Election reaction - 9 May

1. David Cameron considers the make-up of his Cabinet after the Conservatives' election victory
2. Michael Gove is made justice secretary and Chris Grayling, leader of the Commons
3. George Osborne, Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Michael Fallon and Nicky Morgan remain in jobs they held in coalition
4. Vacancies at the top table include business secretary, energy secretary, and treasury secretary after senior Lib Dems lost their seats
5. Harriet Harman has taken over as acting Labour leader after Ed Miliband stood down
6. The Lib Dems are also looking for a new leader after Nick Clegg said he would make way

Sunday Telegraph front

Reshuffle latest

More on the appointments to David Cameron's new government announced tonight. Former Immigration Minister Mark Harper is also expected to become the Conservative chief whip. Full story here.

Observer front page

Sunday Express front page

Independent on Sunday front page

Liz Kendall leadership bid

'Despicable display'

Four police officers and a member of police staff have been injured in "unplanned" anti-austerity protests in Westminster today.

During the protest graffiti was daubed on a war memorial in Whitehall.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "Spraying graffiti on war memorials is a despicable display of disrespect for those who fought and died for their country, particularly at a time when the whole nation comes together to commemorate the 70th anniversary of VE Day."

#ThanetRigged

On Twitter at the moment the hashtag #ThanetRigged is gaining popularity after some UKIP supporters appear to be suggesting that Nigel Farage missing out on his chance to become MP of South Thanet involved some sort of foul play.

The Huffington Post has pulled together an article from some of the tweets.

BreakingCabinet appointments: Gove to justice

Michael Gove will become Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. He will be given a brief to look at prisons, sentencing and criminal justice. Chris Grayling will become Leader of the House of Commons. Nicky Morgan will continue as Education Secretary and Minister for Equalities.

Prescott criticises Miliband campaign

Getty Images

Labour veteran John Prescott has criticised Ed Miliband's failed "presidential-type" general election campaign.

The former deputy prime minister said he wasn't keen on the Labour leader's "Hell, yes, I'm tough" boast and said the party had paid the price for failing to defend the economic record of the last Labour government in the last parliament.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Lord Prescott said it had been a "bloody disastrous" result for the party as David Cameron secured the first outright majority for the Conservatives since 1992.

"We fought a presidential-type election based on computers, charts, focus groups and even the American language - Hell yes? Hell no!" he wrote.

Umunna: 'Down but not out'

Goldsmith: 'Tattered relationship'

BBC Radio 5 Live

Zac Goldsmith, who was re-elected as the Conservative MP for Richmond Park, with a majority of 23,000, says his party has work to do to repair the damaged relationship between voters and politicians.

PA

Over the next five years it is imperative that we not only deliver the promises that we made, but that we do so emphatically. And I think if we can do that, we will not only be improving our chances next time around, but we will be helping to repair the relationship between people and power, which is pretty tattered at the moment."

Byrne 'so sorry' for note

PA

The note famously left by Labour's outgoing chief secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, for his successor ("I'm afraid there is no money" it said) was regularly brandished by David Cameron during the election campaign.

The PM used it to highlight what he said was Labour's disregard for the public finances. Now Mr Bryne has given his perspective in an article for the Guardian, saying he is "so sorry" for what he calls a "crass mistake":

David Cameron may have carried that note around with him during the campaign. But I, too, have carried it every day – in my head. I always will. As a reminder of how much harder I will always have to work to repay the people I let down and to help rebuild Labour as a party of government determined to fight the injustices that scar our communities and the failures that hold us back from becoming the country we can be.

From the scene

The BBC's Brian Wheeler was in Westminster this evening, where four people were arrested during what police called an "unplanned" anti-austerity protest:

BBC

There is a very heavy police presence, with dozens of officers in riot gear. Most of the protesters are blocked in by police vans with their blue lights flashing, near the Cenotaph. The young crowd are cheering, clapping, blowing whistles and waving anti-Tory placards. It seems peaceful at the moment. There's almost a party atmosphere."

Campaign in poetry and govern in prose

The Spectator challenged its readers to put their own twist on Rudyard Kipling’s rousing poem, If. Here's the first verse from one of the winners:

IF – For Nicola (by Brian Murdoch)

If you can lose a referendum and still act

As if you’d won it, time and time again;

If you can claim you’re going to make a pact

But never make your real conditions plain;

If you can try to split from the UK

Then six months later make it clear to see

That now you want to rule the lot your way,

Yet still play down illogicality;

For the rest of the poem and other winners, click here.

Four protest arrests, say police

Police release an updated statement on the "unplanned" anti-austerity protests in Westminster.

The spokesman said: "Four people have been arrested for a variety of offences under the Public Order Act, 1986.

"Officers are aware of criminal damage to the Women's War Memorial in Whitehall and are investigating.

"There are no reported injuries to any members of the public.

"One police officer and one member of police staff have been injured policing this protest. Both are being treated in hospital. The officer is being treated for a suspected dislocated shoulder. The member of police staff is being treated for a cut lip after being struck by an object.

"Officers are working to minimise disruption to all road users and members of the public passing through the area."

'Only lost once'

Graffiti on war memorial

Westminster protest update

BBC colleagues tell us that the protest around Whitehall seems to have settled down now. About 100 protesters were kettled, we're told. There have been no reports of any arrests so far.

Send us your comments

Gagan Kumar

Hats off to Tories think tank. Tempting Nick Clegg to be Deputy PM probably cost his party the vote share he had in the last election. Scottish referendum seems to have cost Labour their seat share in Scotland. Win win for the Tories and lose lose for the opponents.

Turning purple

UKIP

In the local elections, UKIP has taken control of its first ever UK council in Thanet. You'll remember that former party leader Nigel Farage fought and lost Thanet South parliamentary seat. But he was back in Kent today to heap praise on the newly-elected UKIP councillors.

It was great to be at the Winter Gardens in Margate today to see Thanet District Council go purple. It shows that there is a huge UKIP vote here in Thanet, and when people are not inducted by external fearmongering and calls to vote tactically, they overwhelmingly vote for UKIP."

Nigel Farage

Westminster protest

Getty Images

"What's with all the cuts?" asked anti-austerity protesters earlier as they congregated in Westminster.

A Met Police spokesman said no arrests had been made yet.

He added: "It's not a million miles away from the VE Day celebrations but there's no suggestion that it will interrupt that."

PA

Anti-austerity protest

Robinson: Help from Rory Bremner

Boundary changes

Cameron wins and loses

Anti-austerity protests

The new Conservative government may be in its infancy but it hasn't stopped people taking to the streets in protest over it.

Anti-austerity campaigners and supporters took part in swiftly organised campaigns against the Conservatives this afternoon.

A large police presence met about 100 protesters outside Conservative campaign headquarters in Westminster.

Send us your comments

Stephen Burke:

The parties that offered firm proposals for the future of Britain did best out of the election. Tories' message of fiscal prudence resonated, UKIP's message of secure borders resonated and the SNP's idea of Scotland having a distinct voice in Westminster worked well. There are lessons in this. Britain is conservative, that is right of centre leaning, so the politics must reflect that view.

Let's be positive

Church: 'Mad as hell'

Wales News

Singer Charlotte Church has joined a rally in Cardiff, protesting against austerity cuts. She addressed about 200 people over a loudspeaker and carried a placard which read she was "mad as hell".

Read more on the story here.

Hemming: Fan of Lamb

BBC News Channel

PA

Liberal Democrat John Hemming, who lost his seat in Birmingham Yardley, says he partly put it down to voters changing their minds at the last minute. He says they put a cross next to his name, then a fear of Ed Miliband in office under the influence of the SNP would cause them to recast their vote for the Conservatives.

As far as the party's leadership contest goes, he says he's a "great fan" of Norman Lamb.

Asked if the party needs an ideological rethink, he says it needs to be clearer about what the party stands for in any general election and state whether it would go into a coalition with the Conservatives or Labour - not both.

Labour hearts London

Salmond raises prospect of another referendum

Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond says Scotland is closer to independence after the SNP's stunning success in the general election when it won 56 of the country's 59 seats.

Mr Salmond, who was elected as the MP for Gordon, said the party now had an "overwhelming mandate from the Scottish people to carry forward Scotland's interests".

But he added that "the timing of any future referendum" was "a matter for the Scottish people" and the matter of tactics was a question for Nicola Sturgeon.

Neil Findlay resigns from Scottish Labour shadow cabinet

Send us your comments

Adam Eveleigh:

Labour failed for three reasons: SNP surge, less than perfect leadership (too many slip-ups/failures), and a very effective negative Tory campaign. Question is, how to make sure it doesn't happen again?

Feeling emotional

Farron to make decision in 'next few days'

Tim Farron - one of eight remaining Lib Dem MPs and the man most often tipped as the party's next leader - has said he will announce whether he will stand in the "next few days".

He told Sky News: "I am determined to play a big role in making sure the party survives and thrives".

But he said he will be listening to activists and members before making his next move.

He added: "There has never been more need for a Liberal party" arguing the party was the victim of the politics of fear.

He says the party will build itself from the "ground up," claiming that it had gained more 2,500 new members in the past few days.

Lib Dem leadership choice

After the Lib Dem's collapse at the polls, the party only has eight MPs who could succeed Nick Clegg as leader. The likely contenders for the Lib Dem leadership are:

BBC

Angela Eagle considers Labour leadership bid

UKIP leadership struggle?

Who is going to succeed Nigel Farage as UKIP leader? Perhaps Nigel Farage? Or another UKIP contender?

BBC

Queens' Speech possibilities

It's possible you may have already read much about what might be in the Queen's Speech in a couple of weeks' time in today's newspapers.

But in case you haven't, with an outright Commons majority, David Cameron says he now has a mandate to implement the Conservatives' General Election manifesto in full.

So here are some of the most likely measures we'll see on 27 May.

• A pledge to eliminate the deficit over the next two years with £30bn of additional savings, including £12bn of welfare cuts

• A referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union following a renegotiation of the terms of membership

• Legislation to prevent any increase in the main rates of income tax, national insurance and VAT over the next five years.

• Raises to the personal tax allowance to £12,500 for basic rate taxpayers and to £50,000 for higher rate taxpayers by 2020.

• A rise in the inheritance tax threshold to £1m

• Increased spending on the NHS in England rising to £8bn a-year by 2020.

• Doubling the free childcare allowance for working parents of three and four-year-olds.

• An extension of right to buy to housing association tenants

• A promise to build 200,000 starter homes and create 300,000 new apprenticeships

• Further devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and possibly something on English votes for English laws

• The repeal of the Human Rights Act and its replacement with a British Bill of Rights

• A redrawing of parliamentary boundaries to create "equal" constituencies and reduction in the number of MPs from 650 to 600

• Greater powers for the police and security services for access to communications data

• Renewal of the UK's Trident nuclear weapons programe with four replacement submarines

• The extension of the free schools and academies programme

YouGov post-mortem

YouGov has started to explore the reasons why its polling data ended up being wide of the mark during the election campaign and the answer is they upshot it it doesn't quite know yet.

What it has also said is that it is "determined not to do is to jump to any hasty conclusions".

"We will take the time to fully examine and test all the possible causes of error, work out what the underlying causes are, and then put them right," Anthony Wells, YouGov's director of political and social research, adds.

Labour leadership contest

Following Ed Miliband's stepping down as Labour leader, there are a number of candidates in the leadership contest. BBC News has taken a look at some of the contenders...

BBC

BBC

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... and the outsiders.

BBC

Milifandom meltdown?

There are reports that Milifandom, the social media craze that expressed support for Ed Miliband, has been going into "meltdown" following his resignation as Labour Party leader.

"Staying in bed all day because I'm too upset about Ed Miliband resigning," wrote one professed Milifan.

The creator of the social media craze, 'Abby' wrote yesterday: "We had one chance to get that man as PM and we blew it and that really really angers me because Ed should be in Number 10."

The Evening Standard website suggests: "The outpouring of despair was perhaps tempered by Mr Miliband's decision to name-check Milifandom - the 'most unlikely cult of the 21st century' - in his resignation speech."

Miliband poses for family photo

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has appeared in public for the first time posing for photographers outside his London home with his wife Justine and two sons.

Reuters

Reuters

Send us your comments

Wayne Mitchell

A feeling of lethargy is sweeping our country and no better example of that is our recent election. Three leaders just gave up when it did not go well for them. What sort of strength is our political system going to have if we are led by the only person left. Weak Labour, weak UKIP, weak liberals.

Sturgeon and Salmond 'tensions'

BBC

David Torrance, who has written biographies of the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, tells BBC News that there is tension between the pair. "It's never public, they keep that very much behind the scenes. It's quite striking that in the latter stages of the campaign he was nowhere to be seen or heard beyond his own constituency. I think he'd had a pretty firm piece of advice from the First Minister."

Next Labour leader is anyone's guess

Whither the Edstone?

PA

We here on the Election Live page were wondering what had happened to the 8ft limestone tablet dubbed "the Edstone" which was unveiled in Hastings last weekend.

Unfortunately, a weary-sounding Labour Party spokesman was unable to shed any light on its whereabouts. "I've no idea where it is or what's happening with it," he said.

Seating arrangements

Send us your comments

Sheila Torres

Hardly anything was mentioned about pensioners during the election campaign and how they will fare in the future. No one is exempt from old age if they live long enough. So many live on meagre pensions. How would the powers that be live if the same was metered out to them? Most would prefer not to have to rely on benefits if they had a really decent pension. Just a thought.

A perfect fit

Mail has fun with Edstone spoofs

Ebay

The Daily Mail is enjoying the victory of the Conservative party, pointing out how several spoof posts on online auction site ebay are offering the now infamous "Edstone" for sale.

You'll remember that the - now former - Labour leader Ed Miliband unveiled the stone, which set out the main priorities of a potential future government, in the last few days of the election.

It created a fair amount of comment at the time, particularly when it was discovered that the Labour leader planned to erect the 8 foot limestone tablet in the rose garden of Downing Street.

Lessons learned

'The bitterness of ex-lovers'

BBC

Owen Jones of the Guardian said Labour alienated their core voter base in Scotland. "Clearly the implosion of Scottish Labourism in Scotland - and let's not forget, Scotland was the heartland of that party... they destroyed themselves in that country. They formed an alliance with the Tory party, in whatever you think about the referendum, in a campaign based on fear, which transformed former Labour supporters into hardline SNP supporters. They look at their old party with absolute disgust - the red Tories, they call them - and they have the zealotry of the convert and the bitterness of ex-lovers."

A consequence of the rise of the SNP was a "fanning of English nationalism", he added.

Carswell rules out UKIP leadership bid

PA

Douglas Carswell, the only UKIP MP, has ruled himself out of the race to be leader of the anti-European party. In an interview with The Times newspaper he said:

I am not going to be running as leader.

Cameron 'had to win'

BBC

Janet Daley of the Sunday Telegraph predicted a win for the Conservatives. She tells BBC News: "Looking at the comparison between the Labour leadership, which was appalling, and the prospect of a Labour government, a minority government being supported by the SNP, it seemed to me inconceivable that it could have gone any other way."

Number 10 not considering full fiscal autonomy for Scotland

Ross Hawkins

Political correspondent

A Downing Street source said they were not considering offering Scotland full fiscal autonomy, after Jeremy Hunt appeared to suggest they might do so on Newsnight last night.

Asked on the programme whether Cameron would have to offer fiscal autonomy to Scotland, Hunt said: "I think David Cameron was, in a way, saying that. I think it was very significant that in his acceptance speech in his own constituency and his speech on the steps of Number 10, he talked so much about preserving the union."

But a senior Conservative source told the BBC: "To be very, very clear we are not considering full fiscal autonomy. We are very clear what we are proposing."

The Conservative manifesto pledges to implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission.

The source said Hunt was referring to this policy - which the source said would be delivered, with legislation brought forward as soon as possible - and there were no plans to go beyond what was in the manifesto.

Send us your comments

Jack in Nottingham

I was fine with the result yesterday until I started reading about these plans for boundary changes. It seems completely undemocratic. I am sure the people who voted on Thursday including myself voted for a 5 year parliament, not for a man to lock his own party into eternal power.

Pack: Lib Dems will rebuild

BBC

Lib Dem Voice editor, Mark Pack, tells BBC News the Lib Dems will spend the next few years "always torn between wanting to defend what they have done in government compared to maybe thinking they should not try to defend their policies and move onto new territory".

Mr Pack says it is going to be very tempting "every time this government does something right wing or controversial or extreme to say: 'Look, you see this is what happens when you don’t have Lib Dems in coalition'".

But, he says, this is likely to be an "unfruitful strategy". The Lib Dems, he says, will need to rebuid at a local level first.

“Let’s not forget councils have really important powers over education, devolved bodies in Scotland the London assembly... I’m absolutely sure that’s the right route to rebuilding again," he adds.

Ferguson: Labour faces 'existential crisis'

BBC News Channel

BBC

Labout List editor, Mark Fegerson, says the Labour party faces an existential crisis after its near wipeout in Scotland, and gaining only a handful of seats in England, outside of London.

He says the Labour defeat is a symptom of wider problem, suggesting it goes back a decade. He says the last time the Labour party won a healthy majority was ten years ago “with 35.2% of the vote with only about two thirds of the country voting”.

“It has been a long time since the Labour party has seriously commanded the majority [of support] of ordinary working people, “ he says.

Mr Ferguson says Labour needs to go back to “first principles”. It’s been a long time since politicians looked or like sounded the people they are seeking to represent, he adds.

Sturgeon: Scotland's voice will be heard

BBC

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "No longer will Scotland be sidelined or ignored in Westminster."

She said the people of Scotland voted for an SNP manifesto which had “ending austerity as its number one priority”.

"As I told the prime minister yesterday, it simply cannot be, and it will not be, business as usual when it comes to Westminster’s dealing with Scotland," she said.

"Scotland spoke more loudly and clearly than ever before. Scotland’s voice will be heard more loudly than it ever has before. That voice will be a voice for more progressive politics."

She says to people than didn’t vote SNP: "We will work every day to win your trust."

Surgeon: SNP will represent all the people of Scotland

Introducing the 56 MPs that will take their seats in Westminster on behalf of the SNP, their leader Nicola Sturgeon says: "The people have spoken, and the people have chosen the SNP to represent their interests in Westminster, as well as in Holyrood."

"We will represent in Westminster, as well as in Holyrood, all the people of Scotland," she says

“Our job is to repay the trust you have shown in us. Scotland has given the SNP a mandate unprecedented for any political party right across the UK,” she adds.

Not 'business as usual'

Pic: SNP photo opp

BBC

Scottish Nationalist Party leader Nicola Sturgeon addresses 56 SNP MPs who are going to Westminster.

Pic: SNP MPs photo opp

BBC

The host of new SNP MPs in the process of lining up for a photo opportunity near Edinburgh.

Wallace: Remarkable victory

BBC News Channel

BBC

Mark Wallace, editor of ConservativeHome, reflecting on the Tory party victory at the election tells the BBC: "It's a remarkable, very pleasing, but also bizarre situation. Anyone involved in politics will tell you they are pretty sleep deprived still at this point. So you do have a kind of dreamlike quality of whether it really happened or not. This was something that people had said for a long time that would never happen again – to get a Conservative majority."

Minds will inevitably turn to what will this mean and how David Cameron can manage a slim majority government, he adds.

Bloggers Mark

BBC's Jane Hill

BBC

It seems to you can’t be a blogger without being called Mark.

(Pictured left to right: Mark Ferguson, Mark Wallace and Mark Pack.)

Look familiar?

Try a different tactic

Popularity contest

BBC Radio 5 Live

Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie is challenged that with £12bn of cuts pencilled in, the Conservatives could lose support.

"If it makes the scale of cuts that are pencilled in, then I think it could be very unpopular indeed. The problem the Tories have at the moment is a lot of cuts have fallen on people of working age, including some people with disabilities, and pensioners have been completely protected.

"It used to be the case, ten, twenty years ago that on average pensioners were poorer than the average citizen. Now they're actually considerably better off... If really we are all in this together... then some of the cuts must go to pensioners."

Labour leader 'open race'

Brick by brick

A spot of spring cleaning

Jonathan Freedland: Scottish independence inevitable

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland warns that David Cameron faces substantial problems with debates over the future of the United Kingdom both in terms of holding the union together and its place within Europe coming up.

Over Scotland he warns:

Surely, all the momentum now is for independence – if not soon, then eventually. The conditions could not be more fertile, a return to the dynamic of the 1980s and 90s that led to devolution: namely, Scotland ruled by an English Tory government for which it did not vote. It will require the greatest possible ingenuity and generosity on the part of those who still believe in the union – perhaps an entirely new, federal design entrenched in a written constitution – to persuade Scotland to stay."

Down but not out

A fast one?

BBC Radio 5 Live

Roger Helmer of UKIP is challenged that former leader Nigel Farage has "pulled a fast one" by saying he would stand down as leader of the party if he failed to be elected as the MP for South Thanet but then saying he would consider standing again for the UKIP leadership.

"He said if he lost he'd stand down, he has stood down... He is now a UKIP MEP, he's a member of the party, and as such... he is entitled to put his name forward. The question is quite simply not whether he decides he wants to be leader, but whether the party decides it wants him to be leader, and I have to tell you, from the soundings I've taken... there is quit a strong groundswell of opinion... which is saying: 'He is a great leader. We want him back'."

Mr Helmer added that there would also be other candidates.

Runners and riders

BBC Radio 5 Live

Sir Menzies Campbell is challenged that the Liberal Democrats don't really have much choice for a new leader, given the leader has to come from the eight members of parliament returned. "I think that we've more than one candidate. You'll have to wait and see who the runners and riders are before you place your bet."

'Stormy times ahead'

Johnson: Labour not finished

BBC Radio 4 Today

"If this election is compared to [19]92 then we want the next one to be compared to [19]97," Former Labour cabinet minister Alan Johnson tells the Today programme.

He says Ed Miliband started the process of selecting a new party leader on a genuine one-member one-vote basis that former Labour leader John Smith used back in the 1990s. “Not one member six votes, not one member no vote”, he says.

But the work needs to be finished before a new party leader is selected in three months’ time, he says. Mr Johnson says there is time to do that while at the same time having a fundamental honest discussion about what the Labour party is about.

"Labour's not finished, Labour will be back," he says.

Johnson: Old rows over Blair/Brown still haunt

BBC Radio 4 Today

Just replacing one leader with another without proper analysis isn’t going to get Labour very far, Mr Johnson says. He adds it is possible that Labour is still fighting over the old Blairite/Brownite battle lines.

"You would think that Tony Blair lost us three elections not won us three elections," he says.That’s a fundamental flaw.

"David Cameron had to prove that we would fail in government. If we’re helping him by suggesting that we failed in our 13 years in government, then that’s not going to do us any good," Mr Johnson says.

Defending Miliband

Johnson: Labour lost economic argument

BBC Radio 4 Today

Alan Johnson tells the Today programme Labour lost the argument on the economy, saying it couldn’t properly counter the myth over Labour’s recession. He says the party would have “borrowed to invest with interest rates at near-zero” so there was a big dividing line between themselves and the Tories.

“It is much more fundamental than just changing the leadership,” he says.

“Ed Miliband is a decent man, he fought a decent campaign, but there is a fundamental issue here,” he adds.

He says David Cameron won an overall majority at a time when people are seriously worried about poverty and about whether their kids will have a better future than they have. "We didn’t grasp that, despite Ed’s best effort to make that an issue. That’s an issue globally, never mind just in this country. That never got translated into aspiration for people’s lives."

Lammy for leader?

Johnson: Not going to run for Labour leader

BBC Radio 4 Today

Former Labour cabinet minister Alan Johnson tells the Today programme he isn’t interested in becoming leader of his party.

He says: “No, I don’t have the qualities. This is a ten year task”

He says the party faces a deeper problem than just whether Ed Miliband was leader or how he ate a bacon sandwich.

He questions why Labour lost seats like Hastings, Thanet, Bury. He says the Labour party is no longer the party of “aspiration”.

“We can no longer relate to [people] as a party of aspiration,” he says. He claims this was why New Labour won three elections in the past.

Making a difference

BBC Radio 5 Live

John Denham, Ed Miliband's former parliamentary private secretary, says that Labour came across as being economically radical to the electorate, but didn't clearly explain how their policies would make a difference to the country.

What happened was that people sensed that Ed Miliband, quite rightly in my view, wanted a more radical approach to the economy - that we weren't going to be able to deliver the sort of jobs and wages that people wanted as long as the economy was dominated by big companies that weren't really competitive, that didn't pay their taxes, didn't treat their employees well. But at the end of the day, what came was the idea that we wanted radical change, but not a clear sense for enough people about how that would make a difference for them."

Elation will fade

'Brutally efficient' campaign

Montgomerie: Cameron could face rebellious MPs

BBC Radio 4 Today

Mr Montgomerie says Mr Cameron faces a genuine problem, despite achieving a majority that few commentators including himself predicted, in that he has a group of potentially rebellious backbench MPs.

Mr Cameron must try to avoid this parliament being as fractured and divided as it was after 1992 under John Major, he says, who, he points out, had a larger majority than the prime minister enjoys.

The things that go in his favour are the fact that a number of MPs owe their seats to the fact that Mr Cameron is the first prime minister to increase their majority since 1983.

But at the same time there may be quite a few independently minded rebellious MPs who are there to stand up for what they believe in. "We just don’t know how many of them there are," he adds.

Montgomerie: 'The trouble starts now'

BBC Radio 4 Today

The last parliament was “the most rebellious of the post war period” Mr Montgomerie tells Today. “You had more rebels against David Cameron on Europe, on constitutional issues, on tax,” he says.

Mr Montgomerie adds Mr Cameron had a large majority last time - with the help of the Lib Dems - and those MPs that did rebel from his own party felt they had licence to do so because the prime minister was defending the coalition agreement, while his backbenchers felt that they were the guardians of the Tory manifesto.

He says: “Once you get into that mindset of rebellion can you suddenly become loyal and disciplined in this parliament?”

“The trouble starts now says,” Mr Montgomerie says.

Traditions prevail

North and south

BBC Radio 5 Live

Labour did not "land the message" they wanted to get across to the electorate on the economy, Ed Miliband's former parliamentary private secretary John Denham tells Radio 5 live. "A lot of the election was decided north and south of the border by a sense of national community and identity," he adds.

Labour's '10 year task'

Montgomerie: Tories still face old problems

BBC Radio 4 Today

Being a special adviser to a minister was a disadvantage in the last round of recruitment for Conservative MPs, Tim Montgomerie, columnist at the Times, tells the Today programme.

He says much of the new intake of MPs are very independently minded, lawyers, business people and so on.

But the new intake reinforces the same old Tory problem, that its MPs are not particularly representative of the population.

Mr Montgomerie says that they are well-off, nearly all married, nearly all from professional backgrounds, university educated, ex-City -  only one new MP on the list he has seen has come from the public sector.

He says it makes the party look like the party of the rich, the party that has already made it. “It still has some way to go to get northern candidates…from poorer working class backgrounds," he adds.

Trumpet blowing

Sir Menzies Campbell told BBC Breakfast that the Lib Dems did not successfully highlight what they had done in government to the electorate.

"We did not get the credit which we deserve - this is not a plaintive cry, it's the truth - we did not get the credit we deserve, for, almost exactly five years ago, going into coalition with the Conservatives in the national interest, because of the state the economy was in."

I don't think we blew our own trumpet either loud enough or often enough."

Start again

BBC

Sir Menzies Campbell, a former leader of the Lib Dems, tells BBC Breakfast the party was "punished" at the polls.

I don't think there's any point in denying that this was a very bad night for us, and that we have to go back now and start again. We've got to start from the bottom up.

He added that the Lib Dems now have to go back and re-establish themselves in local government, and off the back of that, try to get parliamentary success.

How did the pollsters get it so wrong?

BBC

Labour and the Conservatives were portrayed in the polls as being neck and neck, with other parties predicted to hold the balance of power. But as it turned out, the Conservatives gained a majority. Former pollster Ben Shimson of the Britain Thinks research group is asked: How did the pollsters get it so wrong?

There are a number of things that could have gone wrong. One of the things might be that a lot of people decided very late... and it seems like there maybe four to eight million people who did that. Secondly, there's an issue around shy Tories - the idea that some of the people that show up in polls might not be the sorts of people that want to readily admit that they vote Tory.

SNP 'can make their voices heard'

BBC

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon will be meeting up with her new Westminster intake today with 56 SNP MPs preparing to take seats at the House of Commons. But how difficult can they make life for the Conservatives? Scotland correspondent Laura Bicker says: "This is where David Cameron's majority comes into play. In theory he can get through whatever he wants to get through... [but the SNP] can make their voices heard from the opposition benches, and they can put a lot of pressure on the Conservatives."

'Record breaking'

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Professor Charlie Jeffrey of the University of Edinburgh said the Scottish National Party's (SNP) almost total victory in Scotland yesterday was "extraordinary" and "record breaking in practically every respect."

He said there are a number of reasons that the SNP did so well, including gains made in traditional areas during the Scottish referendum, a "very effective leadership change" from Alex Salmond to Nicola Sturgeon, and an emphasis on social justice that attracted Labour voters.

'An excellent election'

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Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has said she'll stay on, despite not managing to win a seat. The Greens boosted their share of the vote to just under 4%. "In terms of the seat I was standing in, Holborn and St Pancras, I always made it clear that I had a huge mountain to climb. I stood in the seat where I live... where I've been a community campaigner - that was the right place for me to stand. But for the Green Party, despite our concern about the overall result, this was an excellent election. We got four times more votes in a general election than we've ever got before. 1.1 million people."

Trouble ahead?

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While the Conservatives have a majority, the next government could actually be more unstable than the coalition, Professor Vernon Bogdanor from King's College London tells BBC Breakfast.

David Cameron has a very small majority, and those who remember John Major's government, which had a majority of 21 in the 1990s, will remember the difficulties that caused, particularly over the issue of Europe. Now, Europe could cause David Cameron many difficulties, because he's broadly on the pro-European wing of the party - he'd like to remain in the European Union, but of course, many of his backbenchers don't want to do that, and a very small handful of them can cause him trouble."

Professor Vernon Bogdanor

What's next?

BBC

The Conservatives are waking up today to a better result than they could have hoped for, political correspondent Ross Hawkins tells BBC Breakfast. "The question is of course where do they go from here? There is a lot of work to do." In the new Cabinet, George Osborne, Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Michael Fallon will remain in the posts they had, but more ministers are to be announced. "This time no Lib Dems. They'll all be Conservatives," Ross says.

Good morning

After a tumultuous day yesterday, David Cameron will be deciding on the make-up of his Cabinet, while Labour, the Lib Dems and UKIP will be starting the process of choosing their next party leaders. And in Scotland, the SNP will gather to celebrate their victories.