The political future of the United Kingdom is becoming clearer as the results of the general election emerge around the country.
David Cameron says he hopes to govern for all of the UK as a BBC forecast predicts the Conservatives will take 329 seats – enough to form a slender majority in the Commons.
Labour has been all but wiped out by the SNP in Scotland and suffered a disappointing set of results elsewhere, while the Lib Dems may be left with as few as eight MPs, with many party heavyweights such as Vince Cable and Danny Alexander losing their seats.
So as battles are won and lost and the fall-out and celebrations begin, BBC correspondents examine the implications and challenges that lie ahead for the new government – and for those whose political careers have been ended by voters.
Newly-elected Boris Johnson with Official Monster Raving Looney party’s Howling “Laud” Hope
This has been an election which may have more profound consequences than almost any in living memory.
We now face a generational decision about our future in Europe, with an EU referendum in two years’ time almost certain.
There will also be serious questions about the future of the Union, following an SNP landslide that has turned Scotland into a virtual one-party state.
David Cameron’s victory also represents a colossal achievement.
Only once before in recent history has an incumbent government increased its majority – and that was Mrs Thatcher in her prime in the 1980s.
It is also a significant personal victory for Mr Cameron and a rebuff for those in his party who had become increasingly sceptical about his ability to win.
But while it may represent a defeat for those Tories who saw this election as a potential opportunity to rid themselves of David Cameron, he must now govern with a wafer-thin majority.
For the SNP, their stunning victory can only increase the pressure on Nicola Sturgeon to include a commitment to a second independence referendum in her party’s manifesto for next year’s Scottish elections.
It is an election which has not just defied all the predictions of the pollsters and pundits – but which may yet prompt the most fundamental re-casting of British politics for a generation. Not since the fall of Thatcher or the Blair landslide has there been a political moment quite like this one.
Bitter disappointment for Ed Miliband and a political disaster for Nick Clegg may lead to both men quitting, and is sure to lead to months of soul-searching for their parties as they mourn the loss of some of their most famous faces – felled by a brutal electoral firing squad.
Personal triumphs for Prime Minister David Cameron and for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will not just reshape British politics but could perhaps reshape the future of the United Kingdom itself.
The question is how two leaders, how two countries – who now stand for such different things – can live together or whether they will find that this is impossible.
This is the opening night of an extraordinary drama whose conclusion is utterly unknowable.
With a small majority or slight minority for David Cameron, Tory MPs will be much empowered.
As such, Mr Cameron will need support from other parties to get business through.
The PM will also need a better whips office to handle rebellions.
The arrival of 56 SNP MPs will transform the House of Commons and British politics.
Labour and the Lib Dems will probably need new leaders.
That is the question many people will be asking this morning after the party which has fought for Scottish independence for 80 years swept to victory.
The answer from the jubilant Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon is a firm “no”.
She insists that her MPs will speak for all of Scotland, not just for the 45% who voted for the country to leave the United Kingdom last September.
In the closing hours of the most extraordinary election campaign which anyone in Scotland can remember, Ms Sturgeon turned to talk of “legitimacy.”
That will be her watchword in the coming days as she argues that the prime minister cannot ignore the democratic will of the Scottish people.
Politically, Scotland and England this morning look and feel like very different countries.
After all the pre-election polls and speculation, the votes have finally been cast in the lection
After weeks of chatter about an election too close to call, it wasn’t that close at all.
David Cameron will be continuing as our prime minister.
So, what is all this likely to mean?
A referendum on whether the UK stays in, or leaves, the European Union, within the next two-and-a-half years.
And so here’s another thing we know for certain this morning: Politics ain’t going to be boring any time soon.
Ed Miliband is now almost certain to stand down. For Labour the story of their terrible night is rapidly turning into the search for a new leader. So who will that be?
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, is almost certain to run.
Even before this election, both he and another almost inevitable candidate, Chuka Umunna, had raised eyebrows inside the party at the work they had put in, preparing the ground with members and the unions for potential bids.
Yvette Cooper, before the election, was still thought not to have made up her mind over whether to run. That decision has been made perhaps a little easier as her husband, Ed Balls, has lost his seat.
She is certainly potentially in the frame, along with two lesser known names – Liz Kendall and Dan Jarvis – two MPs who were only elected in 2010 for the first time.
This could be their moment. But whoever is in the job, they face a monumental task.
Sterling is up (the most for seven years against the euro), share prices are up (especially bank shares like Lloyds and RBS, and energy shares such as Centrica), government bond prices are up.
To state the obvious, investors love the Tories’ general election victory.
There are a few reasons.
One (no surprise here) is that Labour’s threat of breaking up banks and imposing energy price caps has been lifted.
Second is that investors have been discounting days and weeks of wrangling after polling day over who would form the government – and so they are semi-euphoric that we already know who’s in charge.
Third, many investors tend to be economically conservative and instinctively Conservative.
But although the City may be a bit drunk on the result, its pleasure in Ed Miliband’s and Ed Balls’ humiliation may be making it a bit blind – perhaps dangerously so – to some bumps in the economic road ahead.
(Credits: Matt Osborn, Seán Clarke, Will Franklin and Ralph Straumann)
(Analysis from BBC correspondents)
David Cameron says he hopes to govern for all of the UK as a BBC forecast predicts the Conservatives will take 329 seats – enough to form a slender majority in the Commons.
Labour has been all but wiped out by the SNP in Scotland and suffered a disappointing set of results elsewhere, while the Lib Dems may be left with as few as eight MPs, with many party heavyweights such as Vince Cable and Danny Alexander losing their seats.
So as battles are won and lost and the fall-out and celebrations begin, BBC correspondents examine the implications and challenges that lie ahead for the new government – and for those whose political careers have been ended by voters.
Newly-elected Boris Johnson with Official Monster Raving Looney party’s Howling “Laud” Hope
This has been an election which may have more profound consequences than almost any in living memory.
We now face a generational decision about our future in Europe, with an EU referendum in two years’ time almost certain.
There will also be serious questions about the future of the Union, following an SNP landslide that has turned Scotland into a virtual one-party state.
David Cameron’s victory also represents a colossal achievement.
Only once before in recent history has an incumbent government increased its majority – and that was Mrs Thatcher in her prime in the 1980s.
It is also a significant personal victory for Mr Cameron and a rebuff for those in his party who had become increasingly sceptical about his ability to win.
But while it may represent a defeat for those Tories who saw this election as a potential opportunity to rid themselves of David Cameron, he must now govern with a wafer-thin majority.
For the SNP, their stunning victory can only increase the pressure on Nicola Sturgeon to include a commitment to a second independence referendum in her party’s manifesto for next year’s Scottish elections.
It is an election which has not just defied all the predictions of the pollsters and pundits – but which may yet prompt the most fundamental re-casting of British politics for a generation. Not since the fall of Thatcher or the Blair landslide has there been a political moment quite like this one.
Bitter disappointment for Ed Miliband and a political disaster for Nick Clegg may lead to both men quitting, and is sure to lead to months of soul-searching for their parties as they mourn the loss of some of their most famous faces – felled by a brutal electoral firing squad.
Personal triumphs for Prime Minister David Cameron and for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will not just reshape British politics but could perhaps reshape the future of the United Kingdom itself.
The question is how two leaders, how two countries – who now stand for such different things – can live together or whether they will find that this is impossible.
This is the opening night of an extraordinary drama whose conclusion is utterly unknowable.
With a small majority or slight minority for David Cameron, Tory MPs will be much empowered.
As such, Mr Cameron will need support from other parties to get business through.
The PM will also need a better whips office to handle rebellions.
The arrival of 56 SNP MPs will transform the House of Commons and British politics.
Labour and the Lib Dems will probably need new leaders.
That is the question many people will be asking this morning after the party which has fought for Scottish independence for 80 years swept to victory.
The answer from the jubilant Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon is a firm “no”.
She insists that her MPs will speak for all of Scotland, not just for the 45% who voted for the country to leave the United Kingdom last September.
In the closing hours of the most extraordinary election campaign which anyone in Scotland can remember, Ms Sturgeon turned to talk of “legitimacy.”
That will be her watchword in the coming days as she argues that the prime minister cannot ignore the democratic will of the Scottish people.
Politically, Scotland and England this morning look and feel like very different countries.
After all the pre-election polls and speculation, the votes have finally been cast in the lection
After weeks of chatter about an election too close to call, it wasn’t that close at all.
David Cameron will be continuing as our prime minister.
So, what is all this likely to mean?
A referendum on whether the UK stays in, or leaves, the European Union, within the next two-and-a-half years.
And so here’s another thing we know for certain this morning: Politics ain’t going to be boring any time soon.
Ed Miliband is now almost certain to stand down. For Labour the story of their terrible night is rapidly turning into the search for a new leader. So who will that be?
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, is almost certain to run.
Even before this election, both he and another almost inevitable candidate, Chuka Umunna, had raised eyebrows inside the party at the work they had put in, preparing the ground with members and the unions for potential bids.
Yvette Cooper, before the election, was still thought not to have made up her mind over whether to run. That decision has been made perhaps a little easier as her husband, Ed Balls, has lost his seat.
She is certainly potentially in the frame, along with two lesser known names – Liz Kendall and Dan Jarvis – two MPs who were only elected in 2010 for the first time.
This could be their moment. But whoever is in the job, they face a monumental task.
Sterling is up (the most for seven years against the euro), share prices are up (especially bank shares like Lloyds and RBS, and energy shares such as Centrica), government bond prices are up.
To state the obvious, investors love the Tories’ general election victory.
There are a few reasons.
One (no surprise here) is that Labour’s threat of breaking up banks and imposing energy price caps has been lifted.
Second is that investors have been discounting days and weeks of wrangling after polling day over who would form the government – and so they are semi-euphoric that we already know who’s in charge.
Third, many investors tend to be economically conservative and instinctively Conservative.
But although the City may be a bit drunk on the result, its pleasure in Ed Miliband’s and Ed Balls’ humiliation may be making it a bit blind – perhaps dangerously so – to some bumps in the economic road ahead.
(Credits: Matt Osborn, Seán Clarke, Will Franklin and Ralph Straumann)
(Analysis from BBC correspondents)
