Yahoo News UK election: everything you need to know – at a glance
Major results
The Conservative party has formally won the election. The party secured a majority by 5am after winning its 326th seat.
With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Tories have 364, followed by Labour on 203, SNP on 48, and Liberal Democrats on 11, the DUP on eight, Sinn Féin on six, Plaid Cymru on four, SDLP on two, and Greens and Alliance on one each. The Brexit party has zero.
Exit poll predictions of the Labour “red wall” crumbling came to pass, with key seats such as Bishop Auckland falling to the Conservatives.
The biggest scalp of the night so far is Jo Swinson, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who lost Dunbartonshire East to the SNP and later resigned as leader.
Veteran left-wing parliamentarian Denis Skinner, 87, lost to the Tories in Bolsover, the seat he has held since 1970 – a stunning reversal of fortune for the “beast of Bolsover”, who would have become father of the house.
There were boos and shouts of “shame” from Labour supporters in Kensington as the Conservatives regained the seat from Emma Dent Coad in a 69% remain seat where the pro-EU vote was split with Lib Dem Sam Gyimah.
Labour took a hit in Stoke on Trent, with Gareth Snell and Ruth Smeeth losing their seats to Conservatives, and there was more disappointment for the party in Chingford and Woodfood Green, where Faiza Shaheen failed in her challenge to unseat Iain Duncan Smith.
Ed Miliband holds his seat, but with a reduced majority and the Brexit party taking a large chunk of the vote.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab held on in Esher & Walton but the Liberal Democrats came a close second.
Zac Goldsmith lost his seat to the Lib Dems in Richmond Park, one of the few positives for the party, as Chuka Umunna failed to take Cities of Westminster and London from the Tories and Luciana Berger, who also defected from the Labour party, failed to win Finchley and Golders Green, which was retained by the Tories.
Ex-Tories Anna Soubry and Dominic Grieve both lost their seats.
There was a gain for Labour in Putney, which it took from the Conservatives. Labour’s Rosie Duffield held on in Canterbury.
Red wall crumbles
An early big upset came in the former steel town of Workington, with the Conservatives snatching the seat from Labour. “Workington man” was defined by a thinktank as emblematic of the Tory target voter: older, working-class and a leave supporter. The loss is also significant as Sue Hayman was a member of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
The other end of the “red wall” was also turning blue, with a key Tory target seat in the north-east of Wales, the Vale of Clwyd, taken by the Tories. Darlington was also another brick out of the ‘red wall’ with the Tories taking the seat from Labour.
The first big upset of the night came in Blyth Valley. The Northumberland former mining town, which has been Labour since 1950, was taken by Tory party local Ian Levy in a 10.19% swing.
Labour’s Chi Onwurah held Newcastle upon Tyne Central for Labour, though with a reduced majority, in the first declaration of the night. But the Tories took Sedgefield, Tony Blair’s former seat.
Northern Ireland shifts
Another big loser was Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist party, who lost to Sinn Féin in North Belfast.
And there was a big win for the Alliance party in Northern Ireland, which has beaten the Democratic Unionist party to take North Down, where Lady Sylvia Hermon had stood in often solo opposition to Brexit.
The near moribund Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), founded by peace leader John Hume, has risen from the ashes with two stunning wins in Northern Ireland – leader Colum Eastwood taking Foyle (Derry) from Sinn Féin and Claire Hanna taking Belfast South from DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly.
Exit poll
Voting closed with a shock exit poll suggesting Boris Johnson was on course to win twith a majority of 86 seats, a catastrophic prediction for the Labour party.
The Liberal Democrats were forecast to remain more or less static with one extra seat.
The SNP was predicted to return a thumping 55 out of the 59 seats in Scotland, but is now unable to reach that target.
