It began with breathtaking exit poll results and continued with torn-up scripts and rumours of knives being sharpened

A night of shocks began with the biggest one of all – an exit poll, at 10pm on Thursday, which sent a late-night jolt through the political establishment and the country alike. Contrary to the confident predictions of almost every poll and pundit, Theresa May seemed on course to lose the majority that she had gambled on consolidating when she called the snap election, with Britain on course for a hung parliament.

As dawn broke on Friday, with most of the results confirmed, it was clear that the exit poll had proved remarkably accurate. The biggest political gamble since David Cameron’s dice-roll on Brexit last year had ended in similar humiliation for the prime minister.

After weeks of often lacklustre campaigning, the shock predictions made for an electrifying moment that saw broadcasters scrambling to rewrite their scripts. Suddenly, they had a new and confounding storyline to attempt to make sense of: a hung parliament, a possible new prime minister and a complete lack of clarity of the path ahead for Britain’s imminent Brexit negotiations.



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With the Conservatives estimated to win 314 seats, down 17 and 12 short of a majority, and Labour at 266, up 34, with the SNP on 34 and the Liberal Democrats on 14, it was set to be a long night.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A grim-faced Theresa May at her election count in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Photograph: MacDiarmid/Rex/Shutterstock

As the night wore on, expectations for both main parties waxed and waned, with the accuracy of the exit poll first called into question, then endorsed, by each new result. But however the details changed, the overall picture still looked bleak for the prime minister.

Members of her party began to suggest the “Snowdonia moment” that led her to call an election three years ahead of schedule in search of certainty and stability was backfiring spectacularly, leaving her and the country with neither. With that came inevitable speculation over how long, or even if, May could survive as party leader.

Both the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, forced to digest the exit poll in front of the BBC cameras early in the night, had initially urged caution.

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“Let’s wait and see,” said Fallon who, if rattled, was putting on a good show.

But as the figures began sinking in, an irrepressible hopefulness seemed to engulf McDonnell. People had seen through May, he said, and realised that the election had been called for party advantage rather than the interests of the country. “People saw this as pure opportunism and it looks as though they have rejected it.”

On the ITV election sofa, an excitable Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor, was seizing the moment to make a bold punt. “If this is correct, we’ll have another general election soon,” he said.

Play Video 1:00 It is time for Theresa May to go, says Jeremy Corbyn – video

Sitting alongside him, George Osborne, the former chancellor turned newspaper editor, was predicting that if the polls were correct, at the very least May could have to resign. “Clearly if she’s got a worse result than two years ago and is almost unable to form a government then she, I doubt, will survive in the long term as Conservative party leader.” He did not appear overly distressed at her discomfort.

With a hung parliament likely, attention turned to the potential kingmakers, though the former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell reminded viewers that “Tim Farron made it very clear: no pact, no deal, no coalition.” The Democratic Unionist party’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, meanwhile, began publicly contemplating the prospect of his party becoming serious players in a potential future government.

It was not until 3am that May came into view. Tight-faced, her dramatic makeup failing to disguise the strain, she delivered her acceptance speech at the Maidenhead count looking anything but victorious. The priority was stability, she said. Her message, now, was that if the Conservatives did win the most seats and the most votes “it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability, and that is what we will do”.

Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn had arrived at his count beaming broadly, with a thumbs-up, and the body language of a man who had wildly outperformed most predictions at the start of the campaign, and become unassailable as his party’s leader. May, he said, had wanted a mandate. “Well the mandate she’s got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support, and lost confidence. I would have thought that’s enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of the people of this country.”

It was far from the only shock of the night. Labour’s gains included the highly symbolic toppling in Ipswich of Ben Gummer, the Cabinet Office minister who had written the Conservative manifesto, and the ousting in Battersea of Jane Ellison, a junior heath minister, by Marsha de Cordova.

One of the biggest beasts to fall was Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and former Lib Dem Leader, who looked visibly upset at being ousted by Labour from Sheffield Hallam, a seat he has held since 2005. In his speech, Clegg said it had been the greatest privilege of his political career to serve as the local MP, and urged politicians to work together across party lines to bridge divides that he said threatened to seriously damage the country. “We must try and reach out to each other to find common ground to heal those divisions,” he said. “If we do not our country will endure unprecedented hardship.”

It was a night of disappointment, too, for the SNP; the party’s total number of seats fell from 2015’s unprecedented 56 to 35, amid a Tory fightback that saw the Scottish Conservatives under Ruth Davidson double their share of the vote and take 13 seats north of the border. Among those to fall were Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister, and Angus Robertson, the party’s leader in Westminster, both of whom were ousted by Conservative candidates.

There were close shaves, meanwhile, for Amber Rudd, the home secretary, who sneaked home in Hastings and Rye after a recount with a majority of just 346, and for Anna Soubry, the prominent pro-remain Conservative, who counfounded predictions that she had lost her Broxtowe seat to hang on, just. In Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith narrowly squeaked back by just 45 votes into the seat he lost to the Lib Dems six months ago, after triggering a byelection.

The Lib Dems also had cause to celebrate, however, with their seat tally rising from eight to 12. Vince Cable, formerly business minister in the coalition government, regained Twickenham, and there was a return too for Jo Swinson, the former equalities minister, who took Dunbartonshire East back from the SNP. After looking shaky, the party’s leader, Tim Farron, clung on to his Westmorland and Lonsdale seat with a majority of less than 1,000.

As the night progressed, speculation turned increasingly to the Conservative leadership, and the question of whether May could cling on.

It had, concluded Soubry, been “a dreadful night” and a “dreadful campaign”. Should May resign? “It’s a matter for her … it’s bad,” she told the BBC’s David Dimbleby.

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, speculated that the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, would now be “sharpening his knife” for a leadership challenge.

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In his acceptance speech at the Uxbridge and South Ruislip count, Johnson said it was “too early to comment” on the events of the night, but added: “One thing is absolutely clear, I think, to all of us who have been elected as MPs tonight across our fantastic country. That is we have got to listen to our constituents and listen to their concerns.”

The Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker provided a succinct summary on Twitter.

Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) I think Theresa May has won own goal of the season.

The Sun, which backed the Tories, was even more direct, putting the headline “Theresa Dismay” on its front page.

After five seats had been declared, the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, was daring to dream. “We could form the next government,” she said. “How?” asked Dimbleby, with the exit poll putting Labour 50 seats behind in mind. Thornberry suggested Labour could work with other parties on a vote-by-vote basis, with no coalition, no deals – a minority government. He replied: “So, not a coalition of chaos, just chaos?”

Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, said the early voting results and exit poll showed two-party politics was back. Labour’s Clive Lewis said they suggested May’s Brexit negotiations, due to start in 10 days, would be “a complete clusterfuck”.



In the first upset of the night, Newcastle stole the crown for fastest election count from its neighbour and rival Sunderland, which for 25 years and six general elections has been the first to declare.

Long before the exit poll confounded expectations, a different kind of tension had animated election day. The polls opened at 7am amid heightened security, after a general election campaign twice interrupted by terrorist attacks in Manchester and London.

For the party leaders, the end of almost two months of interviews, rallies, catchphrases, U-turns, brain fades and no-shows would have come as a relief, leaving them seemingly with nothing to do except cast their votes and smile for the cameras outside their local polling stations.

The prime minister greeted reporters with a brisk “hello” before voting early with her husband, Philip, in their home village of Sonning, Berkshire. She did not speak further.

By contrast, Corbyn wore a broad smile, a bright red tie and Labour rosette as he voted in his north London constituency. “Thank you all very much for coming here today,” he told waiting reporters. “It’s a day of our democracy. I’ve just voted and I’m very proud of our campaign.”

Play Video 0:44 Reporters scuffle while waiting for Tim Farron at polling station – video

Meanwhile, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, joined a social media trend by posting pictures on Twitter under the hashtag #dogsatpollingstations, bringing along her dog, Wilson, when she cast her vote in central Edinburgh.



Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP) Team Davidson voting in Edinburgh this morning. Wilson's #dogsatpollingstations debut... pic.twitter.com/QdM4cAmMMj

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, said she was feeling good and waved at photographers after voting at a Glasgow community hall.

Voters reported queues early in the morning outside polling stations, while others posted photographs of young people waiting in line to vote, including at the universities of East Anglia, Kent and Warwick, and at polling booths in two Oxford constituencies.

Voters in Northern Ireland, who were casting their ballots three months after a snap assembly election caused by a collapse in power sharing, turned out to polling stations in heavy rain.

The Alliance candidate for Belfast West, Sorcha Eastwood, cast her vote in Lisburn in her wedding dress, having married Dale Shirlow earlier in the day.