Sinn Féin has lost Fermanagh and South Tyrone to the Ulster Unionists, in one of the biggest upsets of the general election in Northern Ireland.
All 18 seats have now been declared with eight DUP, four Sinn Féin, three SDLP, two Ulster Unionists and one independent elected.
The Tories are set to remain in power as the Scottish National Party sweep the board north of the English border on a deeply disappointing night for Labour and a devastating one for the Lib Dems.
A BBC/Sky/ITN exit poll predicted the Tories would be the largest power albeit short of an actual majority. The exit poll was greeted with shock as other polls had put Labour and the Conservatives neck and neck, but if anything the exit poll understated the Tory performance.
Meanwhile, the SNP look set to win every seat in Scotland bar three – one each for Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems.
Labour failed to make an impression on a host of Tory-held marginals they had to win to have any chance of getting Ed Miliband into Downing Street. In target constituencies like Nuneaton and Battersea the vote actually swung from Labour to the Tories.
Labour lost high-profile figures in Scotland, including its leader there Jim Murphy and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander.
Employment minister Esthey McVey is the biggest loss for the Tories.
But the Lib Dems face an almost total wipeout, with business secretary Vince Cable, energy secretary Ed Davey, business minister Jo Swinson, former leader Charles Kennedy and long-time MP Simon Hughes all losing their seats.
In his victory speech in Sheffield Hallam, where Labour cut his majority to fewer than 3,000, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said it had been a “cruel and punishing” night for his party, and hinted that he would stand down as leader today.
Now get a shower.
We now hand over to our daytime election team.
Thanks for the tay.
A Labour party source has meanwhile said ED Miliband must resign this morning as well.
Cameron on track to remain prime minister after electoral triumph (Guardian)
General Election: What You Need To Know (Independent.co.uk)
Crazy result
All those queues at the polling stations
Going around Twitland
Were actually Tory voters
So Yes people
Don’t believe a word from the polls
The return of Mr. Slimey, thanks be to God!
@ Frilly- my guess is the polls weren’t that far out – its just the weirdness of the “first past the post” system.
“Labour doomed themselves with their radical plans to “shake up” aka cut the disability allowances and money given to mental health organisations.
They were the ones made massive cuts to the defence budget the last time they were in.
They never even paid lip service to listening to Scotland.
So that is one fifth of the country, the armed forces, the health profession and families with disabled dependants p1ssed with them and people are surprised they were bounced out?
But the Tories have slashed services too and will continue to do so (suggestions earlier in the week next cuts will involve paid maternity leave and stopping housing benefit to under 25s). For employment statistic purposes they count 16hr a week contracts as full time and zero hour contracts as ‘real’ jobs too.
If you look at the results map the labour seats seem only in urban centres and the rest is blue.
For me Labour offered no meaningful opposition, they had no big policies to differ themselves from Tories and so I think a lot of people erred on side of the devil you know.
But I’m sure The City is happy; at least until an in/out vote on Europe
But the Tories do what they say on the ti, people vote for them for lower taxes and the subsequent raiding of the welfare state / exclusive focus on south-east England – Labour talk up the left, but then support ape the Tories on policy so they don’t appear ‘too radical’.
Except for when they said they wouldn’t touch the NHS….
Lib Dems destroyed. The only plus side of going into coalition as the smaller party is securing your pension.
Great to see UKIP and Sinn Fein do so poorly.
4 SF seats. All the bluster, posturing, legendary political machine with one of the biggest war chests (cash ) on this island, they have 4 seats.
Yes, 4 to many.
How many seats do you expect SF to win? You are aware that they are an ethno-regionalist political party that operate within a very small region of the UK during a UK general election (a region that votes along ‘ethnic’ lines & that contains another irredentist nationalist party). They lost one seat due to a Unionist electoral pact to only stand one candidate in the constituency. SF will never win East Belfast or Brighton Pavillion.
Regarding the Yes side here & dangers in assuming strength of a position from polling data, the increasing sanctimony and self-righteousness being demonstrated by Yes campaign is going to backfire – perhaps not to a No outcome, but most certainly will propel a big swathe of the ‘Do I really oppose it enough to go out and say no?’ thinkers to make the time to get to a voting booth.
Those that do carry on with a bit of “sanctimony and self-righteousness” I am willing to give them plenty of rope.
Of those persons engaged in such “sanctimony and self-righteousness” behaviour, and who are LGBT, I think they deserve to blow off some steam, and I’d rather they get it out now during the campaign, rather than continue harping on about it after.
Some who wish to indulge that, and have their moment, have had to grow up their entire lives having the reverse of their “sanctimony and self-righteousness” thrown in their faces.
Sure, you cannot blame them. I won’t anyway. And I don’t believe the polls will either. My tuppence.
Spare a thought for Paddy Ashdown’s hat this morning.
With judicious choice of hat and chef he’ll be fine…
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog_Eats_His_Shoe
I’ll eat my underpants if that link works
Tory win
Miliband quits
Murdering SF down 20%
What an amazing night ;-)
NI will be sliding backwards if the DUP has any say in government.
Hey Joan & Alan & Co.
See what happened the Lib Dems?
That’s your party very soon, that is. You can thank yourselves later.
You can leave ( paddy ash downs) hat on
The gold plated pensions will be of some comfort
The graph is from last night’s BBC exit poll – it’s not the results tally – from about 10pm – so no-one would have been sleeping(!)
I know you’re not in the business of offering political analysis, but really BS, you could do better than that.