General election 2024 live: Farage wins with Starmer set to be next Prime Minister - results in full

Heidi Alexander, who was the Labour MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018, has just won in Swindon South. She’s defeated the former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland.

Thursday is “not a good night for the SNP”, Nicola Sturgeon has said as the exit poll suggests the party could drop to as few as 10 seats, my colleague Alan Young, from the Scotsman, writes in.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party’s success appears to have extended north of the border, with the SNP losing 38 seats compared with the 2019 election.

Speaking on ITV, the ex-SNP leader reacted minutes after the exit poll suggested her party could lose 38 seats compared to the 2019 election. “This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers,” she said.

She added: “This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right.” “I think there will be a question about whether there was enough in the campaign to give out, effectively, a USP to the SNP in an election that was about getting the Tories out and replacing them with Labour.”

The first result in Scotland is expected to be Rutherglen, which could declare at 1am. She said she believed the results of the exit poll would turn out to be “broadly right”. Former first minister Alex Salmond said the 10 seats for the SNP predicted by the exit poll was not due to a lack of support for independence.

My colleague Craig Buchan of the Northumberland Gazette has just sent in the full results from Blyth and Ashington:

Labour has held onto Sunderland Central with Lewis Atkinson winning 16,852 votes. Reform UK has come second for the third time so far tonight, gaining almost double the number of Tory votes. This could provoke an existential crisis in the Conservative Party, but it will also concern Labour - as there was a 7.7% swing from Labour to Reform in Sunderland Central.

My colleague Carys Reid is in Barnet in North London. She’s sent in this dispatch:

Looking at the four constituencies across Barnet, polls indicate that Labour are set to take at least two seats from the Conservative Party. Hornsey and Friern Barnet is set to be a safe Labour seat. Chipping Barnet and Hendon are likely to be Labour gains from seats previously held by the Tories. In Finchley and Golders Green, Margeret Thatcher's old constituency, polls are fluctuating. Moving from a Labour-Conservative toss-up, to a Conservative-Lib Dem toss-up, polls are now indicating a Lib Dem win.

We’ve had two results so far in the North East, which are both Labour holds. Follow the latest results from across the country with our interactive map. You can access that by clicking on the link below.

Click here for the NationalWorld general election interactive map.

My colleague Tabitha Wilson has written in from Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, which is one of the seats that Reform UK are predicted to win. Speaking to Labour sources in the area, they did not have this on their radar at all.

Tabitha writes: The atmosphere is lively here at North Notts Community Arena, in Worksop, where ballot boxes have started to arrive. In Bassetlaw, it’s too close to call – with a Reform gain at a likelihood of 56%, and a Labour gain at a likelihood of 44%.

The constituency was previously held by Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, who will most likely lose his seat. This is a spectacular fall from grace for the Conservatives, who won the seat with a swing from Labour of 18.4% in 2019 - the largest recorded in the election.

One thing’s for sure – Bassetlaw will be a key seat to watch, with 86-year-old Reform candidate Frank Ward potentially becoming a member of parliament by the morning.

Tory Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said it is “clearly a terrible night”, adding that the party has taken votes for granted.

Sir Jacob told the BBC: “There’s no way of describing this as anything other than a bad night for the Conservative party.”

Asked where it went wrong for the Tories, Sir Jacob said there were “issues with changing the leader”, adding: “Voters expect the prime minister they have chosen to remain the prime minister and for it to be the voters who decide when that person is changed.”

He continued: “I’m afraid I think the Conservative Party took it’s core vote for granted, which is why you see so many people who may have voted Conservative previously, going off to Reform.”

We have another result and Labour's Ian Lavery is now the first ever MP for new constituency Blyth and Ashington in Northumberland.

In the first result of the night, Labour’s Bridget Phillipson took 18,847 votes, ahead of Reform UK on 11,668, with the Conservatives on 5,514, the Liberal Democrats on 2,290 and The Green Party on 1,723. The turnout was 51.2%.

The shadow education secretary said in her victory speech: “Tonight the British people have spoken, and if the exit poll this evening is again a guide to results across our country as it so often is, then after 14 years the British people have chosen change.

“They have chosen Labour and they have chosen the leadership of Keir Starmer. Today our country with its proud history has chosen a brighter future. The British people have decided that they believe as Labour believes that our best days lie ahead of us – hope and unity, not decline and division, stability over chaos.

“A government powered by hope, by the belief that tomorrow cannot just be different from today, but better. A government of service, a government with purpose above all to change our society for good.”

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has won Houghton and Sunderland South, the first constituency to report a result in the General Election.

The Lib Dems are “back as a major force in British politics”, the party’s leader in Scotland said.

He was speaking after the election exit poll suggested the party could win 61 seats across the UK.

“The Liberal Democrats will make a huge leap forward and are back as a major force in British politics,” said Alex Cole-Hamilton.

“It is humbling that millions of people have backed us to kick the Conservatives out of power and deliver the change our country needs.2

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will be the MP for Clacton, the exit poll suggests.

It is Mr Farage’s eighth attempt to become an MP, having failed on each previous attempt.

The exit poll by Ipsos UK for Sky News, the BBC and ITV News, said Reform UK have a likelihood of 99%-plus to gain the seat in Essex.

My colleague Ryan Smith is reporting from the South Shields count and this is his latest update: The buzz is starting to build here at the Temple Park Leisure Centre, in South Shields, as the first ballot boxes start to arrive.

Exit polls are indicating a huge Labour majority across the UK and it would be fair to expect South Tyneside to follow suit with that trend and re-elect its two Labour MPs, given the nature of the 'Red Wall'.

It is worth noting that issues such as bin strikes severely impacted Labour during the local elections as voters made their feelings known at the ballot box - will lightning strike twice?

Having been well talked about throughout the election campaign, Reform will be looking to see if all that noise can be transformed into actual votes.

And given they are popular at a local level here in the borough, the Green Party might also be sensing an opportunity.

One thing is for certain, if the exit poll is to be believed, the UK's political landscape will look very different tomorrow morning.

My colleague Jack Dean is at the Portsmouth North count to see if Penny Mordaunt can hold onto her seat. She’s one of the favourites to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader, but at the moment it looks unlikely she’s remain as an MP.

Jack writes that based on the exit poll, there is a 25% chance that Mordaunt will retain her seat in Portsmouth North. This positions Amanda Martin and the Labour Party as the frontrunners to win the Parliamentary seat, a significant shift from the current leadership held by the Leader of the House of Commons since 2010.

Ballots are arriving at polling stations across the country. My colleague Ryan Smith is reporting from the South Shields count.

The 13 seats for Reform UK is one of the stories of this exit poll. Six weeks ago, it appeared if the resurgent right-wing party would get no MPs. However, Nigel Farage entered the race and has really transformed it.

It looks like Farage will likely become an MP on his eighth attempt. When talking to voters across the country support for Reform comes up time and time again. This is despite the party getting embroiled in a number of racism scandals.

Ben Page, the CEO of pollster Ipsos, is speaking at the KCL event I’m at. He said: “The exit poll has turned out to be pretty good over the last few years, particularly on the lead for major parties. There were some more challenges in terms of changing constituency boundaries, it’s in line with what we saw before the election.”

Page said the striking thing was the scale of the Tory defeat. He told the audience: “Broadly, the thing that strikes me here, the COnservative Party the lean, mean, winning machine. It’s got fewer MPs if this is remotely correct than their worst result in 1906.

“It will only take a few of them to trigger another leadership campaign, so they’ll have plenty to keep them busy.

“It’s a smaller majority than Blair achieved in 1997. The large Labour majority that we were expecting has happened.”