1.25 am
Disappointing result for the Tories in Vale of Clwyd, where they fail to gain from Labour with a swing of only 3.6%. Intriguing results in Wales: Plaid failed to gain Ynes Mon from Labour, but did take Arfon.
Hearing of Lib Dem holds in Yeovil (David Laws) and NE Fife (Ming Campbell) – but Labour have held on in Wrexham, a hoped-for gain.
1.21 am
Tweet from Nigel Ashton of a likely Lib Dem hold in Southport:
We are confident of holding Southport but the result is hours away
And interesting news from Ashfield via The Guardian:
Gloria De Piero, the GMTV political editor who was parachuted into Ashfield, Geoff Hoon’s seat, is trailing the Lib Dems, according to the Press Association.
1.19 am
The NUS has released the following statement on today’s voting scandal:
The National Union of Students (NUS) tonight condemned election officials after students were turned away from Ranmoor polling station in Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency as they attempted to vote. Students have complained that they were denied the right to vote because of a decision to segregate student voters from other members of the electorate, the latter having been fast-tracked.
1.15 am
This is more like it … results starting to trickle in.
Justine Greening has been returned for the Tories in Putney – again a huge swing from Labour to Tory, this time of almost 10%.
As reported here earlier, Lady Hermon has been returned as an Independent MP for North Down with a massive 63% of the vote.
1.09 am
Paddy Ashdown calls the exit poll “rubbish” and predicts a small Tory majority.
Torbay result comng in … LIB DEM HOLD IN TORBAY 🙂 65% turnout AND small swing of 1.1% from Tory to Lib Dem. Huge sigh of relief in my living room!
Adrian Sanders Liberal Democrat 23,126 47.0% (+5.2)
Conservative 19,048 38.7% (+2.9)
Labour 3,231 6.6% (-7.9)
Huge congratulations to Adrian on very successfully squeezing the Labour vote, and increasing the party’s share of the vote. Wonder what Mark Littlewood will make of that one?
1.04 am
First official Tory gain of the night in Kingswood on a swing from Labour of 9.4%. Lib Dem vote slipped back slightly. The exit poll for the Lib Dems in terms of our share of the vote is nooking not inaccurate. What the party will be pinning its hopes on is that our targeting strategy pays off.
1.00 am
Durham North result: Labour hold, but with much-reduced majority, and an 8.9% swing from Labour to Tory. The Lib Dem vote went up, but the Tories leap-frogged us into second place by just 5 votes.
00.53 am
LIB DEM HOLD: Steve Webb has retained Thornbury and Yate. 75% turnout. 4% swing from Lib Dems to Tory, which might suggest the Lib Dems are going to struggle in the west country?
Steve Webb: Liberal Democrat 25,032 51.9% (-2.4)
Conservative 17,916 37.2% (+6.3)
Labour 3,385 7.0% (-3.8)
00.50 am
Congratulations to the Lib Dems’ sister party in Northern Ireland, the Alliance Party, on gaining Belfast East from the DUP’s Peter Robinson on a huge 22% swing. Amazing result.
00.42 am
Alix Mortimer has been in contact with young voters in Sheffield who’ve stated categorically that they were segregated in queuing to vote, with reports that they were told by one official they were only ‘temporary residents’. Unbelievable disgrace.
00.37 am
Unconfirmed reports that Ben Bradshaw has held on in Exeter, where the Lib Dems were in third place.
00.32 am
Lethargy setting in? Try this quiz question: How many prime ministes served under Queen Victoria? Answer later.
00.24 am
Sky reports LIB DEM GAIN: Edinburgh South If so, welcome Fred Mackintosh MP.
00.22 am
Mark Pack has just predicted a Lib Dem gain for Ed Fordham in Hamstead and Kilburn. You can listen live to Mark’s (and other bloggers’) punditry on LBC here.
00.16 am
Bizarre news that in Sheffield voters were split into residents and students lines, with the latter moving more slowly – resulting in fewer students voting. That sounds like a disgrace. (Different matter if voters were divided into those with poll cards and those without). See the Facebook group here for more info.
00.12 am
A welcome tweet from Alison Goldsworthy that Plaid have conceded Ceredigion, so looks like a Lib Dem hold.
00.08 am
The Electoral Commission has pledged to launch a “thorough review” of tonight’s voting chaos. Which is all very well, but 24 hours too late.
12 midnight
BBC looking at Lib Dem targets, naming Durham (against Labour) and Guildford (against Tories) so far. And then a call-out for Redcar, highlighted by Mark Pack earlier today.
Looks like Lady (Sylvia) Hermon will be back in the Commons, according to The Guardian:
Lady (Sylvia) Hermon is expected to be re-elected by a landslide in North Down. She rejected David Cameron’s overtures to join the Ulster Unionist-Conservative alliance and her victory will be seen as a major setback for the joint party project. Hermon left the UUP in protest over the Tory link-up and stood tonight as an independent candidate. Her majority tonight is also expected to be higher the one she enjoyed in 2005.
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56 Comments
Reports on pb.com that Redcar is looking close – good news for us.
These voting problems are truly scandalous. A travesty if even a smidgen of these reports are true.
Good news on Ceredigion if true, all fingers crossed on target seats.
Andrew Neill is truely annoyong me now.
Andrew Neil’s been annoying me for years.
Sky reporting LD gain Edinburgh South.
ITV hasn’t corrected Lib Dem seats on exit poll yet
Woohoo about Edinburgh if correct. Make it so.
Why does ITV show 8 seats declared and BBC 4,
Hmmm, BBC are saying that Phil Woolas is safe.
I think we’re hearing enough rumours and news from around the country to conclude what we all suspected – the exit poll is bollocks.
STV reporting Lab hold East Lothian.
Oh my… I want some NUMBERS from these “results” we’re being given!
Shinners hold W Tyrone.
WE’VE HELD CEREDIGION. PLAID HAVE CONCEEDED DEFEAT.
++++BREAKING NEWS Lib Dems gain Edinburgh South, and Sky News have been reporting this now since 10.25, so, what on earth is wrong with the BBC, and nobody has sent a text to David Steel on ITV yet….c’mon.
Spoiler Alert***** Don’t look if your still guessing Victoria’s PMs********
(without looking): Melbourne, Peel, Russell (Conrad’s grandad!), Derby, Gladstone, Disraeli, Salisbury, Rosebery, I get shaky around the turn of the century…) Bonar Law?
Remarkably news! The BBC has managed to cover part of a declaration! (Though they missed most of it.)
Robinson looses in east Belfast. A gain for the Alliance.!
Naomi Long has taken out Peter Robinson
“BBC reporter Danny Carpenter in York says hundreds of postal ballots have gone missing in the city. The problems are being blamed on a printing error and a temporary closure at the local postal sorting office. In York Outer, the Lib Dems had a notional majority of just 203, meaning the missing votes could have a significant impact and pave the way for a losing party to challenge tonight’s result in the courts.”
Really, there was nothing that Labour did not learn from their friendship with Bush.
Alliance GAIN Belfast East from DUPs Peter Robinson!!!!!
Wow – Alliance gain Belfast East!
Alliance PNI beat Peter Robinson – yay!
Well done S.Webb…..Thornbury and Yate – hold…
Isn’t that the first ever Alliance MP?
ITV reporting Con gain Battersea – no surprise.
Will Eunice Long sit with the Lib Dems?
The Alliance MP is likely to work with Lib Dem MPs, so excellent news for our party as well as great news for our sister party.
Just trying to square the circle here between the final polls from 9 polling companies and the exit poll. The only way I can see that they are remotely consistent is if the Lib Dems have dramatically failed to convert votes into seats – ie securing 26-27% of the vote but with no seat gains. Can anyone explain this?
The only other explanation is that the huge number of undecideds plumped for either the Tories or Labour, perhaps concluding this was an old-fashioned two-way contest after all…
Anyway, these first LD/Con marginals are going to be interesting.
Have the Lib Dems lost a seat.
Great news about the Allaince party, don’t they have an alliance with us, scratch what I said above.
Stratton Mills was first but he defected from UUP/Con – Naomi Long is their first ELECTED.
Okay, so if Sheffield actively discriminated against students (who are known to have a much higher rate of Lib Dems), and as a result of this many students were not able to vote, surely that’s completely illegal?
As in, the election in that district is void and they have to have a new one.
Con gain Kingswood from Lab.
Yes, the Alliance sit with the Lib Dems in the Lords, thats an Ulsterman lost to the pact with Cameron.
Sky News were reporting Lib Dem gain of Edinburgh but thats now gone from their website.
Brown is reported by the Press Association as saying yes, I will try to form a coalition if its a hung-parliament.
9.4% swing in Kingswood.
Yes, Adrian Sanders is back!
Torbay in, Lib Dems have hold on fantastic result. Get in……Yay
Torbay hold….!!!!
Great work in Torbay!
Swing cons to lib dem in Torbay
Massive 9.9% swing to Tories in Putney – in a held seat. Are we looking at an anyone but Labour election?
I fear the Tories have won a significant majority, with some of the swings we are seeing against Labour. The exit poll seems wildly inaccurate. But Lib Dem vote holding up.
What on earth was Sky News website reporting Lib Dem gain in Edinburgh South…whats going on there, its now been removed, a mystery….
The results are incredible uneven. In the Vale of Clwyd the Tories have managed only a 3.5% swing.
Downing St source has told the Press Association that Brown will indeed seek to form a coalition, in the event of a hung parliament. Looks like Clegg will get a phone call…surely we all expect him to blow a raspberry.
“They want to do a deal,” says BBC Nick Robinson, “its klaxon horns and red lights flashing, lets talk about electoral reform, we are the progressive alliance.”
Plaid Cymru gain Arfon, north east Wales.
Menzies Campbell has held on – no surprise there.
City of Durham, They cut of Durham the Morons.
arr….Didn’t take City of Durham…
New live-blog thread open now:
https://www.libdemvoice.org/the-ldv-election-night-liveblog-130-300-pm-19358.html
Held Yeovil didn’t gain Durham that’s disapointing.
these results are very disapointing
ITV reporting that Edinburgh South is likely to be a re-count and will be done with a fresh start much later….there are three seats including this one which we have in our sights…
“Dont rule the Labour Party out just yet, but, we could be doing all this over again within 18 months,” says ITV political editor.
Lib Dems win Eastbourne says BBC News, having reported earlier that it was a Tory hang-on.
Chris Huhne back with a vastly improved majority. The Rees-Mogg girl fails for Tories to gain Somerton and Frome, where David Heath did well.
I really can’t believe what is happening to the libdems, hope for change is fast diminishing, 🙁 not a good day for the people of Britain at all, if anything comes from this it is a comfirmation of the need for PR we can’t go on being scammed like this…
Sylvia Hermon, Independent MP for North Down, is retiring.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3291472.html