The Tories could lose seats (Picture: Getty – PA)

The Conservatives are on course to be the largest party but will fall short of an overall majority, exit polls suggest.

If accurate, it means Theresa May’s gamble backfired, and she will go into Brexit negotiations with a weakened hand.

No party reached the 326 seats necessary for a majority, the results suggest.

In 2015, the Conservatives won 331 seats – so will drop 17 seats if the polls are correct.


A joint BBC/Sky/ITV exit poll indicated the Tories will win 314 seats and Labour 266.

However, the exit poll may not tell the full story. It doesn’t take into account postal votes, and predicted a similar result in 2015 when the Tories actually had a majority.

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However, in 2015 exit polls also predicted a hung parliament – but were proved wrong when results came in.



Some seats are said to be extremely close, so it’s going to be a long night as results come in.

The pound has fallen sharply after exit polls forecast that the Conservatives would not get a majority.

Sterling lost more than 2 cents against the dollar within seconds of the exit poll result, falling from $1.2955 to $1.2752.

A Lib Dem source said it was ‘too early’ to comment on the exit poll, but indicated the party did not have significant ambitions for gains: ‘In this election holding our own is a good night.’

Voting closed at 10pm, and the exit poll results couldn’t be released before that as it could influence the result of the election.

But with voting now over, pollsters have revealed their last attempt at calling the election.

Pollsters were wrong in the run-up to the Brexit vote, the 2015 election and the American election, with the truth only becoming clear when exit polls were released.

Ben Page, from Ipsos Mori, tweeted that he was ‘fascinated’ by the results along with his 300 interviewers.

Not long to the exit poll at 10. Having worked since 7am our 300 interviewers (and me) are fascinated by the result #GE2107 pic.twitter.com/q1SV1q0vxo — Ben Page, Ipsos MORI (@benatipsosmori) June 8, 2017

It has been a hard election to call. Theresa May was initially thought to have an easy run.

However, further polls suggested there could be a hung parliament.

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Survation’s final pre-election poll put the Tories on 41.3 per cent with Labour on 40.4 per cent – far closer than initially suspected.

But a last minute poll by ComRes for The Independent had the Tories winning 44% of the General Election vote compared to Labour’s 34% – enough for a majority of 74 seats, and the biggest landslide since Thatcher.

What is an exit poll? A random selection of people leaving polling stations have been asked who they voted for. Over the course of the day (so results weren’t skewed by, for example, only asking people in the morning) thousands of people have been asked who they voted for. The results are seen as more reliable at predicting the result than ordinary polls. This is because the ambiguous factors of whether people will change their mind before election day, or if they will even turn out on the day, have been removed. People might also be more likely to be cagey about their voting choice if asked on the phone, but more honest once they have actually puit their cross in the box. (For example, there were a lot of ‘shy Tories’ before David Cameron’s victory over Ed Miliband). Polls in the run-up the election depend on finding a representative sample and trying to project that out for the country. You can expect to hear people insisting exit polls have been wrong before – however, they tend to have the best track record of predicting the results.