And with that, just a few minutes shy of 24 hours after it started, Election 2015 is over. It's been a tumultuous time for many parties, with great joy and crushing disappointment writ large across faces.

But to leave on a positive message, our politics team revealed earlier that the North East is leading the way in electing female MPs.

Photographer Paul Kingston snapped this shot of three such examples - Labour MPs Sharon Hodgson, Bridget Phillipson and Julie Elliott.

Image source, PA

And the Middlesbrough Council elections are still dripping through - you can follow the rest of them on the authority's website here, external, and Local Live will have a full round-up of those, and Redcar's outstanding declaration, on Monday.

John Bowness
BBC Tees

Andy Preston said paid warm tributes to his victorious rival and said he looked forward to seeing more of him and trying to improve Middlesbrough.

Dave Budd was asked about the atmosphere of the campaign but he said he hoped everything could be put behind for the good of the town.

Andy Preston tweets, external: We missed out by 256 votes.

Congrats to Dave Budd as Boro's new Mayor.

Thanks to everyone who supported & voted for me.

John Bowness
BBC Tees

Dave Budd at the first preference count received 16,680 votes with an additional 2,858 second preference votes for his 19,538 total.

Andy Preston at the first preference count received 14,265 votes with an additional 5,017 second preference votes for his 19,282 total.

John Bowness
BBC Tees

We can now declare the winners of the Middlesbrough mayoral election.

Dave Budd has won by the slimmest of margins - just 256 votes.

Mr Budd gained 19,538 votes, while Andy Preston won 19,282.

Nick Clegg has stepped down as leader of the Liberal Democrats and called a leadership election after suffering disastrous losses today, including losing Berwick-upon-Tweed and Redcar to the Tories and Labour respectively.

And with the party reduced from 57 MPs to just eight - and the loss of ex-ministers such as Vince Cable, Norman Baker, David Laws and Danny Alexander - the next leader looks set to come from this small band of MPs. Here they are.

So at this late juncture, it's worth recapping exactly where we are. Here's the top headlines in the North East this evening:

• Middlesbrough's mayoral count has been hit by masses of spoilt ballots

• Redcar Council is in the balance with a fourth recount due on Monday for Skelton ward

• The North East now has 'noisy SNP neighbours' after Labour was hammered in Scotland

• David Cameron is Prime Minister after beating Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, a move which forced both to resign

The race for Middlesbrough mayor is close, currently counting second preferences to determine the winner out of Preston or Budd, Middlesbrough Council says.

John Bowness
BBC Tees

Some of those observing the Middlesbrough mayoral count are also keeping an ear open for BBC Tees commentary on tonight's Boro match.

Sadly it's not online, so you'll have to tune you dials the old fashioned way to 95FM if you want to join in. Here's a photo from the game to keep you going and you can keep up to date with live text coverage here.

Image source, PA

Stuart Whincup
BBC Look North

Turns out my prediction of the Middlesbrough mayor result being in by 16:00 was very optimistic....

BBC One is hosting a special edition of Question Time tonight at 20:30 to discuss the fallout from the election.

Join David Dimbleby and his panel of experts as they dissect an election which may have more profound consequences than almost any in living memory - and try to get Paddy Ashdown to eat his hat.

Tonight's panellists are:

• Alastair Campbell - former Labour spin doctor

• Francis Maude - a Cabinet Minister in the last government.

• Lord Ashdown - former leader of the Liberal Democrats

• John Swinney - Deputy First Minister of Scotland

• Julia Hartley-Brewer - English broadcaster and columnist

The Journal
Newspaper

Meet the newly-elected North East MPs, external.

Image source, The Journal

David Rhodes
Politics Reporter, BBC North East and Cumbria

After 36 hours on the go and the Middlesbrough mayoral count in chaos it's time for me to bow out. My colleague John Bowness will bring you the final result right here.

Jamie Reed, MP for Copeland, has written a blog for Labourlist, external - one of the main Labour blogs - about the party's defeat.

"Outside of the bubble of the short campaign, Labour MPs knew earlier this year that the kind of defeat that has now transpired was heading our way," he writes.

The blog examines the parliamentary Labour party and its leadership since the 2010 election.

"At precisely the time when the PLP should have been firing on every intellectual cylinder it had, it had instead become inert," he says.

He finishes with: "We saw this failure coming, and I cannot explain why the Party inflicted this defeat upon itself. For my part, to every single person that needed us to win; I'm sorry."

David Rhodes
Politics Reporter, BBC North East and Cumbria

Chaos and farce tonight at the Middlesbrough mayoral contest. We might not have a winner before 21:00. Counting has been weighed down by the huge number of spoilt ballots

Labour's Jon Woodcock saw his 2010 majority of 5,208 slashed to just 795 in Barrow and Furness, securing 42.3% of the votes, just 1.8% more than second-placed Simon Fell from the Conservatives.

UKIP's Nigel Cecil saw his share soar from 1.9% to 11.7% to secure third while Liberal Democrat Clive Peaple had his share slashed from 10% down to 2.7%.

Redcar and Cleveland Council has confirmed that the recount (well, technically the fourth recount) of votes for Skelton Ward will take place on Monday.

To recap - Labour want overall control and currently have 27 seats, while the other parties combined have 29. The target is 30, and there's three seats to declare in Skelton, external.

So it seems like it is everyone home for the Brentford v Middlesbrough play-off match.

Labour's Jamie Reed kept his Copeland Parliamentary constituency although his majority dropped by 1,269 to 2,564, 42.3% of the votes.

Stephen Haraldsen from the Conservatives came second with 35.8%, and UKIP's Michael Pye came third with 15.5%, a 13.2% rise from 2010.

Danny Gallagher from the Liberal Democrats saw his previous 10.2% share reduced to 3.5%.

David Rhodes
Politics Reporter, BBC North East and Cumbria

Many of the Middlesbrough mayoral candidates are concerned by the delays. After all Boro kick off in the play-offs at 19:45.