22.00 Exit poll puts the Conservatives ahead on 316 seats, with Labour on 239 seats, the Liberal Democrats on 10, the SNP on 58 and Ukip on two.

23.16 Labour win the first seat to declare in the 2015 General Election with an increased majority for Bridget Phillipson in Houghton and Sunderland South.

1.52 Conservatives comfortably hold Nuneaton - one of Labour’s key target seats - with 20,827 votes to Labour’s 15,945.

2.22 Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander loses his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat in the House of Commons to 20-year-old SNP candidate Mhairi Black

2.55 Labour loses Gordon Brown’s former seat in Scotland, the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, to the SNP.

3.10 Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy loses his East Renfrewshire seat to the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald.

4.11 Simon Hughes, a senior Liberal Democrat and MP of 32 years’ standing, loses in Bermondsey and Old Southwark to Labour by around 5,000 votes.

4.18 Ukip wins its first seat in a General Election, with former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell seeing a much reduced majority compared to last year’s by-election.

4.37 Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable loses his Twickenham seat to the Conservatives.

4.51 Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg holds onto his Sheffield Hallam seat. He said he would be discussing his leadership with colleagues after a "cruel and punishing night for his party".

5.25 Labour leader Ed Miliband, who retains his Doncaster North seat, says: "This has clearly been a very difficult and disappointing night for the Labour Party."

5.46 Accepting victory in his Witney constituency, David Cameron says: "This is clearly a very strong night for the Conservative Party. We've had a positive response to a positive campaign."

5.55 Former Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander loses the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat to the SNP's Drew Hendry.

6:07 George Galloway, of the Respect Party, loses the Bradford West seat to Labour's Naseem Shah, who won with nearly 20,000 votes.

8.18 Ed Balls becomes the biggest casualty of the night, losing his Morley and Outwood constituency in Leeds to the Conservatives by 422 votes after a recount. "Any personal disappointment I have at this result is as nothing as compared to the sense of sorrow I have at the result Labour has achieved across the UK tonight, he said.

10.34 Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, fails to win Thanet South from the Conservatives. He resigns soon afterwards, insisting he has "never felt happier", with a "weight lifted off his shoulders" - but that he may return to contest leadership in September.

10.38

11.35 Nick Clegg resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats. In a tearful speech, he says the Lib Dems had suffered a "catastrophic" defeat. "Clearly the results have been immeasurably more crushing and unkind than I could ever have feared. For that I must take responsibility," he told his party.

11.39

12.10 Ed Miliband resigns as Labour leader saying he takes "absolute and total responsibility" for the party's defeat. "I’m so sorry for all those colleagues who lost their seats,” he said, in a dignified speech that included jokes about his own image and “the most unlikely cult of the 21st Century, Milifandom”. Early favourites to succeed him include Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Chuka Umunna.