Election results: All the key moments from historic night, in pictures

Series of galling defeats have combined to define torrid experience for Labour

Inevitably a historic poll because of the time at which it was held – as the UK neared the precipice of Brexit – the general election served up a few genuinely memorable moments.

It began with the release of the exit poll at 10pm on Thursday, which suggested that Leave sentiment and Jeremy Corbyn‘s unpopularity had combined to scupper the Labour leader’s hopes of entering No 10, and Remainers’ desires to stay in the EU along with them.

Nearly 32 million people had participated, a turnout of 67.25 per cent that was only slightly down on 2017.

The biggest scalp of the night, Jo Swinson, was dramatically taken by the SNP in Dunbartonshire East in a result that recalled the shock loss of Nick Clegg from the Commons in 2017.

The Liberal Democrat leader’s defeat by just 149 votes was watched by an ecstatic Nicola Sturgeon, whose uninhibited celebration was caught on a live TV broadcast as the tense result was announced shortly before 4am.

A chastened Ms Swinson said she was proud of having “stood up for openness, generosity and hope” during the campaign, which she had begun by claiming she could well be Britain’s next prime minister.

While dramatic, the 39-year-old’s downfall was not the story of the night.

The first indication that Labour support was crumbling came before midnight. At 11.33pm on Thursday it was announced that the Tories had wrested the northeastern seat of Blythe Valley from Mr Corbyn’s party, which had held it for 69 years.

And after that, the dominos really began to fall.

At 1.23am on Friday, Workington turned blue for the first time since 1979; four minutes later, the SNP won the first of six constituencies they would gain from Labour, Rutherglen and Hamilton West. At 1.50am Labour lost Wrexham.

About an hour afterwards, a massive 11.69-per-cent swing in Tom Watson’s old seat put West Bromwich West in the Conservative column, followed shortly by Bishop Auckland, which had been Labour since 1935.

Caroline Flint lost Don Valley to the Tories at 3.32am, Mary Creagh was defeated in Wakefield just minutes later and John Mann was turfed out of his Bassetlaw seat at about the same time.

With 4am approaching, the Tories took Tony Blair’s former constituency of Sedgefield in a symbolic win. Alongside their vanquishing of Dennis Skinner, the Beast of Bolsover, at 5.15am, this was the moment when the Left’s defeat truly crystallised.

However, Mr Corbyn had admitted defeat some time earlier. Having been returned by voters in Islington North he admitted he could not lead Labour into another election, insisting nonetheless he would remain in post during a “period of reflection”.

The influence of the Democratic Unionist Party was also erased by the Tories’ crushing win, which meant Arlene Foster’s confidence-and-supply support in the Commons was no longer needed. The DUP‘s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds lost his seat on a bruising night for the party which saw nationalists take the majority of Northern Irish seats.

While overcast skies masked the first fingers of dawn, Boris Johnson stepped before the cameras to declare that his party had “ended the gridlock” in parliament and opened the way to Brexit. “In winning this election, we have won votes and the trust of people who have never voted Conservative before and people have always voted for other parties,” he told supporters.

“Those people want change. We cannot, must not, must not, let them down.”

Additional reporting by Press Association