Conservatives take five seats from Labour in Greater Manchester - Bury North, Bury South, Leigh, Bolton North East, and Heywood & Middleton)
Tories gain Burnley, Blackpool South, and Hyndburn from Labour in Lancashire
In Cheshire, the Conservatives take Crewe & Nantwich and Warrington South from Labour
No other seats change hands
Merseyside bucks the national trend - Labour successfully defends all 14 of its seats, while the Tories hold Southport
Mark Menzies has held Fylde for the Conservatives.
Image source, Conservative partyHe won 61% of the vote, and increased the Tories' majority to more than 16,000.
The was a 5.1% swing from Labour to the Conservatives.
Candidates are being warned to keep away from the swimming pool at the Southport count...
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The BBC's Merseyside political correspondent Claire Hamilton reports Labour members are pretty downbeat in Liverpool.
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It's the biggest question of the night...
Image source, Getty ImagesIf a party wins in 326 constituencies - that's just more than half the number of seats in the Commons - it will have gained a majority.
In practice, slightly fewer seats are needed. That's because the Speaker of the House (currently Sir Lindsay Hoyle from Chorley) remains neutral.
Sinn Fein MPs also have a long-standing tradition of not taking their seats.
If a party has a majority, its leader will head to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen's permission to form a new government.
Our first result of the night: Labour's Derek Twigg has retained the Cheshire seat of Halton, albeit with a reduced majority.
He won by 18,975 votes, down from 25,405 in 2017.]
There was a 5.1% swing to the Conservatives.
Mr Twigg has held the seat since 1997.
Image source, UK ParliamentPress Association reporter Pat Hurst says the Tories are looking confident of taking the seat of Worsley and Eccles South from Labour's Barbara Keeley, despite the latter defending a majority of more than 8,000.
He writes: "Tories saying they are "quietly confident" of a close finish. Corbyn, strikes/nationalisation and the @afneil, external interview mentioned most on doorsteps.
"Salford has not returned a Tory MP since before the Second World War."
Nina Warhurst
BBC North West Political Editor
A Labour campaigner here in Stockport has told me that Boris Johnson's "Get Brexit Done message was pithy - people got it. People didn’t get Jeremy Corbyn."
Meanwhile a Lib Dem source has told me: “Maybe our stance of revoke Brexit rather than calling for a second referendum was a mistake. It’s a moot point. We definitely had labour voters joining us tactically though - so you never know."
Finally, one Tory campaigner thinks they may overturn Labour's 14,000 majority in Stockport. While I think this is unlikely to happen, it's certainly not out of the question if the exit polls are accurate.
Liverpool City Mayor Joe Anderson says the results predicted by the exit poll are "hugely disappointing" for Labour.
Image source, @mayorandersonQuote MessageI firmly believe we will not get any support from a government that has not supported us for the last nine years. It looks like a massive swing from Labour and Brexit has dominated the election."
Joe Anderson, Liverpool City Mayor
Phil McCann
Cheshire Political Reporter, BBC News
There’s some quiet confidence from Conservatives in Warrington South that the seat may have swung back to them, after Labour took it last time.
Warrington North, meanwhile, couldn't be closer according to the exit poll.
It says there's a 52% chance of the Conservatives gaining it with a 48% chance of Labour holding on. It's been Labour since it was created in 1983.
I would urge a degree of caution though - this is not a huge Leave voting area - it was split pretty much down the middle in the EU referendum.
Mike Stevens
Lancashire political correspondent, BBC News
At a number of Lancashire’s 16 counts, you can see huddles of worried-looking people wearing red rosettes.
The Conservatives tried to brand this as the ‘Brexit election’ and it seems that might have been the case.
In seats where around two-thirds of the electorate voted to Leave the EU in 2016, the Tories are hoping to make gains.
Blackpool South and Hyndburn look particularly vulnerable as does Burnley – where there hasn’t been a Conservative MP for more than 100 years.
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Greater Manchester political reporter, BBC News
There's real tension in the air in both the Conservative and Labour camps in Bury North.
According to the exit polls, Labour are predicted to hold on... but only just.
Activists from both sides agree it’s too close to call and both predict a recount may be on the cards.
Meanwhile in Bury South, Labour are pretty downbeat. Former Labour MP Ivan Lewis potentially splitting their vote is causing them real concern. The Tories are hoping to take advantage by nipping in through the middle and snatching the seat.
We do hope the person concerned noticed that he or she came out of the polling station without it...
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If you're the unlucky person, please let us know and we'll see if we can help!
Email: northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
In Blackpool, a mobile polling station suffered a power failure earlier today forcing the local council to improvise.
Blackpool Transport were drafted in and people living around Warren Drive voted on board a single-decker bus.
Power was eventually restored and the ballots are now being counted.
If you have a sweet tooth, it looks like the Heywood and Middleton count is the place for you.
Emma Gant from BBC Radio Manchester has been sampling the fare.
Claire Hamilton
Mersesyide political correspondent, BBC News
According to local Conservative sources, Wirral West is “on a knife edge”.
It is a seat the Tories been desperate to win back since Labour's Margaret Greenwood snatched it from Esther McVey in 2015.
Elsewhere, there is nothing but dismay and disbelief from Liverpool Labour contacts... a sense that the city is again at odds with the rest of the country.
Labour will hold their Liverpool seats, and their big majorities no doubt, but with places like Warrington and Weaver Vale likely to return to the Conservatives, the red wall here is starting to crumble.
The Liberal Democrats' top election priority - stopping Brexit - could boost their chances in areas which voted to Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.
Southport and Cheadle could therefore represent their best hopes in the North West.
On the flipside, will that pro-EU stance of Jo Swinson's party scare away potential supporters in Burnley? Three years ago, about two thirds of voters demanded the UK leave the EU.
Forget football, the North West has for decades been dominated by the Reds.
Because of its strong base, though, Labour potentially has more to lose than to gain tonight.
That said, several prize targets have been identified by party bosses.
Image source, bbcFormer Labour MP Ivan Lewis, who is fighting Bury South as an independent, believes the exit poll which predicts a massive victory for the Conservative Party ought to signal the end of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
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Mr Lewis quit Labour in 2018, a year after he was suspended by the party.
In the run-up to the general election he urged constituents to vote Conservative to stop Mr Corbyn becoming prime minister.
Mr Lewis claimed "institutionalised racism" in Labour had led him to take the stance.
Lucy Powell fears the worst for her party following the exit poll suggestion that Boris Johnson is heading for a comprehensive victory.
She is standing for Labour in Manchester Central, and defending a majority of more than 31,000 votes.
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Boris Johnson and his strategists have spent a lot of time in the North West.
Here are their top targets:
I know it's a term we only use in relation to elections, and please forgive me if I'm trying to teach granny how to suck eggs, but "swing" is calculated by comparing the percentage of voter support from one election to the next.
My colleagues at the BBC's politics unit have compiled a helpful FAQs list on this subject and more.