Election 2017 live updates: Theresa May claims Conservative government supported by DUP will provide 'certainty'
The Independent will be bringing you all the live updates as the UK's next government is formed
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has said she will form a Conservative government backed by the DUP, claiming it can bring "certainty" to the UK.
After visiting the Queen, the Prime Minister claimed there was a "strong relationship" between the two parties, amid concern over the DUP's controversial anti-abortion and anti-LGBT policies.
The PM has also apologised to Conservatives who lost last night. She said: "I'm sorry for all those colleagues who lost their seats." She will "reflect on what we need to do in the future to take the party forward" after the result, she added.
The UK voted for a hung parliament after shock losses for the Conservatives in the 2017 general election. With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Tories had 318 seats - eight short of the figure needed to win outright - with Labour on 261, the SNP on 35 and Liberal Democrats on 12.
Jeremy Corbyn's party increase its share of the vote by 9.6 per cent, while the Tories were up 5.5 per cent, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and SNP saw small loses and Ukip's vote collapsed.
The live blog has now ended
Politicians, voters, and even their pets have been heading to polling stations and are posing for the cameras at every opportunity.
The Prime Minister has made clear that she would rely on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party in order to get her programme through Parliament, despite concern over its stance on issues including equal marriage, abortion and climate change.
Making no allusion to losses suffered by the Conservatives, Ms May said she intended to press ahead with her plans for Brexit.
She faced calls from within her own party to consider her own position after the election, which she brought forward by three years in the hope it would deliver an increased majority in the Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn urged her to resign and allow him to form a minority administration, declaring: “We are ready to serve this country.”
But, after intensive talks with the DUP, the Prime Minister instead drove the short distance to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen for permission to form a new government.
The final election results came in late on Friday, after Kensington finally declared a Labour win — with a tiny 20-vote majority. They were:
:: 10pm - A shock exit poll puts the Tories on 314 seats, with Labour on 266, the SNP on
34, Liberal Democrats on 14, Plaid Cymru on three and Greens on one - leaving the Conservatives short of an overall majority.
:: Sterling immediately plunges on international markets, with the pound falling over 1.5% against the dollar and 1% against the euro within minutes.
:: 11pm - The first result of the election is declared, with a win for Labour in Newcastle Central where Chi Onwurah held her seat and increased her majority.
:: 1.10am - The Conservatives fail to take target seat Wrexham from Labour.
:: 1.14am - The first defeat of the night comes in Lanarkshire, where Labour's Ged Killen narrowly took Rutherglen and Hamilton West from the SNP's Margaret Ferrier.
:: 1.25am - A second Tory target seat, Tooting, in south London, sees Labour's Rosena Allin-Khan hold and increase the vote share by more than 10% on Mayor Sadiq Khan's 2015 result.
:: 2am - Labour claims its first scalp from the Tories, with junior minister Jane Ellison booted out of Battersea in south London by Marsha de Cordova.
:: 2.20am - SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson loses his Moray seat to Conservative Douglas Ross.
:: 2.45am - Lib Dem Jo Swinson takes East Dunbartonshire from SNP star John Nicolson, who took the seat from her in 2015.
:: 2.47am - Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg loses Sheffield Hallam, where he had been MP since 2005, to Labour's Jared O'Mara.
:: 3.10am - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected as Islington North MP in north London, increasing his majority. He calls on Mrs May to resign and tells crowds: "Politics has changed."
"Not clear who has won, but very clear who has lost. May has to go," says Alex Salmond.
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