Election 2015: The Story So Far

It was a night in which Labour were wiped out by the SNP in Scotland and the Liberal Democrats were crushed across the country.

Listen to some of the key moments below:

This is how the General Election unfolded throughout the night:

10pm: Exit poll puts the Conservatives ahead on 316 seats, with Labour on 239 seats, the Liberal Democrats on 10, the SNP on 58 and Ukip on two.

23.16pm: Labour won the first seat to declare in the 2015 General Election with an increased majority for Bridget Phillipson in Houghton and Sunderland South.

1.52am: Conservatives comfortably hold Nuneaton - one of Labour's key target seats - with 20,827 votes to Labour's 15,945.

2.22am: Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander loses his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat in the House of Commons to the SNP's Mhairi Black.

2.50am Prime Minister David Cameron arrives at the count of his constituency of Witney.

2.55am: Labour loses Gordon Brown's former seat in Scotland, the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, to the SNP.

3.10am Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy loses his East Renfrewshire seat to the SNP's Kirsten Oswald.

3.34am: Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Ed Davey lost his Kingston and Surbiton constituency to the Conservatives.

3.59am: Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael retained his seat in Orkney and Shetland, with the Liberal Democrat seeing off the challenge from the SNP.

4.06am: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg arrives at the count in his constituency of Sheffield Hallam.

4.07am: Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone, the coalition's crime prevention minister, loses Hornsey and Wood Green to Labour.

4.11am: Simon Hughes, a senior Liberal Democrat and MP of 32 years' standing, loses in Bermondsey and Old Southwark to Labour by around 5,000 votes.

4.12am: Labour leader Ed Miliband arrives at the count in the Doncaster North constituency.

4.13am: Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond wins the Gordon seat, beating his Liberal Democrat rival Christine Jardine.

4.18am: Ukip won its first seat in a General Election, with former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell seeing a much reduced majority compared to last year's by-election.

4.23am: Ukip is forced into third place in Thurrock, one of its highest-priority seats, as Jackie Doyle Price wins re-election for the Conservatives by a slender majority over Labour.

4.31am: Boris Johnson returns to Parliament as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, winning a majority of more than 10,000 votes.

4.37am: Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable loses his Twickenham seat to the Conservatives.

4.51am: Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg holds onto his Sheffield Hallam seat. He said he would be discussing his leadership with colleagues after a cruel and punishing night for his party''.

5.01am: Conservative Scotland Office Minister David Mundell holds his seat of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale despite a strong challenge from the SNP.

5.02am: Employment minister Esther McVey is defeated in Wirral West, after Labour's Margaret Greenwood won the tight marginal.

5.25am: Labour leader Ed Miliband, who retains his Doncaster North seat, says: This has clearly been a very difficult and disappointing night for the Labour Party.''

• Election 2015