Boris Johnson is on course to secure a Tory majority in the Commons, according to the exit poll for the General Election.

  • Tories - 368
  • Labour - 191
  • SNP - 55
  • Lib Dems - 13
  • Others - 22

The evidence of the swing to the Conservatives could be seen in the second seat to be declared with the party taking Blyth Valley from Labour for the first time in 69 years.

12.18am

Jon Lansman, the founder of Labour campaign group Momentum, said the decision about whether the Labour Party should replace Jeremy Corbyn as party leader doesn’t need to be taken “until the New Year”.

Mr Lansam said that Mr Corbyn has “achieved a great deal” on issues such as austerity, and that the election was “incredibly polarised because of Brexit”.

Speaking on ITV, Mr Lansam said: “I think maybe the manifesto was too long and too detailed, it’s a programme actually not for a government, but for 10 years. I think it’s a good programme, but maybe we need to have shorter, snappier manifestos.”

Mr Lansman continued: “The result is a disastrous result because millions of people in this country who are suffering from the affects of austerity are going to suffer badly.”

On whether Mr Corbyn should be replaced, he added: “I think Jeremy has to make those decisions himself. You know Jeremy has always been a reluctant leader, I don’t think he’ll overstay his welcome.

“But I think he should be able to make decisions. And I don’t think we should rush into these things. Christmas is not far away, I don’t think decisions really need to be taken about this until the New Year.”

12.15am

The joint-leader of East Dunbartonshire council has said “it is on a knife edge” whether Liberal Dem leader Jo Swinson will lose her seat to the SNP.

Andrew Polson, a Conservative councillor, said: “My gut reaction is that she might scrape through, but it’s on a knife edge.”

Mr Polson revealed that – according to his figures – Jo Swinson is polling 44% in his Bearsden South ward, which he described “strong Tory” area.

“You would really expect her to be polling 50%,” he said.

“She’s holding up in Bearsden, but the SNP have increased their vote. They’re polling 23% there, when you’d be expecting around 15%, so it’s on a knife edge.”

12.09am

General Election 2019
One of Boris Johnson’s more colourful competitors in his Uxbridge and Ruislip South seat – Count Binface – waits for the result (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

12.05am

Former Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames said the Tories winning in former Labour heartlands could “build a new Conservative majority across Britain for a generation”.

Sir Nicholas, the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, lost the Tory whip earlier this year for supporting efforts to stop a no-deal Brexit but later had it restored, however, he is not standing in the General Election.

Speaking to BBC News, he said: “I don’t think the Prime Minister is solely a Brexit prime minister, I think he is a proper one-nation Tory.

“But it’s quite clear he persuaded – in a lot of seats in the North and the Midlands, I think, and elsewhere – that the Labour Party, the Corbyn Labour Party, was not the Labour Party they knew.”

He added: “This is a big change, it is a political watershed and it will be a different party but it is no bad thing for being that.

“This could build a new Conservative majority across Britain for another generation.”

12.03am

General Election 2019
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for the Conservatives as counting continues (Peter Byrne/PA)

11.58pm

Counting under way in Boris Johnson’s constituency

11.50pm

11.42pm

Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom – who just a few years ago came close to leading the Tory party herself – has claimed a little credit for that surprise Blyth Valley result.

Blyth Valley was ranked 85th on a list of Labour seats most vulnerable to the Tories.

11.38pm

Although some seats have already declared, it could still be a long night in some counting centres.

11.33pm

Counting under way in Esher and Walton where Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been fighting to hold his seat.

11.31pm

RESULT: Following close behind in the race to be the first seat counted, Blyth Valley has changed from Labour to the Conservatives, with a majority of 712. This is a big shock as the seat had been held by Labour since 1950.

11.29pm

RESULT: Labour have held Newcastle Central, the first result to be announced in the 2019 General Election.

11.25pm

General Election 2019
Millions of ballot papers will be verified and counted throughout the night (Joe Giddens/PA)

11.15pm

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said he will not be “either as a temporary or a permanent” leader of the Labour Party if Jeremy Corbyn stands down.

Speaking on Sky News, he said: “The poll itself, I think it looks as though it’s Brexit-dominated, a lot of this I think was Brexit fatigue, people just wanted it over and done with and it put Labour in a very difficult position.”

He added that this was because some Labour constituencies voted to leave the European Union.

“It was always going to be difficult for us to straddle those positions,” he said, adding: “But also, it is about installing what is generally seen as the most right-wing extreme cabinet that we’ve seen in our history, and it means therefore, if they have a large majority like this, they will have, therefore, the opportunity to introduce some quite reactionary policies.

“If the electorate have decided this way, that’s democracy, you have to respect it. But I don’t think it will bring the country together, I think it will be divided still,” he said.

11.10pm

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said his decision to stand down in Tory-held seats prevented a hung parliament.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Farage said: “I can tell you that if we had stood in every seat in the country it would have been a hung parliament.

“That would have been a disaster … I think the Liberal Democrats would have won an awful lot of seats.”

On Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal, Mr Farage said: “If the current treaty on the table with the political declaration passes unamended I can’t bring myself to support it.

“Look, I’ve spent my political career trying to get Brexit, alright. We’re going to get Brexit. Are we going to get the right one? Maybe not.”

11.05pm

General Election 2019
Ballot boxes arrive at the Guildhall in Hull for counting (Danny Lawson/PA)

11pm

Health Secretary Matt Hancock – who featured prominently in the closing days of the campaign when he was dispatched to Leeds General Infirmary over the child photographed lying on a ward floor – has added his thanks to that from the PM.

10.55pm

Ex-Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson told ITV News it is too early to write off seats held by Scottish Tory MPs.

She added: “I think that before we start writing off half of the Scottish seats we probably want to see just how close this is.”

She added: “Either way these seats are so, so tight.”

10.50pm

Understandable disappointment from Labour candidates as they react to the exit poll predictions:

Labour’s Don Valley candidate Caroline Flint tweeted: “We’re going to hear the Corbynistas blaming it on Brexit and the Labour Uber Remainers blaming Corbyn. Both are to blame for what looks like a terrible night for Labour. Both have taking for granted Labour’s heartlands. Sorry we couldn’t give you a Labour Party you could trust.”

10.40pm

Former Labour spin doctor for Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell tweeted: “Dreadful result if true but in some ways all too predictable. The country decided some time ago Jeremy Corbyn not going to be PM and Boris Johnson made a promise on Brexit which enough people were prepared to believe.

“No doubt that he has a mandate for his withdrawal agreement now. The hard stuff then starts. But meanwhile, Labour has to face some hard truths – this was not just about Corbyn but the broader worldview and an economic plan that so many people did not believe.”

Brexit Party MEP and Westminster candidate Richard Tice, who set up the pro-Brexit campaign groups Leave Means Leave, tweeted:

10.35pm

The first ballot box has arrived for counting in Peterborough:

10.30pm

The Prime Minister has tweeted his thanks

10.28pm

Further Labour reaction from former Blair cabinet member Andrew Adonis, who is now in the Lords:

And from high-profile Labour candidate Jess Phillips:

10.25pm

Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly told Sky News: “I’ve always felt polls should be taken with a degree of caution.”

He added: “Maths is maths, but if, and it’s a big if, the numbers play out as per that exit poll, then yes, that is numerically a big majority.”

Speaking about possible Labour losses in northern England and the Midlands, he said: “In long-standing Labour constituencies there was fury, not anger, fury, at both Labour and Jeremy Corbyn.”

General Election 2019 exit poll.
(PA Graphics)

Meanwhile, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the results were “extremely disappointing” and the “appropriate decisions” will be taken on the future of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership once the official results are known.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr McDonnell said: “I think Brexit has dominated, it has dominated everything by the looks of it.

“We thought other issues could cut through and there would be a wider debate, from this evidence there clearly wasn’t.”

On the future of Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Mr McDonnell said: “Let’s see the results themselves, as I say, the appropriate decisions will be made and we’ll always make the decisions in the best interests of our party.”

10.21pm

If the exit poll is correct, Labour is on course for its worst performance at a general election in terms of seats since 1935.

Former Labour MP and independent adviser to the UK government on anti-Semitism, John Mann, blamed his former party leader for the predicted result:

10.17pm

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that the exit poll suggested it had been a good night for her party.

Green Party candidate Caroline Lucas had a less optimistic response:

10.15pm

Polling expert Michael Thrasher said Jeremy Corbyn will go down as “one of the worst leaders in Labour’s history”.

Mr Thrasher, from the School of Sociology, Politics & Law at the University of Plymouth, told Sky News “the Conservatives have been heading for a clear majority all day long”.

He said: “It really is a remarkable election victory for Boris Johnson, a majority of 86 seats.

“For Labour it really is an appalling election result and possibly its worst performance in any general election since the second world war.

“So Jeremy Corbyn, I’m afraid, will go down as one of the worst leaders in Labour’s history.”

10.14pm

10.12pm

As in previous years, the exit poll has been commissioned jointly by the BBC, ITN and Sky News. It is different from other opinion polls because instead of asking people how they intend to vote, it asks people how they voted.

The current system of calculating the exit poll has been developed since the 2001 general election and has a very impressive track record of forecasting the result.

In 2017, the exit poll predicted the Tories would end up with 314 seats, just four short of the 318 the party actually won. Labour was forecast to win 266 (they finished on 262), the Lib Dems 14 (12), the SNP 34 (35), Plaid Cymru 3 (4), Ukip 0 (0), the Greens 1 (1) and others 18 (18).

10.08pm

Actor Hugh Grant who campaigned for Lib Dem candidates and was outspoken against the Tories had this reaction to the exit poll results on Twitter:

10.05pm

The pound soared against the dollar and the euro as the exit poll predicted a Conservative majority.

A pound was up 1.85% to 1.342 dollars and up 1.09% to 1.202 euros within minutes of the announcement.

10pm

The exit poll predicts Tories on 368; Labour on 191; SNP on 55; Lib Dems on 13, with others taking 22 seats.

9.50pm

Here’s an estimation of when the results could be expected.

General Election estimated declaration times
(PA Graphics)

Earlier the party leaders cast their votes – except for the Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage who had a postal ballot.