Election results – live: Boris Johnson says NHS will be priority as he reaches out to Remainers following historic win
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Boris Johnson has said he will make the NHS an "overwhelming priority" during his renewed tenure in No. 10 following a political “earthquake” which which saw Labour support give way top a comfortable Tory majority.
However he has not extended the same olive branch to voters north of the border - telling Nicola Sturgeon he would not lend any support to a second independence referendum.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn has refused to take responsibility for the worst Labour showing since 1935 - blaming Brexit for the party’s devastating defeat.
'UK nationals, remember EU citizens like me who don’t have the right to vote today'
Maria Kalinowska, a Polish national and anti-Brexit activist, who lives in the UK, says: 'I’ve lived here for most of my life. But without British citizenship, I cannot take part in an election that may well make my life harder'.
Read her column here:
Nearly half of UK Facebook users view Momentum videos
Some 17m of the UK's 36m Facebook users have watched Momentum videos since the election campaign began, compared to 13m in 2017, the campaign group says.
Momentum, the Corbyn-backing activist network, has churned out more than 160 videos during the election campaign, amassing over 70 million views across Facebook and Twitter.
It says 17 of these videos have received more than a million views on Facebook alone, with the highest viewed video being watched 8.3m times. Meanwhile the Conservatives' top viewed video has only 1.4m views on Facebook, while the Labour Party's has 6.9m views.
Laura Parker, Momentum's National Coordinator, said: "The Tories may have had a handful of billionaire press barons on their side, but we've had tens of thousands of people across the country sharing our videos to millions. This has allowed our message to cut through the unprecedented levels of media bias we've seen this election.
"As well as having national treasures on our side, we've also used our videos to amplify the voices of ordinary people fed up of the way Boris Johnson and the Tories are running the country into the ground."
How will the election affect Brexit?
Millions of voters are heading to the polls today for a snap general election, as a deeply divided country hopes it will pave the way for a resolution to Brexit.
The vote will be the third election since 2015, when David Cameron’s Conservatives unexpectedly won a majority and called the fateful EU referendum.
But how will the election affect Brexit?
Rage Against the Machine back former Tory minister
Stormzy has thrown his weight behind Jeremy Corbyn, while Coldplay's Chris Martin has said he will probably vote Lib Dem.
Now here is a more surprising celebrity endorsement: Rage Against the Machine encouraging voters to back David Gauke.
The US rap-metal veterans have produced a tactical voting guide offering advice on how to beat the Tories. It recommends going for former Conservative minister Gauke in South West Hertfordshire.
Labour report 'offensive and illegal' anti-Corbyn posters to police
The Labour Party has contacted police about hundreds of "offensive and illegal" anti-Jeremy Corbyn posters plastered across Sheffield overnight, reports local newspaper The Star.
Campaigners targeted streets, schools and polling stations in the Penistone and Stocksbridge areas of the city before polling stations opened this morning.
Labour members have today been removing the posters, which feature a picture of Corbyn alongside the words "don't let this extremist win" and "would you trust this man with your children?"
According to The Star, the party has reported the flyers to South Yorkshire Police, Barnsley and Sheffield councils and the Electoral Commission as a criminal offence.
Queues outside polling stations as voting enters final hours
Pictures of queues outside polling stations across the country are emerging amid the after-work rush to vote.
Students prevented from voting due to 'administrative errors'
Dozens of students have been prevented from voting due to an "administrative error", the University of Southampton's student union has said.
The union said it was aware of at least 76 cases of students being unable to cast a ballot because they were not on their polling station list despite being registered to vote.
One of those prevented from voting was Jo Lisney, the union's vice-president for education and democracy, who said: "It was a shock this morning when I went to vote and was told I couldn’t. I had my polling card come through so I knew I could, but the people at the station showed me the list and it said ‘details deleted’.
"After this I called the Electoral Commission and they confirmed I can vote and told me to go back with my polling card but if it doesn’t work, call them again.”
In a statement posted on its website, the union said: "We are deeply concerned about this news as everyone who is able should be allowed to exercise their democratic right to vote. Despite there being a relatively short turnaround for this election, there has been over 2 weeks since the registration deadline for the Electoral Register to update the information given to polling stations.
"We therefore find it unacceptable that the records haven’t been updated adequately which has put unnecessary barriers in place to voters. This is particularly distressing to first-time voters, including many of our students."
Anyone affected by the issue has been advised to contact Southampton's electoral services on 023 8083 2245 to confirm they are registered.
Workington Man braves rain for reluctant vote
My colleague Colin Drury, The Independent's North of England correspondent, has been assigned to spend the evening with the much-discussed Workington Man.
He has filed this first dispatch from the drizzly northwest coastal town:
It’s raining in Workington, the Cumbrian constituency said to symbolise the kind of key seat the Tories are aiming to win tonight.
The grim weather reflects the voters’ mood. The overwhelming impression from people here is they’d like to give every party a ballot box kicking if they could.
Johnson out campaigning in Uxbridge hours before polls close
Boris Johnson has been campaigning in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency this evening, with just hours to go before the polls close
His majority was cut by more than half to 5,034 in the 2017 election, and there have been suggestions the prime minister faces a tough battle to retain his seat.
'Get Berxit done'
In a possible attempt to boost social media engagement, the Tories have adapted their campaign slogan to include a deliberate mispelling.
Not sure what we're supposed to make of this, other than everyone could perhaps do with a long lie down.
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