The Tories have gained their first Labour seat in the general election after Blyth Valley - Labour since 1950 - fell to the Tories.
Tory NHS nursing worker Ian Levy sparked cheers of delight from Conservative activists as he triumphed in only the third seat declared of the night, after 92 minutes.
He said it was a "massive, massive honour" as he ousted Labour's Susan Dungworth in the former mining community by 17,440 votes to 16,728.
The result crushed a 7,915 Labour majority in a seat that was far down the list of Tory targets.
In his victory speech Mr Levy said: "I would like to thank Boris. I'm going to be on that train on Monday going to London. We're going to get Brexit done."
It came after a bombshell exit poll predicted the Conservatives have won a 368 seats in Parliament - the biggest Tory majority since Margaret Thatcher's in 1987.
The pound spiked against the Euro as it predicted Labour won just 191 seats - worse than Michael Foot's performance in 1983 and the worst since 1935.
The SNP were tipped to win 55 seats, Lib Dems 13 seats, Plaid Cymru 3, Greens one seat and others 19.
Early results looked grim for Labour in the north east as Bridget Phillipson held Houghton and Sunderland South but with her vote share down by 19 points.
Her majority was cut from to just 12,341 to just 3,115.
Chi Onwurah's majority over the Tories in Newcastle Central was also cut from 14,937 to 12,278 - a drop in vote share of 7 points.
Full result in Blyth Valley
Ian Levy (C) 17,440 (42.68%, +5.37%)
Susan Dungworth (Lab Co-op) 16,728 (40.94%, -15.00%)
Mark Peart (Brexit) 3,394 (8.31%)
Thom Chapman (LD) 2,151 (5.26%, +0.68%)
Dawn Furness (Green) 1,146 (2.80%, +0.64%)
