http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-32633099
Election results: Tories confident as Labour falters
- 12 minutes ago
- Election 2015
The Conservatives are confident David Cameron will remain PM with early general election results suggesting the party will be close to a majority.
Labour has rejected an exit poll suggesting it would get 239 MPs to the Tories' 316.
The same poll suggested the Lib Dems would lose 47 seats and the SNP would win all but one seat in Scotland.
Results so far suggest the exit poll is accurate but the majority of the 650 seats have yet to declare.
The exit poll, conducted by NOP/MORI for the BBC, ITV and Sky, suggests the Lib Dems will get 10 MPs, the SNP 58, Plaid Cymru four, UKIP two and the Greens two.
If it is accurate, Mr Cameron will be able to remain in Number 10 as the head of a minority government without the need for a coalition - although he might have to rely on the support of the DUP or the Lib Dems.
Even if Labour leader Ed Miliband was able to persuade the Lib Dems to join the SNP in backing a Labour government, he would not have the necessary numbers to get his legislative programme through Parliament in a Queen's Speech.
The finishing line needed to form an absolute majority is 326, but because Sinn Fein MPs have not taken up seats and the Speaker does not normally vote, the finishing line has, in practice, been 323.
Labour insists Mr Miliband could still be prime minister because the coalition's majority will have disappeared.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls told the BBC: "Even if the exit poll is right, that means the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition majority has gone from 72 to zero - David Cameron's ability to hang on in Downing Street is on a knife-edge and he will have to reach out to get support from the Ulster unionists.
"If the exit poll is wrong just by 10 seats - and all the information is that there are very close fights between Labour and Conservatives in seats right across the country - then suddenly David Cameron won't be able to get a majority in the House of Commons and it will fall to Ed Miliband as leader of the Opposition to then put a Queen's Speech before Parliament."
But early signs are that Labour is failing to do as well as opinion polls during the campaign suggested, particularly in the Midlands and South of England.
It failed to take one of its key target seats, Nuneaton, with the Conservatives increasing their majority with a 3% swing to David Cameron's party.
Labour is being hammered in Scotland by the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon's party predicted to take 58 of the 59 seats.
The party's general election chief and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander has lost his seat to the SNP in Paisley and Renfrewshire South. The SNP took Gordon Brown's old Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat with a 34% swing from Labour to the SNP.
There is speculation from the count in South Thanet that UKIP leader Nigel Farage could fail in his bid to win the seat.
There is a recount in Bradford West, where George Galloway is battling Labour to retain the seat he won in a by-election.
Bradford Council has reported Mr Galloway to the police for allegedly breaking election law for tweeting about exit polls before polls closed, the BBC has learned.
The Lib Dems appear to be heading for a collapse on a scale far worse than that feared by party bosses. The exit poll suggests they will lose 47 seats, with many of their high profile minister and MPs facing defeat, and the party finishing behind the Greens in early results.
Lib Dem election chief Lord Ashdown told the BBC: "If this exit poll is right I will publicly eat my hat."
UKIP has made strong advances in the North of England where it has overtaken the Tories in a number of seats.
Analysis by BBC Political Correspondent Chris Mason
Already, Tories are using the language of victory: the Chief Whip Michael Gove told David Dimbleby on BBC One that if the exit poll was right, the Conservatives had "won".
They will make the case that if these numbers are accurate, they are the clear winners, even though they didn't quite make the finish line.
They'll be nervous that whilst they have "clearly won", as Mr Gove puts it, there could still, just, be the potential for an anti-Tory majority - if everyone else clubbed together.
A Labour source said of the exit poll: "We are sceptical of the BBC poll. It looks wrong to us."
David Cameron, arriving at his count in Witney, said it was "early days".
Conservative minster Michael Gove said: "We haven't had an incumbent government increase its majority like this since 1983 and it would be an unprecedented vote of confidence in David Cameron's leadership."
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has arrived at the Glasgow count at the Emirates Stadium, where she told reporters she believes it will prove a "very good night for the SNP", adding that she would like to "lock the Tories out of power".
She tweeted: "I'd treat the exit poll with HUGE caution. I'm hoping for a good night but I think 58 seats is unlikely!"
UKIP deputy leader Paul Nuttall expressed doubts over the accuracy of the exit poll, and said the party was "buoyant and confident" that it would win more than two seats.
Giving her comment on the exit poll, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said: "A doubling of MPs in parliament would obviously be a huge advance for the Green party."
YouGov poll
Exit pollsters interviewed 22,000 people in 141 polling locations in 133 constituencies throughout Great Britain.
Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University, who led the exit poll operations, said the results announced so far suggested the exit poll was accurate.
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 50 million people registered to vote.
There are also more than 9,000 council seats being contested across 279 English local authorities.
Mayors will also be elected in Bedford, Copeland, Leicester, Mansfield, Middlesbrough and Torbay.
What is your reaction to the general election exit poll? Did you vote? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk to share your experiences.
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