Aleem Maqbool
Religion editor

We tracked down George Galloway watching the election unfold on TV in a hotel lobby. He did not show up to the count to hear that he lost his seat to Labour’s Paul Waugh.

Galloway declined to respond to my questions.

Four months ago when he won the Rochdale by-election, Galloway promised Keir Starmer would “pay a high price” for his stance on Gaza.

He may have not have done that in Rochdale but some, like former Shadow Paymaster General Jon Ashworth in Leicester South, are now looking on at Labour celebrations from the outside because of a protest vote.

Although they had a good showing in some seats like Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North, no candidates of Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain were elected to parliament.

Image source, PA Media

We know there's a bamboozling amount of information to take in this morning, but we've summarised the essential points for you here:

• Labour has won the election by a landslide. Sir Keir Starmer, the incoming prime minister, says the change he has promised will begin imminently
• Rishi Sunak has congratulated his rival and is expected to formally tender his resignation to the King in the coming hours
• Former PM Liz Truss has lost her seat, joining other big-name casualties that include Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps and Jacob Rees-Mogg
• There are fewer than 10 seats left to declare. The Lib Dems are proclaiming their best result for decades after triumphing in more than 70 constituencies
• Reform UK and the Greens have four MPs each - representing an increase for each party. Nigel Farage has won for the former party on his eighth attempt at bagging a Westminster seat

• The SNP have taken a battering, losing dozens of seats after dominating Scottish politics for decades

Professor Sir John Curtice
BBC polling expert

It looks as though the Conservatives and Labour Party between them will win less than 60% of all votes cast.

That would be the lowest proportion in any election since 1923, when Labour became the primary opposition.

James FitzGerald
Live reporter

It seems to have been a night of superlatives – here are five key facts worth noting this morning:

• The Tories have had their worst electoral performance in modern times
• The Commons will have more female MPs than ever before - surpassing the 220 elected in 2019
• Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is trumpeting the Lib Dems' best electoral performance "for a century" after winning dozens of seats
• Reform UK and the Greens are also touting historic performances; each party winning more seats than ever before, with four each
• The House will also welcome the most independent MPs since 1950

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

John Swinney has only been SNP leader for a few weeks.

Although this a devastating result for his party, he’s expected to stay as leader.

The SNP was defending 48 seats of the 57 in Scotland but is likely to be reduced to around ten seats – its worst result since 2010.

Image source, Getty Images

"It's extremely difficult," the Scottish leader of the Conservatives has told the BBC.

Douglas Ross, who lost his seat in Aberdeenshire North and Moray, said it had been a "hugely challenging election". The Conservative vote share is down in Scotland.

Speaking on the future of the Conservative Party, he said a lot of Tory voters have gone to Reform and the party needed to "take time as a party to move on from this very difficult night" when asked how quickly it should choose a new leader.

But Ross suggested the story of the night in Scotland was rather the "demise of the SNP".

Image source, Reuters

The outgoing PM is on his way back to London, having flown back down south after learning his own Yorkshire seat was safe.

He's expected to formally tender his resignation to King Charles in the coming hours.

Later, the monarch will ask Keir Starmer to lead the new government in a meeting that traditionally happens at Buckingham Palace.

In line with tradition, Sunak will be expected to vacate Downing Street quickly – in contrast to other democracies such as the US, where the transfer of power is slower.

As the leader of the party that's expected to achieve the second-highest number of MPs, Sunak will become the leader of the opposition – though it remains to be seen whether he chooses to stay as the head of his party.

Former PM Liz Truss, who's lost her seat, has been speaking to the BBC's Ros Atkins.

"We haven't delivered sufficiently on the policies people want," she admits, saying her party failed to keep taxes low or reduce immigration.

It's put to her that she had a chance to put things right during her short stint as PM. She concedes she was "part of" the Tory record in government.

Asked if she wants to stay in front-line Conservative politics, she says she needs "a bit of time" to think.

Rishi Sunak's plane has just landed at RAF Northolt in west London.

He was travelling from Teesside Airport.

Later the prime minister is expected to travel to Buckingham Palace to resign during an audience with the King.

Professor Sir John Curtice
BBC polling expert

These are the seats that have yet to be declared, which the Conservatives are at risk of losing:

• Basildon South – 61% chance of winning
• Chesham and Amersham – 60%

• Dumfries and Galloway – 46%
• Dumfriesshire – 73%

Boris Johnson's former constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip has been won by Labour.

The former PM stood down as an MP last year. The Tories narrowly retained the seat in a 2023 by-election with candidate Steve Tuckwell. At the time commentators suggested the expansion of London's Ulez scheme had played a part in that.

One year on, Labour's Danny Beales - who lost last time around - has won it from the Conservatives.

And here are some other seat changes: Labour has picked up more seats from the Tories across the country, including: Derbyshire Dales, Lowestoft, Crawley, and South East Cornwall.

And also gaining seats from the Conservatives are the Liberal Democrats, who have picked up Bicester and Woodstock, and North Cornwall from the Conservatives.

Find out who won in your area here

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Outgoing chancellor Jeremy Hunt has just arrived at 11 Downing Street for the last time, accompanied by his wife.

He doesn’t answer questions on the way in.

As a reminder, Hunt clung on to his seat in Surrey with a majority of just 891 votes.

Professor Sir John Curtice
BBC polling expert

The Tories have lost the seats of all the prime ministers since 2010, apart from Rishi Sunak.

They have now lost:

• David Cameron's seat of Witney to the Lib Dems
• Theresa May's seat of Maidenhead to the Lib Dems
• Boris Johnson's seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip to Labour
• Liz Truss's seat of South West Norfolk to Labour

James FitzGerald
Live reporter

If your alarm's just gone off, good morning. Here’s what you need to know:

• Labour has won the election by a landslide, and PM-elect Sir Keir Starmer says “change begins now”. Rishi Sunak has apologised to fellow Tories
• Numerous Conservative heavyweights have lost their seats, among them the former PM Liz Truss
• The Lib Dems are hailing their “best result for a century”, and Nigel Farage is among four new Reform UK MPs – winning a seat on his eighth try
• The SNP have taken a battering in Scotland, but better news for the Greens – who are up to four seats

Over now to Northern Ireland, where Ian Paisley Jnr has lost his seat in North Antrim.

TUV's Jim Allister is the new MP, winning by just 450 votes.

It means the DUP's Paisley - whose father Ian Paisley Snr founded the party - has lost the seat held in the family since 1970.

Speaking to the BBC, Home Secretary James Cleverly says the Conservatives "need to learn from this result" to try and get back into government as soon as possible.

Asked about former prime minister Liz Truss losing her seat, Cleverly pays tribute, calling her "a great parliamentarian".

"Liz was a friend as well as a colleague," he says, adding that he is "really sad" to hear the result.

And on his party's performance in general, Cleverly says part of democracy is that there is always a "risk" you could lose an election.

"All we can do," he says is "take a short period of time to think about what has happened and why and respond to it".

But, he concedes, it was a "very, very bad result for us tonight".

Image source, PA Media

Labour's Terry Jermy wins South West Norfolk with 11,847 votes.

That compares to 11,217 for Truss.

A reminder that she was PM less than two years ago.

In 2019, she won the seat with a huge majority of 26,195.

Massive news just in from South West Norfolk - former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss has been defeated by Labour.

She spent only a matter of weeks in Downing Street as PM in 2022 after a mini-budget went wrong.