Former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock says the party’s predicted landslide win is the "greatest comeback since Lazarus".

He says the result – which an exit poll has said will be a landslide of 170 – was “attributable directly” to Sir Keir Starmer.

The Labour leader between 1983 and 1992 describes it as the "greatest comeback since Lazarus", who, according to the Bible, was brought back from the dead by Jesus.

“I have unalloyed and unreserved delight,” he adds.

Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd Andrew RT Davies says he's angry about the election result, blaming it on the "shenanigans" of the past five years.

Davies who, as a Member of the Senedd, is not running in the general election, says he will raise his concerns later today at a Welsh Conservative meeting.

Jack Grey
BBC News

In his speech after losing Swindon South, former Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland asks if we "value those... who come into politics to do something rather than be someone".

"Or do we shrug our shoulders and accept that politics is a mere circus where people compete for attention by saying things that they either know to be untrue or which raise hopes and expectations in a way that further erodes trust?

"I know what side I'm on, and I know what choice I would make.

"Thank you Swindon, for giving me the opportunity of my life to make a positive difference to our town and nation."

Gareth Lewis
BBC Wales political editor

It's early in every sense of the word on this election night, but three seats in north-east England suggest that results in the south Wales valleys could be intriguing.

Demographically, the two areas are similar.

The three English seats have all been won by Labour but with a big swing to Reform, who came second.

The exit poll doesn’t suggest Reform will take a seat in south Wales, but they could be building up a base ready for the 2026 Senedd election when it’s proportional representation rather than first past the post.

Jack Grey
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Sir Robert Buckland, the Welsh secretary under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, has lost the Swindon South seat to Labour’s Heidi Alexander.

The Llanelli-born Tory politician replaced Simon Hart in the role in 2022 under Boris Johnson's government, and was kept in the post by Liz Truss.

With several others who've held the post facing close fights tonight - Alun Cairns, Stephen Crabb and David TC Davies - are there more ex Welsh secretary casualties to come?

Image source, Reuters

A Tory source tells BBC Wales that, although “close”, early indications from the count seem to confirm Welsh Secretary David TC Davies’ prediction that he’ll lose his seat in Monmouthshire.

They say Reform UK is likely to have taken away too many Conservative votes for the party to get over the line.

Jack Grey
BBC News

Image source, Getty

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited this coastal constituency on day one of the campaign, then just one week later Sir Keir Starmer served ice cream in the sun on Barry Island.

Clearly it’s an important battleground, with former Welsh secretary Alun Cairns winning for the Conservatives in 2019 with a majority of just over 2,500.

This prosperous area just west of Cardiff has been left largely untouched by the recent boundary review, with the only change being the loss of Dinas Powys to Cardiff South and Penarth.

Cairns, who has held the seat since 2010, is up against Kanishka Narayan of Labour, and it’ll be an important one to watch – the winning party in Vale of Glamorgan has formed or led the UK government after every general election since 1992.

Tories toast and Labour cautious - parties discuss Vale battlegroundpublished at 00:11 British Summer Time 5 July

00:11 BST 5 July

Huw Thomas
BBC Wales business correspondent

I've been down on the floor at the Vale of Glamorgan count in Barry speaking to the different parties - Plaid Cymru are saying the Tories are toast, they think Labour has won.

The Lib Dems think there is a solid Labour win here in the Vale, while Labour are saying nothing - they've been very cautious about any predictions.

The Conservatives here say they hope the name of Alun Cairns will have gotten some votes despite what they call a "challenging national picture".

However there has been a sense from the Labour campaigners during the course of this campaign that they could take the Vale.

David Deans
BBC Wales political reporter

A Plaid Cymru source tells the BBC making gains tonight will be "very difficult" for the party - but expects Liz Saville Roberts and Ben Lake to return to Westminster.

"We've fought brilliant campaigns that we can be proud of, but this is clearly a strong performance by Labour as expected," the source says.

"Making gains in the face of such a strong wave will be very difficult".

David Deans
Political reporter, BBC Wales News

Some intel I have had from one senior Labour source - and I stress one - lays out the possible long list of Labour gains that the party could be looking at in Wales.

If the scenario plays out, the party could see gains in Wrexham, Bridgend, Monmouthshire, Clwyd East, Clwyd North, Bangor Aberconwy and the Vale of Glamorgan from the Conservatives.

It is early days, though.

After six weeks of campaigning, the polling stations are closed and counting has begun.

Below are pictures from Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, where former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns is a candidate for the Conservatives and Labour’s Kanishka Narayan is hoping to take his seat.

Now, it's up to the counters to get to work throughout the night, so stick with us as we bring you all of the latest updates.

Clare Hutchinson
BBC Wales

Ballot boxes are still arriving in Rhondda Sports Centre from across the new Rhondda and Ogmore constituency, with the verification process now steadily underway.

For the first time, the constituency includes two communities from the former Ogmore constituency – Ogmore Vale and Pontycymer.

This means that when polling stations in those communities closed at 10:00, the ballot boxes had to be brought over the Bwlch mountain and down to the leisure centre here in Pentre, near Treorchy, where the vote is taking place.

The declaration here is not expected until at least 03:00, so for the roughly 70 volunteers here there is plenty of work ahead.

If the exit poll result is right it would be an "absolutely incredible turnaround" for Labour, its Alyn and Deeside candidate Mark Tami says.

Tami, first elected MP for the constituency in 2001, says he’d been getting mostly a positive response on the doorstep, "a little bit of apathy", "20mph came up" but “fingers crossed we are here for a positive result tonight”.

He held onto seat by only 213 votes in 2019.

Asked how much of a honeymoon a new Labour government could expect, he says the party are not inheriting a "really great shape economy" and "there are lots of problems".

"We aren’t promising the world and we are asking for some time to turn things around. Yes it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s a challenge that we are up for."

Labour's share of the vote down in Wales, poll suggestspublished at 23:26 British Summer Time 4 July

23:26 BST 4 July

David Deans
BBC Wales News political reporter

Despite the prediction of a Labour landslide, the exit poll suggests that the party's share of the vote in Wales is marginally down by 2%.

It suggests that the Conservative share of the vote is down by 18%, while Plaid Cymru's is up 3%, and Reform's up by 11%.

Labour's share of the vote looks set to rise in England by 3%, and in Scotland by 18%. But it looks down 2% in London.

Professor Sir John Curtice said on the main BBC live page that the party "seems to be advancing strongly in Scotland but less well in Wales, where they're in power".

Welsh Tory leader's anger visceralpublished at 23:13 British Summer Time 4 July

23:13 BST 4 July

Gareth Lewis
BBC Wales political editor

I have never seen the Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies as angry as he was on BBC One Wales earlier.

It's actually very unusual to see any politician in a TV studio live with hundreds of thousands of people watching that angry about his own party.

But I got the sense as well that he has been seething about what has been going on at UK level with the Conservative party for an awful lot longer than the six weeks of this campaign.

He's clearly been tearing his hair out - the anger was visceral.

In some areas of Wales, the battle at the ballot box has been fiercer than others.

Of Wales’ 32 seats, about 10 or 11 are battlegrounds, including in Ynys Môn, Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan.

Click here for a rundown of some of the key seats will be keeping a close eye on this evening and where the fireworks could be.

Echoes of 1997 for the Tories?published at 22:59 British Summer Time 4 July

22:59 BST 4 July

David Deans
BBC Wales politics reporter

If the Conservatives polled below a 19.6% share of the vote, it would be their worst performance in Wales since Tony Blair's success in 1997.

That year the party won zero seats in Wales, and failed to gain any until 2005 when it won three.

In the general election of 2019, when the party won its joint highest number of MPs, the Conservatives had the highest share of the vote the party has seen since World War II.

It had last achieved the same feat during the days of Margaret Thatcher, in 1983.

Image source, Getty Images

The exit polls obviously aren't suggesting a good night for the Tories across the UK. Before the election, polls suggested they could struggle in Wales, possibly facing an electoral wipe-out.

The last time that happened was in 2001, the second election in a row the party failed to win a single seat in Wales. It was close in some cases, however, with Labour holding onto the Monmouth seat by just 384 votes.

That election was Tony Blair’s second successive landslide victory, and led to his Tory rival William Hague standing down.

Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies tells BBC Wales he is angry at Rishi Sunak's decision to hold a general election in July.

"I have no words that can describe my frustration at some points of the campaign," he says.

"No one really understood why we were sitting here tonight instead of the autumn".

He says that autumn would have been difficult still, but the party needed the "best possible chance".

Davies says the first he heard it was being held was on the morning it was announced.

He suggests he will express his "anger" when the Welsh Conservative party's board meets tomorrow.

Labour’s most senior Welsh MP Jo Stevens welcomed the exit poll while speaking to BBC Wales a little earlier.

The shadow Welsh secretary says if the exit poll is right it is a "huge victory and a huge vindication for Sir Keir Starmer and where he had taken the Labour Party from just four-and-a-half to five years ago from our worst defeat since 1935, to this night".

"It’s a tribute to him that he’s managed to change the Labour Party and do what he’s done, if that poll is right," she adds.