tories have been punished for taking the British people for granted.

Labour has run a positive and honest campaign – we haven’t engaged in smears or personal attacks.

Labour’s poll standing and Jeremy Corbyn’s standing surged as people were able to hear our message, policies and Jeremy directly.

Labour poured energy and resources into voter registration – and an extra 3 million people registered in the five weeks between the election being called and the deadline.

It looks like their voice has been heard.

Updated

Speaking at the Belfast count in the city’s Titanic Quarter, Gerry Adams was asked if he would reconsider Sinn Féin’s policy of abstaining from Westminster. Ruling it out, the party president said:

No. If we are fortunate enough to have candidates elected as MPs it will be on the basis that we will not be going to take our seats in Westminster.

Adams said it was “very interesting that Jeremy Corbyn did so well [in the exit poll]” but again when asked if his party’s MPs could have an influence on Brexit negotiations if they took their seats in the Commons, Adams repeated that the policy of not attending Westminster would continue.

He probably realises that for many in the Sinn Féin grassroots, dropping their historical policy of boycotting Westminster could result in another schism in mainstream Irish republicanism. Net result: at least four seats for Corbyn will not be up for grabs.

Updated

Conservatives hold Swindon

Justin Tomlinson wins for the Conservatives with 29,431, that’s up three percentage points on 2015.

Second is Mark Dempsey for Labour on 21,096 – and that’s up 11 points.

That means a Tory share of 54%, with Labour on 38%.

That’s a better result for Labour than the exit poll predicted, says Prof John Curtice.

Updated

Sinn Féin will not take its seats in Westminster, Gerry Adams has confirmed.

Of course, that is as normal, but the question has arisen again as Corbyn was asked during in the campaign if he would ask them to take their seats in the event of a hung parliament. At the time Emily Thornberry said the question was “stupid”.

Updated

We have had three results so far – all in the north-east.

And here are the three swings:

Newcastle upon Tyne Central – 2.1% swing from Tories to Labour.

Houghton and Sunderland South – 3.5% swing from Labour to Tories.

Sunderland Central – 2.3% swing from Labour to Tories.

Updated

Local candidate Mr Fishfinger waits as ballot papers are counted in Westmorland and Lonsdale
Local candidate Mr Fish Finger waits as ballot papers are counted in Westmorland and Lonsdale. Photograph: Dave Thompson/Getty Images

Updated

Labour holds Sunderland Central

Labour has held Sunderland Central.

Here are the figures.

Julie Elliott (Lab) 25,056 (55.54%, +5.36%)
Robert Oliver (C) 15,059 (33.38%, +9.96%)
Gary Leighton (Ukip) 2,209 (4.90%, -14.25%)
Niall Hodson (LD) 1,777 (3.94%, +1.29%)
Rachel Featherstone (Green) 705 (1.56%, -2.52%)
Sean Cockburn (Ind) 305 (0.68%)
Lab maj 9,997 (22.16%)
2.30% swing Lab to C

Electorate 72,728; Turnout 45,111 (62.03%, +4.77%)

2015: Lab maj 11,179 (26.77%); Turnout 41,762 (57.26%); Elliott (Lab) 20,959 (50.19%); Townsend (C) 9,780 (23.42%); Foster (UKIP) 7,997 (19.15%); Featherstone (Green) 1,706 (4.09%); Page (LD) 1,105 (2.65%); Young (ND) 215 (0.51%)

Updated

It is, literally, a question many people are asking right now:

These are from Sky’s Jason Farrell.

I’m in a leisure centre in Darlington city centre where volunteers are still verifying the ballots. The result is expected at about 2am. The market town in County Durham has been represented by Labour since 1992, when the former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn won it from the current defence secretary Michael Fallon. Fallon himself took the seat from Labour in 1983.

Defending the constituency tonight is the shadow Europe minister, Jenny Chapman, who has been the area’s MP since 2010 and increased her majority to 3,158 (43% of the vote) in the 2015 election. The Tories won 35% and Ukip 13%.

The theory goes that if enough Ukip voters swing to the Tories, Theresa May’s party could nab the seat back after 25 years. Conservative sources have been optimistic, buoyed by the party’s shock victory in May’s Tees Valley metro mayor election – when the Conservative Ben Houchen beat Labour’s Sue Jeffrey by 51.1% to 48.9%.

Not even the Tories had expected to win the post – one of Houchen’s more outlandish pledges was to nationalise Teesside airport. But, as with other metro mayor elections, turnout in Tees Valley was low (only 21.3%), so the result will not necessarily mirror how people have voted in the general election.

Updated

This is from my colleague Jessica Elgot.

It’s going to be a long night – will that be enough caffeine to get Labour HQ through?

If you want to mug up on hung parliaments, here is just the thing – a history of hung parliaments by Michael White.

Updated

Ukip claims May has put Brexit 'in jeopardy'

Ukip are sharpening the knives for Theresa May. This is from the party’s leader, Paul Nuttall.

Updated

Commiserations to Sunderland:

Fuller results from Houghton and Sunderland South paint a more complex picture.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson held the seat with 24,665 votes; that’s 59.6%, up 4.4 points on last time.

Paul Howell for the Conservatives came second on 12,324 – up 11 points on 2015 and benefiting from Ukip falling 16 points. Its candidate, Michael Joyce, came third with 2,379 votes.

Fourth was the Lib Dem Paul Edgeworth on 908. The Green Richard Bradley on 725 was fifth; the independent Mick Watson got 479.

Turnout was 61%.

But the result is a 3.5% swing Labour to Conservative – the opposite to what the exit poll predicted.

Updated

George Osborne suggests May could have to resign

On ITV George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor, said Theresa May could have to resign if the exit poll was accurate. (See 10.02pm for an assessment of whether it is.) He said:

I worked very well with Theresa May and I think she has intelligence and integrity.

Clearly if she’s got a worse result than two years ago and is almost unable to form a government then she I doubt will survive in the long term as Conservative party leader.

But you know we are all talking about a poll. So I’m nervous of making certain statements but look, the problem she will have if it’s anything like that number, she’s got Irish unionists … that does not get you necessarily to 326 and the Liberal Democrats on 14 here ... are so unlikely to go into coalition with the Conservatives this time round, not least because they’ve made commitments to things like a second European referendum.

So I look at those numbers, I helped put together the Coalition in 2010 and you could make the numbers quite easily add up if you could get the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to come together. I look at these numbers, you can’t make them add up.

I’ve taken the quote from PoliticsHome.

Updated

Houghton and Sunderland South

Sunderland comes in second, beaten by Newcastle to be the first to declare.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson wins, unsurprisingly.

Labour holds Newcastle, with 2% swing to Labour from Tories

We are getting a result from Newcastle upon Tyne Central.

Labour’s Chi Onwurah has been re-elected.

Here are the results in full.

Chi Onwurah (Lab) 24,071 (64.89%, +9.88%)
Steve Kyte (C) 9,134 (24.62%, +5.73%)
Nick Cott (LD) 1,812 (4.88%, -1.44%)
David Muat (Ukip) 1,482 (4.00%, -10.87%)
Peter Thomson (Green) 595 (1.60%, -3.31%)
Lab maj 14,937 (40.27%)
2.07% swing C to Lab

Electorate 55,571; Turnout 37,094 (66.75%, +9.29%)

2015: Lab maj 12,673 (36.12%); Turnout 35,085 (57.46%); Onwurah (Lab) 19,301 (55.01%); Kitchen (C) 6,628 (18.89%); Thompson (UKIP) 5,214 (14.86%); Cott (LD) 2,218 (6.32%); Johnson (Green) 1,724 (4.91%)

What is significant is that there is a swing from the Conservatives to Labour.

The polls were suggesting, even in the north of England, a swing the other way.

Updated

The Cambridge vote count
The Cambridge vote count is well under way. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Guardian

Updated

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This is from Robert Harris, the writer and former political editor and columnist.

Newspaper first editions

The first editions of Friday’s newspapers are beginning to land – they’ll change significantly over the course of the night, so this might not be what you see in the morning. These versions at least will not make comfortable reading for Theresa May:

Updated

During the general election Theresa May repeatedly said that, if she lost just six seats, Jeremy Corbyn would become prime minister.

Her claim was dismissed by fact checkers (see here, for example) because losing only six seats would still leave the Conservatives, by far, the largest party.

But, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Labour sources are now suggesting May’s comment should be taken at face value.

Updated

Ballots are tallied at a counting centre in Boston, Lincolnshire
Ballots are tallied at a counting centre in Boston, Lincolnshire. Photograph: Paul Childs/Reuters

Here is some Twitter reaction to the exit poll from journalists.

From the BBC’s Nick Robinson

From Channel 4 News’s Michael Crick

From Sky’s Faisal Islam

From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes

From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush

From the Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy

From the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope

Updated

Exit poll: politicians respond

Many politicians – for varying reasons – are not yet ready to respond, publicly at least, to the exit polls. But a few are being less cautious.

Labour’s Harriet Harman:

Here’s the sole Green MP Caroline Lucas:

Ukip’s Suzanne Evans:

Updated

Fears that the hung parliament projected by the exit poll would delay Brexit negotiations sent the pound plunging in the minutes following its publication.

The pound fell as much 2% to $1.27 – the lowest level in six weeks – but then stabilised while dealers awaited the first actual results.

Jeremy Cook, the chief economist at World First, said that if the exit poll proved to be correct it could drive sterling to $1.24 – although not as low as the levels it plunged to following the Brexit vote almost a year ago.

An ETX Capital trader reacts as he watches the results come in.
An ETX Capital trader reacts as he watches the results come in. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Updated

The New Statesman’s Patrick Maguire says Sinn Féin are saying there is “not a chance” they would take their seats to prop up a minority Labour administration. (See 10.21pm.)

Updated

Caroline Lucas, the Green co-leader, has called the exit poll “remarkable” and said her party – likely to end the night with one MP, her – would back any Labour government on an informal basis.

She said:

This exit poll is remarkable. If true then the Conservatives look likely to pay the price for their reckless election gamble.

Any Green MPs elected tonight will do all they can to keep the Tories from No 10, and back a Labour-led government on a case by case basis.

She also hailed the idea of the so-called progressive alliance, saying that early projections showed that this enhanced form of tactical voting, which saw the Greens step aside in some seats, “had a truly meaningful consequence”.

Updated

In Sunderland, the unchallengeable leaders of the speedily counted ballots, things are getting going:

And in at least one of the three Sunderland seats, it appears turnout is up on 2015:

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has said that if the exit poll does prove correct then Theresa May should consider resigning. He told the BBC:

If it is right, then I think her position is becoming increasingly untenable. I tell you why – if you listen to what people are saying, Theresa May promised on seven different occasions that she wouldn’t go for a snap general election.

And she went for it on the basis that she wanted to secure a mandate that she already had. People just saw through that. They saw this as an election which was for party advantage rather than the interests of the country. And it looks as though they’ve rejected her as a result.

These are from Sir David Butler, the John Curtice of his day and the father of modern psephology. He knows as much about British elections as anyone.

The exit poll – should it prove correct – could cause some wobbles for a handful of high-profile politicians.

Under this projection, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, could be in trouble in Hastings and Rye.

And two SNP bigwigs, the Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, and the former leader Alex Salmond, could be on their way out, if predictions hold.

Updated

First it was Brexit. Then it was Trump. Now, for the third time in less than a year, the financial markets have been caught utterly by surprise. They were expecting the exit poll to show an overall majority for the Conservatives of at least 50, and perhaps 100.

The pound fell like a stone once the result of the comprehensive exit poll was announced, and with good reason. The poll got the result pretty much smack on in 2015 and if correct this time would deprive Theresa May of an overall majority.

That opens the way to a rainbow coalition that could put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street, something that has not been factored into the City’s calculations. The markets expected May to get a big overall majority that would strengthen her hands in the Brexit negotiations. May and the markets have ended up with egg on their faces.

Three things will unsettle the markets over the next few hours. Firstly, the result marks a clear repudiation of austerity. Voters have tired of cuts that resulted, among other things, in fewer police on the streets.

Secondly, there is the prospect of a Labour-led coalition pledged to borrowing an additional £250bn over the next decade. While there are many economists who would argue that borrowing for public investment makes sense when interest rates are so low, it is the sort of policy that tends to unsettle the markets.

Finally, there is the Brexit issue. In the longer term, assuming the exit poll is right, the result may lead to a softer Brexit, which is what many in the City want. But in the short term, May’s failed gamble means greater uncertainty and markets hate that. When the dust has settled, it might be a different story but for now the markets are in for a bumpy ride.

Updated

Heather Stewart and I interviewed Corbyn days ago and I asked him about sterling dropping when polls tighten. (See 10.13pm.)

He replied:

Well financial currency markets are incredibly volatile at the best of times, but if we can be seen to be getting a good deal on leaving the European Union such as market access then they will see the economic strength of this country in the future.

Updated

A ballot box is rushed into the counting centre in Sunderland
A ballot box is rushed into the counting centre in Sunderland, hoping to be first to declare. Photograph: Ed Sykes/Reuters

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has just told the BBC that he thinks Theresa May’s position will now be untenable.

If the exit poll is correct, he is probably right.

What might save her temporarily – assuming she can form a government– would be the fact the Brexit talks are due to start a week on Monday.

Updated

Exit poll suggests Tories neck and neck with 'coalition of chaos'

The exit poll puts the Tories on 314 seats.

If it is right, then Labour (266), the SNP (34) and the Lib Dems (14) would have exactly the same number of votes.

A minority Tory government could probably rely on the votes of the 10-odd unionists from Northern Ireland.

But a minority Labour-led government (or the “coalition of chaos”, as Theresa May used to call it), could rely on Plaid Cymru (3), the one Green MP and the SDLP (3 in the last parliament).

At a recent press conference Francis Elliott, the Times’ political editor, asked Jeremy Corbyn if he would take Sinn Féin’s MPs (there were four in the last parliament), if they reconsider their opposition to sitting in the House of Commons, in the event of Labour being a minority government.

Labour activists booed Elliott, and Emily Thornberry told him it was a “stupid” question.

It does not look so stupid now.

Updated

Depending on how short the Tories are of an outright majority the votes of Democratic Unionist and Ulster Unionist MPs could be crucial. The DUP could possibly return with 8 MPs and the UUP will have at least one member returned to the House of Commons.

Given their outright hostility to Jeremy Corbyn over his pro-republican stances in the past, the DUP and UUP are certain to want to back a Conservative government. Of course all this depends on the margin the Tories have to make up to get over the line.

Pound falls following exit poll

Quite a shock for sterling following the exit poll. The only market open at the moment is the 24-hour currency market where sterling has instantly fallen 1.5% to £1.28, while the pound is also down 1.2% against the euro below 1.14. Sterling is falling faster than I can type. It’s down 2%.

Jeremy Cook, the chief economist at World First, who I am sitting next to, tells me: “We’re in for a long night, Not a single result is in but at the moment we are looking at another political event undermining sterling. Currencies like governments with mandates – and doesn’t like delays to Brexit.”

pound graph

Updated

How the parties are doing compared with 2015 if the exit poll is right

Here are the exit polls results again.

Conservatives: 314

Labour: 266

SNP: 34

Lib Dems: 14

Plaid Cymru: 3

Greens: 1

Ukip: 0

Others: 18

And this is how these results would compare with 2015.

Conservatives: Down 16 on the 2015 seat result

Labour: Up 34

SNP: Down 22

Lib Dems: Up 6

Plaid Cymru: No change

Greens: No change

Updated

Can you trust exit polls?

The short answer is, yes and no.

Broadcasters have been using exit polls since at last 1974 and it is true that in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s there were were some horrific misses. Here are the figures, showing how far the gap was between the predicted majority of the winning part and the actual majority.

October 1974

ITN: Wrong by 12

BBC: Wrong by 132

1979

ITN: Wrong by 20

BBC: Wrong by 29

1983

ITN: Wrong by 28

BBC: Wrong by 2

1987

ITN: Wrong by 34

BBC: Wrong by 76

1992

ITN: Wrong by 62

BBC: Wrong by 70

1997

ITN: Wrong by 20

BBC: Wrong by 6

But in the last decade and a half the exit polls have become much more accurate.

Here are the figures for 2001.

ITN: Wrong by 8

BBC: Wrong by 10

From 2005 onwards there has been a joint exit poll, firstly commissioned for ITN and the BBC, and then, from 2010 onwards, for Sky too. Its record has been much better.

2005

Wrong by 0. It predicted a Labour majority of 66, which Labour got.

2010

Wrong by 0. It said the Tories would be 19 short of a majority, and they were.

2015

Wrong by 22. It said the Tories would be 10 seats short of a majority, but they got a majority of 12.

This chart, posted on Twitter by the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson, makes the same point.

BBC reveals the exit poll figures
BBC reveals the exit poll figures. Photograph: BBC

Updated

Exit poll suggests Britain is on course for a hung parliament

David Dimbleby is reading out the results.

Conservatives: 314

Labour: 266

SNP: 34

Lib Dems: 14

Plaid Cymru: 3

Greens: 1

Ukip: 0

Others: 18

There are 650 seats in the Commons so you need 325 to have a majority. These results suggest Britain is on course for a hung parliament.

Updated

From the Sun’s Steve Hawkes.

The BBC election programme is starting.

But David Dimbleby on the BBC, and ITV and Sky, cannot release the exit polls results until the polls have closed at 10.

(I presume he will wave the paper around first, as a tease.)

Updated

Piers Morgan is happy to tweet his prediction just before the exit poll comes out, too.

Updated

This is from the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire.

This is from ITV’s Daniel Hewitt.

More from Heather ...

... although I’m not sure what the difference is between varied and “variegated”. Maybe Damien Green was thinking of Jeremy Corbyn’s allotment.

Jeremy Corbyn campaigning in an allotment.
Jeremy Corbyn campaigning in an allotment. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

This is from the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn.

Count staff sort postal votes in Edinburgh West
Count staff sort postal votes in Edinburgh West. Photograph: Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS.com

Updated

This is from my colleague Heather Stewart.

Here’s the scene at the BBC election studio.

And ITV will be worth watching too; George Osborne is on, with Ed Balls, but they are both there as pundits, not party representatives. That means we can expect more candour from them both than usual.

Here is a fairly random selection of tweets about turnout.

At the last election turnout was 66.2%. It is increasingly important because the turnout gap between the young and the old has got much larger in recent years, and young people are much more likely to support Labour. This chart illustrates how turnout could affect the result. This is from the Press Association’s Ian Jones.

This is from the Telegraph’s Kate McCann.

This is from John Gray, a Labour councillor in London.

This is from the activist Melissa Benn.

This is from Antoinette Sandbach, the Conservative candidate for Eddisbury.

This is from Julian Knight, the Conservative candidate for Solihull.

This is from Margaret Ferrier, the SNP candidate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West.

This is from Jim McMahon, the Labour candidate for Oldham.

Updated

Here is the Guardian’s guide to when we will get results from particular constituencies.

But these timings are only estimates. Returning officers find it very hard predicting in advance how long a count will take, and the actual results could come at quite different times.

The elections analyst David Cowling thinks there are good reasons for anticipating the results coming much more quickly tonight than in the recent past. He explains why here.

8 June 2017 will mark the first general election in 25 years to be held with no other elections taking place on the same day. One consequence will be a much faster flow of individual results.

In the period beginning in 1997 and through to 2015, the early flow of general election constituency results on election night slowed to barely a trickle, mainly because during that period local elections of various sorts were held on the same day. The delay is caused by the fact that although the local elections are counted after the parliamentary constituency results are declared, the local votes have to be ‘verified’ when they arrive at the count centres on Thursday night. This ‘verification’ involves opening the ballot boxes containing local votes, checking that the number of votes in each box matches the record of the number of votes handed to voters throughout polling day; and also, checking that no parliamentary votes have found their way into ballot boxes containing local votes.

The 1992 general election was the last where only voting for Westminster took place and on election night that year, by 1am, three hours after the polls closed, 156 constituency results had been declared (24% of the total): at the 2015 general election the comparable figure was 5 results (0.8% of the total) declared by 1am.

The 7 May 2015 election night was a particularly long haul because local elections were held in nearly all of England (outside London) that same day. In 1992, 57 seats (8.8%) declared after 4am Friday morning; in 2010, the comparable figures were 333 seats (51.2%); and in 2015, 474 seats declared after 4am Friday morning – 72.9% of the total.

Preparations for the ballot count at Silksworth community centre in Sunderland
Preparations for the ballot count in Sunderland. For 25 years it has been the first count to declare. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Updated

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Here is a reminder of what the final polls from the main polling companies have been saying. I have taken it from a chart compiled by the elections analyst David Cowling.

Final polls from the main polling companies.
Final polls from the main polling companies. Photograph: David Cowling

And here is a summary from yesterday of 15 of the most compelling election result predictions produced before the polls opened. The highest prediction for a Tory majority on that list is 122, but later Ian Warren, the elections specialist who runs the Election Data consultancy, topped that with a prediction of a Conservative majority of 124.

The Spectator’s James Forsyth says the Tories he is speaking to are less optimistic tonight than they were this morning.

But Paul Goodman, the ConservativeHome editor, says Tories on the ground are more upbeat than their colleagues in HQ.

The most dramatic piece of news to come in the next few hours will be the announcement of the results of the exit poll, commissioned jointly by the BBC, ITV and Sky. It is conducted by Ipsos Mori and GfK.

If you recognise any of these people, then perhaps you participated.

Here’s a short exit poll reading list.

“You can’t afford to get excited on election night,” he says. “Engaged, yes, but I think you have to learn to be cool, calm and collected and you have to learn to destroy all your preconceptions. I may or may not be happy about the turn of events but that’s not my job. My job is to say ‘OK, what’s happened’. You’ve got to have a cool head because you have to realise what you’re doing is making very rapid judgments without sleep. Occasionally, if you say the wrong thing it’s fine, but you really don’t want to say the wrong thing a lot and you particularly don’t want to say the politically injudicious thing. To that extent at least, it’s a pretty high-wire act and therefore you’ve got to have your feet on the ground. Fortunately, I’ve got a few very good professional colleagues and I kind of bounce things off them before I say it but you do need to know the narrative of the night, you do need to know the story that’s emerging, you need to know what’s relevant to the story and what you can and cannot say to help the story along.”

Updated

An hour to go, and then the glorious process by which we settle our differences and decide our future by counting 30m-odd bits of paper, with your handwritten cross rubbing up against your neighbour’s and all counting equally (at least, up to a point) will begin. By this time tomorrow we will have a new government – although, if the polls are right, it will be the same as the old one, just with a fresh mandate.

It is an election that was called unexpectedly and that has unfolded unexpectedly. If you can remember that far back, the first two weeks were marked by enervating tedium, as Theresa May toured the country promising little more than “strong and stable” leadership, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour appeared helpless in the face of the Tory juggernaut. Then three things happened that make this election unprecedented in modern times.

1. The Conservative manifesto effectively self-destructed. May gambled that her poll lead would allow her to start what you might call a “brave and honest” conversation about wealthy pensioners paying more for their social care, but her proposals horrified some of her supporters and within days she had to rewrite a key manifesto commitment – something no one can recall happening on this scale in a modern election. (Note to future leaders: general elections are not always the best time for “brave and honest” conversations with voters.)

2. Corbyn staged a remarkable fightback. There was much mockery, given his dire ratings at the time, when the party said it would put him at the heart of its campaign, but he showed himself to be an authentic and passionate campaigner (unlike May), and Labour’s spend-more manifesto proved a hit, particularly with the young. As a result Labour’s poll ratings rose more during the campaign than any other opposition party’s have in modern times. Corbyn’s personal ratings rose too, although on most measures he is still well behind May.

Guardian poll tracker.
Guardian poll tracker. Photograph: Guardian

3. Britain was hit by two horrific terror attacks during the campaign. Normal campaigning was interrupted by both attacks. Quite what impact this will have on voting is still unclear; May has a big lead over Corbyn on security, but in recent days she has found it awkward taking questions about the police cuts that happened while she was home secretary. But no election in the UK has been disrupted by terrorism to such an extent, and without these incidents the campaign would have been quite different.

When May called the election, some of the polling suggested she was on course for a landslide even bigger than Margaret Thatcher’s. But that enormous lead has been squandered and so she goes into election night in some respects a diminished figure, although still the clear favourite to win. Corbyn emerges with his reputation enhanced, although for some voters his negatives remain compelling.

If you want to catch up with what happened earlier, here is the live blog we have been running during the day.

We’ll now cover the last hour of voting. At 10pm the broadcasters will announce the details of their exit poll. We’ll then cover the responses to that, the results as they come in, and all the reaction and analysis as the ballot papers get counted and the composition of the new Commons and the new government emerges overnight.

Updated

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