Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn offers "very heartfelt thanks" to his constituents of whom he says it is his "pride and pleasure" to represent.

He says the the pressure "on those surrounding politicians is often very, very high indeed and the media intrusion in people's lives is very high indeed".

He thanks his family and close friends and his wife "for all she puts up with because of the way the media behaves".

Turning to the election result he says: "Obviously it is a very disappointing night for the party.

"But I want to say this - in the election campaign we put forward a manifesto of hope.

"However, Brexit has so polarised debate it has overridden so much of normal political debate."

The Labour leader has held onto his own seat of Islington North with a big 26,000 majority.

That's no surprise, but it'll be interesting to hear what he says in a moment or two...

A bit more on that big result in Richmond Park. Government minister Zac Goldmsith has lost his south London seat to Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney.

This is a reversal of the result in 2017, when Ms Olney lost the seat to Mr Goldsmith.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says the result "will make them [the Lib Dems] feel better but they are not looking at a rosy night".

The Conservatives have taken West Bromwich East from Labour with a swing of 12.1%.

The constituency had previously been held by Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson.

Mr Watson resigned from his role earlier this year and chose not to stand for Parliament in the election.

The latest BBC forecast has been released, showing a slightly smaller - though still significant - majority for the Conservatives.

Rather than 368 seats - as predicted in the exit poll - we now expect the Tories to win 357.

Labour is now expected to have 201 seats by the end of the night - rather than the first prediction of 191.

Plaid Cymru has also seen a rise in their expected seats from three to four - although that keeps them on the same number as in the last Parliament.

But the other parties remain the same as earlier.

Prof Sir John Curtice says: "With Leave-voting Britain swinging heavily to the Conservatives, it looks as though they will end the election with a very comfortable majority of around 64 seats.

"However, in Scotland it is the SNP who look as though they will dominate the outcome with a performance not far short of what it achieved in 2015.

"Labour's tally of seats could well still be less than the 209 seats that the party won in 1983."

Chancellor Sajid Javid says the projections - and the results - so far are "incredibly encouraging".

He says the Tories' approach "seems to have paid off and the message got through".

"Voters rejected division... want unity and to move the country forward."

Mr Javid claims the Conservatives are "the party of the working class" and the government "will listen to them".

But, he adds: "The first thing to do is get the exit deal through in Parliament.

"Once we have got that through then, of course, we move to the next phase to get the excellent trade deal which we have negotiated the principles of, and get that through Parliament.

"We will do that next year, I'm incredibly confident... and we will have the smoothest of all exits from the EU."

Ex-Labour MP, and one time leadership hopeful, Chuka Umunna had been hoping to take this seat from the Conservatives, banking on a wave of anti-Brexit sentiment.

However despite a 13.1% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats, the Tories have managed to hold on to the seat.

The Guardian media editor notes that the Remain vote was split between Labour and the Lib Dems.

Reality Check

It's raining, it's pouring. So what do elections past tell us about how this might affect how many people turn out to vote?

Instinctively it feels right that the cold and damp December weather will make people less inclined to turn out and vote.

But experts say there is no evidence from the UK to suggest that bad weather stops people from voting.

Research from the University of Oxford found virtually no correlation between the weather and turnout - instead people are more likely to vote if the election race is close and there is a strong difference between the leading parties.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

A big scalp. The DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds has lost his seat in North Belfast to Sinn Féin’s John Finucane.

In what was a closely fought contest in the end, Sinn Fein took the seat with a majority of 1,943 votes.

For the first time the SDLP agreed not to run a candidate in the constituency.

Mr Dodds had held the seat since 2001 and it had always been a unionist seat.

Mr Finucane said the result showed North Belfast “rejects Brexit”.

Former Labour shadow chancellor Chris Leslie has lost his seat in Nottingham East.

He left Labour earlier this year and was a founding member of the Independent Group for Change, who campaigned for another referendum on Brexit.

But he only managed to get the votes of 1,447 constituents.

His old party held the seat, with new candidate Nadia Whittome gaining more than 25,000 votes.

However, there was a 3.2% swing towards the Conservatives.

Five hours in, here's a (fairly long!) summary of where we are:

• The Conservatives are set to win an overall majority of 86 in the general election, according to an exit poll for the BBC, ITV and Sky News.
• The exit poll appears to bring very bad news for Labour, with the worst result forecast for them for many decades. Leave-voting areas are the worst for them
• The Tories are certainly seeing gains - the first big moment of the night came when the Tories took Blyth Valley in North East England - a former mining community and Labour seat since 1950. Places like Redcar, Bishop Auckland, Wrexham and West Bromwich have followed in the same vein

• Downing Street says if the exit poll proves correct, they'll be cracking on with Brexit asap

• A number of shadow frontbenchers have already lost their seats. Others who've been appearing on our airwaves blame Brexit for squeezing out all the other issues. However, a number of the party's other candidates have put the fault squarely at the leadership's door.
• Jeremy Corbyn has arrived at the count in his Islington constituency but no word from him yet on his future
• Even in some seats that Labour is holding, the party's share of the vote is down, upwards of 10% - in Jarrow, for example, they held but with a 20-point drop.
• They are doing well in London so far though - taking Putney from the Tories and holding Walthamstow - both strongly Remain
• The exit poll predicts a very good night for the SNP - winning more than 50 seats - but there's less certainty about that forecast. They've had wins already, including Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and Angus
• The Lib Dems are forecast to get 13 seats, but leader Jo Swinson could be set to lose her seat - we'll have to wait and see.
• The Brexit Party aren't forecast to win any seats but they're certainly winning votes in Labour Leave seats
• The Green Party will still have one MP and Plaid Cymru will lose one seat for a total of three, the survey suggests
• Not a good night for the DUP so far, with big hitter Nigel Dodds losing his seat
• Chuka Umunna, now standing as a Lib Dem, has lost in the Cities of London and Westminster

• Read Laura Kuenssberg's analysis and our at-a-glance piece,summing things up so far

With 20% of seats declared, it looks like bad news for Labour across the country. Their share of the vote is down in every region so far with the worst figure being in the North East.

In contrast, the Conservatives have made gains in several regions but have seen their vote share decrease in Scotland and London.

The Lib Dems have also seen their share increase across the board.

Labour loses Bishop Auckland with a swing of nine-and-a-half points.

Momentum founder Jon Lansman says he's shocked to see "places that were devastated by Thatcher" voting Conservative.

The seat has been Labour since its creation in 1918.

There have been a flurry of other gains from Labour by the Conservatives in the last 10 minutes or so, including Redcar, Stockton South, Ipswich and West Bromwich.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Let’s look at Scotland for moment, where the pattern has been very different so far.

"Get Brexit Done" hasn’t cut through here - in fact it is the biggest anti-Brexit party who are cleaning up.

The SNP are doing very well. Despite being the biggest party by far in 2017, they’ve picked up more seats already, with further likely to come in the next few hours.

It suggests the SNP strategy of trying to get their core vote out by talking about independence as well as Brexit has worked.

And you can expect the party to argue strongly that a big win tonight is a further mandate for another independence referendum.

Emma Vardy
Ireland Correspondent

We could be close to a very dramatic result here in Belfast.

We have senior sources of both parties telling us that Sinn Fein may have unseated the DUP's Westminster leader Nigel Dodds in North Belfast.

That will be a huge blow for the DUP.

Nigel Dodds has been very prominent for the DUP during the Brexit negotiations.

There was a pact between the nationalist parties (Sinn Fein and the SDLP) who have been stepping down for each other in order to maximise the nationalist or pro Remain vote.

Mr Dodds could have fallen victim to one of those pacts.

This has the making of a pretty bad night for the DUP.

Image source, Reuters

Labour has managed to hold Canterbury with a 3% growth in their vote.

Rosie Duffield won the seat by just 187 votes in 2017.

But with a 1.4% swing from the Tories, she has upped that majority to 1,836.

Senior reporter at Business Insider reacts...

Labour's shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon says he is "very concerned about what people in my constituency are going to face with five years of a Thatcherite government".

He says "we need to analyse it objectively" but argues that the "primary reason" for the result was "because this became a Brexit election".

"The Brexit issue overshadowed traditional party loyalty," he says.

He also blames "right-wing newspapers" who he says have done "a very good job of making people think Jeremy Corbyn, a very decent man, is a threat to security".

Asked if his leader will resign, Mr Burgon replies "Jeremy will make a decision in due course."

Image source, Reuters

Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith has held onto his seat in Chingford and Woodford Green.

It was thought he was at risk, with Labour sneaking up behind his already small majority.

But, despite almost 2% gains by Labour, Mr Duncan Smith held on and won by just over 1,200 votes.

The deputy political editor of the Times says the party fought hard to save him...