David Cameron wins election, gets to stay another 5 years

   David Cameron and wife Samantha

David Cameron is preparing to travel to Buckingham Palace this lunchtime to meet the Queen after returning to Downing Street as Prime Minister in the wake of a shock election victory he described as the 'sweetest victory of all'.

In the biggest scalp of the night, shadow chancellor Ed Balls - who Mr Cameron described as 'the most annoying person in modern politics' - lost his seat to the Tories by just 422 votes. 

Ukip's Nigel Farage also looked set to resign as party leader within hours after losing his bid to enter Parliament for the seventh time. 

After the scale of the Tory victory became clear, Mr Cameron who is expected to see the Queen at 12.30pm, declared his intention to 'govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom' - a recognition of extraordinary gains by the SNP in Scotland.

A deflated Ed Miliband threw in the towel after a series of crushing election losses, as he said he was 'deeply sorry' for Labour's 'difficult and disappointing' election night.

After weeks of opinion polls suggesting the result was too close to call, 'shy Tories' came out in force at the last moment to keep Mr Cameron in Downing Street.

Mr Cameron this morning told cheering Conservative activists at the party’s London HQ that the result was ‘a great victory’, adding: ‘I remember 1992 and that was an amazing victory. I remember 2010 achieving that dream of getting Labour out and getting the Tories back in.’ But he added: ‘But I think this is the sweetest victory of all.’

A 10am results forecast suggests the Tories will win 329 seats - more than half of the Commons. With Sinn Fein not taking their seats and the Speaker not voting, it would effectively give the Tories a majority of around seven.

The SNP tide has swept aside Labour and Lib Dem big beasts including Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander in a tide of nationalism which has already sparked calls for a second independence referendum.

There are doubts that Mr Miliband will survive as leader until Friday lunchtime, as he faces being left with fewer seats than Gordon Brown, slumping to 233.