The Democratic Unionist Party, whose controversial policies include blocking gay marriage, could hold the balance of power in the new Parliament. 
 
 The Northern Irish party looks likely to give the Conservatives its support to form a government. 
 
 If it manages to become part of the government and hold it up, however, it may be able to introduce the kinds of policies that have become controversial in Northern Ireland. 
 
 Shape Created with Sketch. UK Election Day 2017 Show all 38 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. UK Election Day 2017 1/38 Door of Number 10 Downing Street is seen on the morning after Britain's election in London REUTERS 2/38 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should "go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country" PA 3/38 Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell arrives at Labour Headquarters on June 9, 2017 in London, England. After a snap election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday. The closely fought election has failed to return a clear overall majority winner and a hung parliament has been declared Getty Images 4/38 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain's Green Party, speaks after retaining her seat in the general election, in Brighton REUTERS 5/38 Patrons watch the results for Britain's election in London REUTERS 6/38 Leader of the Liberal democrats Tim Farron celebrates beating Conservative party candidate James Airey (R) following the announcement of the results at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre on June 9, 2017 in Kendal, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images 7/38 Paul Nuttal, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party reacts after failing to win the seat of Boston and Skegness at the counting centre for Britain's general election in Boston REUTERS 8/38 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election. PA 9/38 Anna McMorrin hugs Jo Stevens MP after winning Cardiff North for Labour at the Sport Wales National Centre on June 9, 2017 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images 10/38 Vince Cable wins the Twickenham election for the Liberal Democrats. Richmond and Twickenham election Rex Features 11/38 Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn rubs his face after arriving for the declaration at his constituency in London AP 12/38 Emily Thornberry speaks after holding her Islington South and Finsbury seat at the Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, north London PA 13/38 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listens as the declaration at her constituency is made for in the general election in Maidenhead, England, Friday, June 9, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble in calling an early election appeared Friday to have backfired spectacularly, after an exit poll suggested her Conservative Party could lose its majority in Parliament AP 14/38 Labour Party candidate Emily Thornberry smiles at a counting centre for BritainâÃÃ´s general election in London REUTERS 15/38 A picture shows the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament in central London on June 8, 2017, on the night of Britain's general election. Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to win Britain's snap election but lose her parliamentary majority, a shock exit poll suggested on June 8, in what would be a major blow for her leadership as Brexit talks loom AFP/Getty Images 16/38 DUP candidate for Lagan Valley Jeffrey Donaldson celebrates following his election at the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn as counting is under way for the General Election PA 17/38 Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat at a counting centre for Britain's general election in Hastings REUTERS 18/38 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for BritainâÃÃ´s general election in London Reuters 19/38 The London Eye is illuminated in blue, representing the Conservative Party, after the first exit polls announced in Britain's general election AP 20/38 Election officials count votes in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA 21/38 The London Eye is illuminated in red, the color of the Labour Party, after first exit polls of Britain's national election announced in London AP 22/38 BBC Television centre is illuminated with the exit poll results for Britain’s general election Eddie Keogh/Reuters 23/38 Labour’s Bridget Phillipson (centre) smiles after being announced as the winner of the election for the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South at a counting centre Reuters 24/38 Members of the election staff prepare to count ballots, in Theresa May’s constituency in Maidenhead AP 25/38 Ballot papers are checked ahead of the count at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre Getty 26/38 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for Britain’s general election in Kendal Reuters 27/38 Theresa May arrives to vote at a polling station in Maidenhead AP 28/38 Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his ballot at a polling station in north London EPA 29/38 Lib Dems leader Tim Farron outside a polling station at Stonecross Manor Hotel in Kendal, Cumbria PA 30/38 The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) Paul Nuttall arrives to vote at a polling station in Congleton Reuters 31/38 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell (left) the CEO of the SNP after casting their votes at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall, Glasgow, Scotland EPA 32/38 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain’s Green Party, arrives with her husband Richard Savage, to vote in Brighton Reuters 33/38 An advertising van showing caricatures of Tim Farron, Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Nuttall with the message who will be looking for a new job as Britain goes to the polls to elect a new government Rex 34/38 Performers pose with puppet caricatures of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Tim Farron and leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in front of the Palace of Westminster Reuters 35/38 Dogs wait for their owner outside a polling station in Penally, Wales Reuters 36/38 Police officers speak with a Labour Party activist outside a polling station in London AP 37/38 Benedictine nuns from Tyburn Convent leave after voting in Britain's general election at a polling station in St John's Parish Hall, London AP 38/38 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty 1/38 Door of Number 10 Downing Street is seen on the morning after Britain's election in London REUTERS 2/38 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home in north London after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should "go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country" PA 3/38 Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell arrives at Labour Headquarters on June 9, 2017 in London, England. After a snap election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday. The closely fought election has failed to return a clear overall majority winner and a hung parliament has been declared Getty Images 4/38 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain's Green Party, speaks after retaining her seat in the general election, in Brighton REUTERS 5/38 Patrons watch the results for Britain's election in London REUTERS 6/38 Leader of the Liberal democrats Tim Farron celebrates beating Conservative party candidate James Airey (R) following the announcement of the results at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre on June 9, 2017 in Kendal, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images 7/38 Paul Nuttal, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party reacts after failing to win the seat of Boston and Skegness at the counting centre for Britain's general election in Boston REUTERS 8/38 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrives at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election. PA 9/38 Anna McMorrin hugs Jo Stevens MP after winning Cardiff North for Labour at the Sport Wales National Centre on June 9, 2017 in Cardiff, United Kingdom. After a snap election was called, the United Kingdom went to the polls yesterday following a closely fought election. The results from across the country are being counted and an overall result is expected in the early hours Getty Images 10/38 Vince Cable wins the Twickenham election for the Liberal Democrats. Richmond and Twickenham election Rex Features 11/38 Britain's Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn rubs his face after arriving for the declaration at his constituency in London AP 12/38 Emily Thornberry speaks after holding her Islington South and Finsbury seat at the Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, north London PA 13/38 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May listens as the declaration at her constituency is made for in the general election in Maidenhead, England, Friday, June 9, 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May's gamble in calling an early election appeared Friday to have backfired spectacularly, after an exit poll suggested her Conservative Party could lose its majority in Parliament AP 14/38 Labour Party candidate Emily Thornberry smiles at a counting centre for BritainâÃÃ´s general election in London REUTERS 15/38 A picture shows the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament in central London on June 8, 2017, on the night of Britain's general election. Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to win Britain's snap election but lose her parliamentary majority, a shock exit poll suggested on June 8, in what would be a major blow for her leadership as Brexit talks loom AFP/Getty Images 16/38 DUP candidate for Lagan Valley Jeffrey Donaldson celebrates following his election at the Eikon Exhibition Centre in Lisburn as counting is under way for the General Election PA 17/38 Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd attends the count for her seat at a counting centre for Britain's general election in Hastings REUTERS 18/38 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for BritainâÃÃ´s general election in London Reuters 19/38 The London Eye is illuminated in blue, representing the Conservative Party, after the first exit polls announced in Britain's general election AP 20/38 Election officials count votes in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA 21/38 The London Eye is illuminated in red, the color of the Labour Party, after first exit polls of Britain's national election announced in London AP 22/38 BBC Television centre is illuminated with the exit poll results for Britain’s general election Eddie Keogh/Reuters 23/38 Labour’s Bridget Phillipson (centre) smiles after being announced as the winner of the election for the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South at a counting centre Reuters 24/38 Members of the election staff prepare to count ballots, in Theresa May’s constituency in Maidenhead AP 25/38 Ballot papers are checked ahead of the count at the Westmoorland and Lonsdale constituency count at Kendal Leisure Centre Getty 26/38 Ballots are counted at a counting centre for Britain’s general election in Kendal Reuters 27/38 Theresa May arrives to vote at a polling station in Maidenhead AP 28/38 Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his ballot at a polling station in north London EPA 29/38 Lib Dems leader Tim Farron outside a polling station at Stonecross Manor Hotel in Kendal, Cumbria PA 30/38 The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) Paul Nuttall arrives to vote at a polling station in Congleton Reuters 31/38 Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell (left) the CEO of the SNP after casting their votes at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall, Glasgow, Scotland EPA 32/38 Caroline Lucas, co-leader of Britain’s Green Party, arrives with her husband Richard Savage, to vote in Brighton Reuters 33/38 An advertising van showing caricatures of Tim Farron, Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Nuttall with the message who will be looking for a new job as Britain goes to the polls to elect a new government Rex 34/38 Performers pose with puppet caricatures of Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Tim Farron and leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in front of the Palace of Westminster Reuters 35/38 Dogs wait for their owner outside a polling station in Penally, Wales Reuters 36/38 Police officers speak with a Labour Party activist outside a polling station in London AP 37/38 Benedictine nuns from Tyburn Convent leave after voting in Britain's general election at a polling station in St John's Parish Hall, London AP 38/38 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty 
 
 That has included moves by the party to oppose the introduction of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland, as well as lifting the ban on abortion. Those laws have been in place across the rest of the UK, but the DUP has helped block them in Northern Ireland in recent years. 
 
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 Leader Arlene Foster all but confirmed that the DUP would never join a coalition with Labour. She said that she had “always said” the party would find it hard to work with Jeremy Corbyn. 
 
 The party, alongside Sinn Fein, has made strong gains in the election at the expense of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party. 
 
 The DUP replaced the SDLP in South Belfast, wrested back South Antrim from the Ulster Unionist Party and saw off the challenge of the Alliance Party and Sinn Fein in East and North Belfast respectively. 
 
 With speculation the DUP could hold an influential position in Westminster, party leader Arlene Foster declared it a “good night for the Union”. 
 
 She said: “We’ll wait to hear what the results actually are, but we are very pleased with the way in which people have reacted to the positive message of the campaign – it was about the Union, the importance of the Union, and unionists have really come out in their numbers. 
 
 “We fought this election on the importance of the Union and I think people really responded to that.” 
 
 
 
 The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal. 
 
 
 
 Sign our petition here ||||| LONDON Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives are on track to govern Britain for another five years even though they are likely to fall just short of an outright majority at Thursday's election, an exit poll showed. 
 
 The poll gave the Conservatives 316 of 650 seats in the lower house of parliament and the main opposition Labour Party 239. If accurate, that would be one of centre-left Labour's worst ever results. 
 
 Conservative government minister Michael Gove said that if the exit poll proved correct "the Conservatives have clearly won this election". 
 
 Such a result means Britain is likely to face a historic in-out European Union membership referendum in the next two years and that billions of pounds will be cut from government spending to eliminate the budget deficit in the world's fifth largest economy. 
 
 Sterling jumped to a one-week high after the poll. The pound GBP=D4 jumped nearly 2 U.S. cents to $1.5430 in early Australasian trade, hitting its strongest since April 30. 
 
 UK election exit polls have a good track record but the large number of parties competing this time has raised the potential for error. It will be well into Friday before final results are announced. 
 
 The poll, conducted for Britain's national broadcasters, suggests Cameron will have multiple options to form a government, perhaps with the support of either the Liberal Democrats, his current coalition partners, or Northern Irish unionists or both. He could also try and go it alone. 
 
 STUNNING SCOTTISH FORECAST 
 
 The same poll said the Scottish National Party (SNP) would win 58 of Scotland's 59 seats, all but wiping Labour out in its former stronghold. 
 
 Opponents fear the SNP is preparing to use an emphatic win to renew its push for an independence referendum even though it lost such a plebiscite only last year. 
 
 SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said the exit poll's prediction should be treated with huge caution. But even if the final tally is a little lower it would still be the nationalists' best result in a UK-wide election by a huge margin. 
 
 The centrist Liberal Democrats, who have governed in coalition with the Conservatives for the past five years, will finish with just 10 seats, the exit poll said. If confirmed, that would represent a disaster for leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. 
 
 The UK Independence Party, which wants an immediate British withdrawal from the EU and enjoyed a poll surge last year, was on track to get just two seats. 
 
 A separate poll of Britons who had already voted by YouGov extrapolated a more even result however, putting the Conservatives on 284 seats and Labour on 263, the Liberal Democrats on 31 and the Scottish Nationalists on 48. 
 
 Before the election, opinion polls had shown the Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck, leaving that industry facing a potential inquest. 
 
 If the main exit poll is accurate, Cameron's position as Conservative leader, which had been looking shaky before the election, would be secure. By exceeding expectations he could expect to quell dissent within his party. 
 
 Conversely, the result would be a crushing defeat for Labour and Ed Miliband, its leader. 
 
 Even if the centre-left party got together with the left-leaning Scottish nationalists and the Greens the exit poll suggested it would still be well short of the 326 seats needed for a majority in parliament. 
 
 Miliband, who was widely perceived to have performed better in the campaign than expected, would be likely to come under pressure to step down as leader. 
 
 The country's mostly right-wing press has long criticised him for being socially-awkward and presiding over what it has described as a dangerous lurch to the left. 
 
 Cameron has pledged to eliminate Britain's budget deficit, now running at 5 percent of gross domestic product, by 2018/19, including through cuts to welfare spending of 12 billion pounds ($18.3 billion). 
 
 (Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Andrew Osborn. Editing by Mike Peacock) ||||| British Prime Minister David Cameron is on the cusp of returning to office after Thursday's election. Returns show his Conservative Party close to winning a majority of parliament. (May 8) AP 
 
 An exit poll that predicts the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister David Cameron will win 316 seats in Parliament is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House in London on May 7, 2015. (Photo: Jack Taylor, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 LONDON — Despite dire polls for the Conservative Party — Tories — throughout the campaign and even with a turn to favor opposition Labour in the last few days, Tory party insiders have maintained a steely optimism about Thursday night's parliamentary vote in Britain. 
 
 The Tories would come out on top because the election was about the economy, and on that issue there was no doubt: Voters trusted them more than the Labour Party. And the polls, they felt, were wrong because, historically, the British don't like to admit that they might vote Tory, with its reputation as the "mean" party. 
 
 But by 10 p.m., when the exit polls were released — with the nation quite literally on the edge of its seat, gathered at election parties everywhere — the Tories appeared to be proved right. Rather than the best-case predictions by many pollsters and observers of 276 seats for the Tories, they would likely get 316 of the 326 needed for an absolute majority. Not over the top, but in easy sight of putting together a governing coalition. 
 
 Disbelief was, among all non-Tories, the singular immediate response. 
 
 Spokespeople for the devastated Labour Party, which exit polls put at 239 seats, simply refused to accept the results, continuing to argue with flabbergasted expressions that somehow magically when the actual results came in, they would find the 50 seats they would need to block another Tory government. 
 
 The other big losers were the Liberal Democrats, the current coalition partner in the Tory-led government. They were equally ravaged by a fall from 57 seats to a projected 10, looking wide-eyed and incredulous on live television. Such a large drop might mean that much of the party's leadership, possibly including Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, would be wiped away. 
 
 Even the other big winner, according to the projections, the Scottish National Party (SNP), which looked like it might take all of Labour's seats in Scotland and advancing from 6 to 58 seats in all, said it was skeptical of such an overwhelming victory. 
 
 But the numbers for both the Tory's and SNP were so large, and the numbers for Labour and the Lib Dems so bleak and depressing, that even a correction in the exit polls was unlikely to change the clear and extraordinary direction of the results. 
 
 British Prime Minister and Conservative leader David Cameron, left, departs from a polling station after voting with his wife Samantha, at the village of Spelsbury in Oxfordshire on May 7, 2015. (Photo: Andy Rain, EPA) 
 
 David Cameron's Tories were in a position not only to form a new coalition and working majority, but to do so with very little horse-trading. The centrist Lib Dems had hoped that even if they lost seats they would be king makers in what was expected to be a close split between Labour and the Tories. Now, practically speaking, they would have no place to go except to follow the Tories, and they would have no leverage with which to negotiate a favorable place in a new coalition. 
 
 In fact, at 316 seats, the Tories could easily turn to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), with its eight projected seats to reach the voting majority of 323 (Sinn Féin, another Irish party, has five seats, but, in protest, doesn't sit). 
 
 It is not just the Tories unexpected strength that appears now to recast U.K. politics, but it is also Labour's weakness. If the election projections hold, Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, will likely resign or be forced out by the end of the week. 
 
 It is also the rise of the SNP, likely more determined, more militant and far larger than anyone imagined it might ever be, that would become perhaps the central issue in British politics. Nothing more clearly represents the divide and enmity between England and Scotland than a strong Tory showing and an even more dramatic SNP sweep. 
 
 It might be argued that the Cameron government's campaign last year to defeat the referendum for Scottish independence helped propel the popularity of the SNP, which in turn undermined the Labour Party's traditional strength in Scotland, thereby helping to insure the Tory victory. 
 
 It was supposed to be Labour that would make a Devil's bargain with the SNP and, likely, face new calls for Scottish independence. 
 
 But now it seems that, with his new governing majority expected to be in place soon, Cameron will be the one who is going to have to deal with an ever-greater empowered and recalcitrant Scotland. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Ri4WuS ||||| The SNP has staged an unprecedented and historic landslide general election rout in Scotland that saw Labour all but wiped out in its former stronghold and the United Kingdom facing a major new threat to its future. 
 
 On an extraordinary night north of the Border that left any hope Ed Miliband had of winning power in tatters, the Nationalists polled more than 50 per cent of the votes and won 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats compared to just one for the Labour, one for the Tories and one for the Liberal Democrats. 
 
 Among the high-profile casualties were Jim Murphy, the Scottish Labour leader and Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary. Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal Democrat leader, also lost their seats in the Nationalist tsunami. 
 
 Lib Dem's Danny Alexander 
 
 Constituency after constituency in Scotland’s former industrial heartlands, most held by Labour for decades, fell as its support collapsed across the country and moved wholesale with record swings to Nicola Sturgeon’s party. Only Ian Murray in Edinburgh South managed to cling on 
 
 The SNP won all seven seats in Glasgow and even Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, Gordon Brown’s former seat, where Labour was defending a majority of more than 23,000. Turnout in many of the seats was more than 70 per cent, a legacy of last September’s referendum. 
 
 Nicola Sturgeon looks delighted at the Glasgow count 
 
 Nicola Sturgeon said the “tectonic plates” of Scottish politics had shifted and Alex Salmond, who was the comfortable victor in the former Lib Dem-held constituency of Gordon, said that a “Scottish lion” had roared and no UK Government could ignore it. 
 
 But a defiant Mr Murphy, who vowed to fight on as Scottish Labour leader, warned the Nationalists they now had a responsibility not to conflate their party “with our country”. 
 
 However, Ian Davidson, who lost his Glasgow South West seat to the SNP, savaged the Scottish Labour campaign and said Mr Murphy should do the “honourable thing” and resign. 
 
 The astonishing scale of the result cast a major shadow over the Union less than eight months after Scots convincingly rejected independence and raised questions over whether David Cameron would have a mandate to govern north of the Border. 
 
 George Osborne, the Chancellor, said that the rise of the SNP presented a "huge challenge" for the Conservatives. "The Conservative party has been shut out of too many constituencies in Scotland for a long time. The Labour Party has now been shut out too. We have to listen to what the Scottish people are telling us," said Mr Osborne. 
 
 Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, said Scotland must prepare itself for a second independence referendum. 
 
 Labour's Jim Murphy loses his seat 
 
 Although Ms Sturgeon insisted she would not use a landslide to push for another vote, earlier this week she said that a UK Government would not be “legitimate” unless it had the support of Scottish MPs, a claim vehemently rejected by Mr Cameron in an interview with the Telegraph. 
 
 She said: “This is shaping up to be an outstandingly good night for the SNP but I think a good night for Scotland. The tectonic plates of Scottish politics have clearly shifted – what we are seeing is a historic shift in Scottish political opinion. 
 
 “It hasn’t happened overnight, not even in the last seven months since the referendum, although that’s accelerated the process, but Labour has been losing the trust of people in Scotland now over a period of years.” 
 
 Rejecting Labour claims she is to blame for Mr Cameron’s imminent victory, she said that if the parliamentary arithmetic does not mean the Tories can be “locked out” of Downing Street “that will be because Labour has failed to beat the Conservatives in England. Labour cannot blame the SNP for that.” 
 
 David Cameron looked delighted 
 
 Ms Sturgeon insisted she would not do a deal with the Prime Minister to get full fiscal autonomy, adding: “The Tories cannot ignore what has happened in Scotland tonight – Scotland has clearly voted for an end to austerity and more investment in our public services and a stronger economy. These are the messages we will now take to the very heart of Westminster.” 
 
 In his victory address, Mr Salmond said: “There’s a swing underway in Scotland the like of which has not been seen in recorded politics. It is twice the level of any swing recorded in Scotland or indeed across the United Kingdom since electoral records began in 1835. 
 
 “It’s an extraordinary statement of intent from the people of Scotland. The Scottish lion has roared this morning across the country.” 
 
 He added: “It is inconceivable that such a statement of unity from the people of Scotland – north, south, east and west – can possibly be ignored by any administration of any complexion.” 
 
 Speaking immediately after his defeat, a defiant Mr Murphy said “the fight back starts tomorrow”. He said: "It has proven hard to turn round years of difficulty with the Scottish Labour Party in just five short months. 
 
 "There will be more to say about this and what it means for Scotland in the days to come, but for me personally and for the Scottish Labour Party the fight goes on and our cause continues. The party that has traditionally been the timeless champion of the underdog now finds itself in the position of being the underdog.” 
 
 Annabel Goldie, the former Scottish Tory leader, argued it was now inevitable that Ms Sturgeon will include a “carefully caveated” pledge for a second referendum in her manifesto for next year’s Holyrood election. 
 
 She predicted that the document would reserve the right to call another vote if there was a “material change” in circumstances, but that the SNP would be the sole arbiter in deciding if this test was met. 
 
 Speaking as he conceded defeat in Linlithgow and Falkirk East, Michael Connarty, the incumbent Labour candidate, said the SNP had “misled and betrayed” the people of Scotland with their “spin” based on a "cult of personality" around Ms Sturgeon. 
 
 • Who is Nicola Sturgeon? 
 
 Rather than being a decisive influence on a Labour Government, as the First Minister claimed, he said they would be a noisy irrelevance with the Tories retaining power. 
 
 The first sign of the SNP rout came when an exit poll published at 10pm predicted that the SNP was on course to win 58 seats, all but one in Scotland, but that the Tories and Lib Dems would together just have enough to hold a Commons majority. 
 
 This was immediately treated with extreme scepticism by senior politicians from Labour, the Tories and the SNP, but it became apparent that it was more accurate than any of them suspected. 
 
 The first Scottish declaration, in Kilmarnock and Loudon, confirmed hours of rumours that the Labour and Lib Dem vote had totally collapsed and moved wholesale to the Nationalists, a pattern that was later repeated across the country. 
 
 Cathy Jamieson, a former Scottish minister and Shadow Treasury Minister, lost her seat to the SNP’s Alan Brown with a swing of 26 per cent. 
 
 Douglas Alexander, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and the coordinator of Labour’s UK election campaign, then lost his Paisley and South Renfrewshire seat by 5,684 votes to 20-year-old Mhairi Black, who became the youngest MP for 350 years. 
 
 Mhairi Black, Britain's youngest MP 
 
 Mr Alexander said Scots had rejected the Conservatives but have “not placed that trust in the Labour Party” and it had to regain that trust. Seat after seat then tumbled to the SNP with records for electoral swings being smashed. 
 
 The Nationalists even managed to take Gordon Brown's former seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath with majority of 9,974 a swing of 35 per cent. Mr Murphy lost his Renfrewshire East seat to the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald with a swing of 31.7 per cent. 
 
 All the Lib Dems’ 10 mainland seats also fell, with employment relations minister Jo Swinson losing her Dunbartonshire East constituency and Mr Salmond comfortably taking Gordon by 8,687 votes. 
 
 It was nearly 4am by the time a Scottish seat fell to a party other than the SNP, with Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem Scottish Secretary, clinging on in Orkney and Shetland by 817 votes. 
 
 Mr Murray won by 2,637 votes from Neil Hay, the SNP candidate, who was exposed during the campaign as having been a Cybernat troll who compared No voters in last year’s referendum to Nazi collaborators. 
 
 David Mundell, who was the only Tory MP in Scotland at the 2010 election, managed to hold his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat. But Mr Kennedy lost his Ross, Skye and Lochaber seat to the SNP’s Ian Blackford. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 LONDON — BBC Radio 4 had a laconic, one-word weather forecast Wednesday morning: “changeable.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 But the political forecast for Thursday’s British election has been stagnant for some time: a hung Parliament, with no party able to command a clear majority from a fragmented and skeptical electorate. 
 
 On the final day of campaigning, party leaders crisscrossed the country regardless, trying to swing the results of one of the tightest elections here in decades. 
 
 Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party was in northwest England, Scotland and the Midlands on a 36-hour bus tour, visiting marginal constituencies that could be decided by handfuls of votes. Citing gradual economic improvement during his five years in office, he appealed for support to “finish the job” and warned that the opposition Labour Party would blow apart the budget and be beholden to the more left-wing Scottish National Party. 
 
 Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, was in northern England, where his party is usually strong, visiting marginal districts held by the Conservatives. He repeated his main campaign themes: Working people deserve a better deal, the rich should pay more taxes and the National Health Service is in danger. 
 
 Photo 
 
 The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, who serves in Mr. Cameron’s coalition government as deputy prime minister, was traversing Britain from south to north on his own long tour, from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland, arguing that his centrist party was needed to keep a brake on the others and provide political stability to any new government. 
 
 The final polls suggest that the country remains deeply divided, that neither the Conservatives nor Labour has a clear advantage and that many voters are dispirited by the choice in front of them. 
 
 “I’m a bit sick of it all; it all sounds the same,” said Gayle Lazda, 29, who works in a London bookshop. “They have that way of speaking where it all sounds meaningless, and I can’t be bothered to listen. I don’t pretend to myself that it’s going to make a difference.” 
 
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 Greg Pittard, a film editor, called the campaign lackluster even as he noted the rise of smaller parties offering new approaches. “Another day, another gimmick, and it’s just not satisfying,” he said. “The only interesting aspect is that different voices are breaking through. In that sense, it’s exciting.” 
 
 All three main party leaders were essentially trying to manage the consequences of their likely inability to claim a clear victory, while maneuvering to see how they could form or join a government that could survive more than a few months. 
 
 A number of models suggest that the two main parties will roughly split two-thirds of the vote. The Conservatives are projected to win the largest number of seats, but short of the 326 seats needed to form a majority (the number falls to 323 if Sinn Fein, which does not take its seats in Parliament, keeps its current five seats; the speaker does not normally vote). The Conservatives may even be unable to achieve a majority in combination with their current coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, plus the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party and the tacit support of the U.K. Independence Party. 
 
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 Labour is projected to do well in England but suffer a blowout in Scotland, losing many of its 41 seats there to the Scottish National Party. The Scottish party’s resurgence under its new leader, Nicola Sturgeon, since losing Scotland’s independence referendum last year has been the most striking shift of the campaign. A big setback in Scotland could deny Labour the chance to win the most seats and more easily form a government. But it is possible that Mr. Miliband could end up as prime minister anyway, supported by a hodgepodge of anti-Tory parties, including the Scottish nationalists. 
 
 That possibility has led to a debate, led by Mr. Cameron and his supporters, about the “legitimacy” of a second-place party forming a government, but the rules are clear: Any party that can form a majority in Parliament has the right to govern. Not since 1923 has a second-place party managed to form a government; that government lasted less than a year. 
 
 Labour’s opponents have also argued that any government that relied on support from the Scottish nationalists would lack credibility, since it would be dependent on the votes of a party that is committed to an independent Scotland. 
 
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 Labour has said that it will make no formal deal with the Scots, though Mr. Miliband has signaled that if it came time to test whether he could command a majority, he would simply put his party’s program to Parliament and dare the Scottish National Party to vote against it. 
 
 In 2010, the Conservatives won 306 seats, Labour 258, the Liberal Democrats 57 and the Scottish National Party six. 
 
 To form a government, the Conservatives are thought to need around 290 seats this time — 300 would almost certainly be enough to allow them to continue in office in partnership with the Liberal Democrats. But many projections have them at around 280 seats, with the Liberal Democrats getting fewer than 30. So even with the Democratic Unionists and the U.K. Independence Party, expected to get at least a tenth of the vote but only a handful of seats, Mr. Cameron may find himself short of a majority. 
 
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 The same projections have Labour at 266 seats or so — meaning it would need to gain the support of the Liberal Democrats and also the Scottish National Party, which polls suggest could win 50 of Scotland’s 59 seats. The S.N.P. is farther to the left than Labour and wants more spending than Labour considers wise. The parties also disagree fundamentally on Britain’s nuclear deterrent, which the Scottish nationalists want to scrap. 
 
 Still, the S.N.P. and other smaller parties have vowed to keep the Conservatives out of Downing Street, and together with Labour, they may command a majority big enough to do that, even if the Tories get the most seats. 
 
 Mr. Cameron, who remains prime minister until he resigns or Parliament votes a motion of no confidence, could hold on until May 27, the date of the Queen’s Speech, which formally opens the new Parliament and sets out the projected government agenda. 
 
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 But if the election returns are bad for him, he might resign beforehand. Everyone will start doing the math by about dawn on Friday, but the leadership and composition of the next government may not be clear for at least a week and possibly more. 
 
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 The campaign has focused almost exclusively on domestic issues, but the outcome of the election will be important for other big questions, too. 
 
 Mr. Cameron vows to hold a referendum on continued British membership in the European Union by the end of 2017 and wants to get back more control over some issues from Brussels; Mr. Miliband has avoided backing a referendum and argues that Britain is better off in Europe, so long as new powers are not transferred to the Continent. 
 
 Both main parties also acknowledge that they will continue to cut military spending, which is already slipping below the NATO guideline of 2 percent of gross domestic product. And there is an increasing sense, especially in Washington, that Britain is slipping away from its close partnership with the United States, particularly on military matters. 
 
 A “Little England,” as Jeremy Shapiro of the Brookings Institution wrote recently, “does not augur well for a U.S. foreign policy which aims specifically to empower like-minded states to share the burdens of leadership.” 
 
 Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. A nationwide exit poll, shared by all the national networks, will be released soon after the polls close.
– The Conservative Party swept to power today in Britain's Parliamentary elections, winning a wholly unexpected and resounding victory and bringing the election to a much-quicker-than-expected conclusion. Polls ahead of Election Day showed Conservatives locked in a tight race with the opposition Labour Party, raising the possibility of days or weeks of negotiations to form a government. Instead, the party won an outright majority, taking 326 of 650 seats. But as Prime Minister David Cameron returns to 10 Downing Street in a stronger position than before, a trio of big names are out: Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, and Independence Party leader Nigel Farage have resigned in the election's wake. More: Line of the night, from Cameron: "I want my party, and I hope a government that I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost—the mantle of one nation, one United Kingdom." CNN runs down the implications of the Conservative Party win. Two big ones: Expect to start reading the word "Brexit" much more often, with Cameron having vowed to hold a 2017 referendum on whether the UK should remain a part of the EU. And could Scotland leave Britain? CNN presents the possibility, noting that the Scottish National Party's victory was a staggering one, with it taking 56 out of the 59 UK parliamentary seats in Scotland. CNN points to "rumblings in the British press" that such an SNP victory could spur yet another referendum, this one in 2016, on a split. The view from Michael Wolff: "It might be argued that the Cameron government's campaign last year to defeat the referendum for Scottish independence helped propel the popularity of the SNP, which in turn undermined the Labour Party's traditional strength in Scotland, thereby helping to [ensure] the Tory victory," he writes in USA Today. Interesting side-reading: The biggest loser of the night? Russell Brand. Among the night's most fascinating victors: Mhairi Black, who becomes the UK's youngest lawmaker since 1667.