Ed Miliband expected to quit: Labour leader on verge of resigning after 'disappointing and difficult night'

Labour leader accepts the blame for obliteration in Scotland and unexpectedly heavy losses elsewhere

Ed Miliband is on the verge of standing down as Labour leader after a crushing election result for his party.

Labour suffered a humiliating defeat in Scotland, losing a succession of senior figures booted out by a resurgent SNP and also lost a string of seats to Conservatives.

Mr Miliband is widely expected to confirm his intention to quit later today.

The Tories are now heading towards a slim overall majority after a night that contradicted pre-election polls and handed victory to David Cameron.

Speaking after winning his Doncaster North seat, Mr Miliband said: "This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party.

"We have not made the gains we wanted in England and Wales, and in Scotland we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelm our party," he said after being comfortably re-elected with an increased majority in Doncaster North.

"I want to say to all the dedicated and decent colleagues in Scotland who have lost their seats that I am deeply sorry for what has happened.

"And I also want to say that the next government has a huge responsibility. It has a huge responsibility in facing the very difficult task of keeping our country together.

"Whatever party we come from, if we believe in the United Kingdom we should stand up for people in every part of our United Kingdom because I believe that what unites us is much, much more than what divides us."

It is also turning into a very bad night for the Liberal Democrats, with Nick Clegg admitting it is a “bad night” as the party faces up to the prospect of losing all but 10 of its MPs.

Former Cabinet minister Jack Straw said Mr Miliband should consider his position after presiding over a "depressing" performance.

Asked if Mr Miliband would have to resign, he told Sky News: "It is for Mr Miliband to make up his mind about his future.

"My advice to everybody, particularly against what is depressing news, is to take a deep breath, to go to bed and then spend two or three days assessing where we go next.

"What we want to do is make sure, over the next months and years, the Labour Party is in a winning position and has not been set back in the way we were by that first six months (after the 2010 election) which we wasted on internal contemplation."

Labour's deputy election chief Lucy Powell conceded that the SNP successes - whose victims included the party's leader in Scotland Jim Murphy and shadow foreign secretary and campaign co-ordinator Douglas Alexander - "looks like it is going to help David Cameron".

Asked if he could remain leader, she told the BBC: "We are still very premature here in the evening. We have lots of results still to come. We will see how the night goes."

David Blunkett said he feared Mr Cameron could even secure an overall majority.

"I believe that the opinion polls were wrong and the exit polls were right and that it is a very, very bad night for us," he told Sky News

Polls showed the parties neck-and-neck throughout the campaign while the exit poll forecast 316 seats for the Tories, 10 short of the number needed for an absolute majority, with Labour predicted to secure just 239 - 17 fewer than their tally at the start of the campaign.

But Mr Blunkett, who stepped down from the Commons at the election, said results such as the key Labour target of Nuneaton - where the Conservatives not only held on to the seat but increased the majority - suggested the final result could be worse still.

"My greatest fear now is that, with the Nuneaton result and others, they actually nudge over the 323 seat margin," he said.

"It's a terrible shame for the country and for the Labour Party and I just want to make it clear that instead of this weekend us going into a kind of bunker, we have got to really examine these results very carefully indeed and we have got to learn the lessons, reaching out with what Ed Miliband himself called 18 months ago 'one nation' politics.

"We must not revert to the far left. We must not allow ourselves to turn inwards. We must try to heal the hurt that people will be feeling and, above all, we should be gathering wherever we can, support in the House of Commons."

There was criticism of the leadership from John Mann, who was defending the safe seat of Bassetlaw.

"Can't say that Labour leadership weren't warned repeatedly - those who even bothered to meet that is. Never hurts to listen," he wrote on Twitter.

"In 1983 immediately after election I wrote 'The left that listens is the left that wins'. It remains true today."

Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint acknowledged results were "disappointing" but said Mr Miliband had been "great during this campaign" and the policy agenda he set out had gained "traction with the British public".

She accused Conservatives of using "scare tactics" against him by raising concerns over the possibility of a coalition with Scottish nationalists.

Ms Flint told Sky News: "Whoever forms the government after tonight, their first job is going to be to unite the country, because it has been very divisive and I think the SNP and David Cameron have to take some responsibility for that."

Labour's former Cabinet minister Peter Hain, who stood down at the election, said there had been "a big, big revolt against the political class", with the SNP and Ukip the beneficiaries, adding that "Labour has to learn the lessons from that".

Mr Hain said: "This is devastating for us in Scotland, where an avalanche happened and swept us aside."