It's a "bundle recount" at Blyth Valley, which "won't take too long", the presiding officer tells us...

Catherine Peart
BBC Newcastle

Gateshead Labour MP Ian Mearns tells me: "It’s very bad news for the Labour Party, the country and particularly bad news for the North East if exit poll is as accurate as it was in 2017."

Sharon Barbour
BBC Look North

Get ready for Blyth result, Northumberland.

Solid Labour since its creation in 1950.

Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery has arrived at the Blyth Valley count:

Naga Munchetty
BBC News

Blyth Valley was expected to be the first to declare.

The seat here was considered a safe Labour seat.

It's a good 25 minutes after we expected it to declare.

There was a very low number of postal votes.

We're not sure if there is a recount yet.

Bishop Auckland is being heavily targeted by the Tories, as although it was traditionally a Labour seat, its majority in 2017 was 502 votes.

Its previous Labour MP supported the Remain campaign, and the area voted to leave the EU by a healthy margin.

Anthony Day
BBC Newcastle

Turnout for the Blyth Valley seat is 64%.

The result is expected soon.

The Conservatives are quietly confident - one Labour activist tells me "this is a dire night for Labour".

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

If Boris Johnson is to win an overall majority, he is likely to have to win a significant number of marginal seats from Labour.

Of Labour's 50 most marginal seats, as many as 39 voted in favour of Leave in the 2016 referendum. In 16, more than 60% voted Leave.

These leave-inclined marginals - in north-east Wales, the Midlands and the north of England - are said to form Labour's "red wall".

They are seats in which Labour came only narrowly ahead of the Conservatives in the 2017 election. Many, such as Bishop Auckland, Workington, and Wrexham, have traditionally been safe Labour seats. Indeed, some of them have never returned a Conservative in a post-war general election.

Image source, BBC/PA

Richard Moss
Political Editor, BBC Look North

Conservative source saying Blyth Valley is nail-bitingly close between them and Labour.

A seat held till now by former miner Ronnie Campbell - a Brexit-backing Labour MP - who has stood down.

Fergus Hewison
BBC Newcastle political reporter

All the ballot boxes are now in at the Sunderland count - by 22.22.

Labour leader of the city council Graeme Miller tells me he’s confident his party will retain the three seats but admits vote share will be squeezed by some voters staying away.

Ballot boxes are being rushed in for the count in Sunderland.

It has traditionally been the quickest to reveal the first result of the night - usually within an hour of voting ending. From 1992 until 2015 the first election result was announced there.

However, it was pipped to the post by near neighbours Newcastle in 2017, which beat them by a clear nine minutes.

Image source, PA

Glad you asked!

So Newcastle and Sunderland have recently shared the honour of being the first constituency to declare.

Houghton and Sunderland South had been the first constituency to declare its results in the 2010 and 2015 general elections, but in 2017 Newcastle Central just pipped it to the post by declaring at 22:53.

On that occasion it was Labour's Chi Onwurah who had the honour of being named the first MP of the election.

Image source, Getty Images

Conservates "quietly confident" for Bltyh Valley win.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

I was told before the election by Labour campaigners and officials that seats that had been historically Labour in North East England were at risk - even Blyth, which had a Leave MP, and canvass returns for rising star Laura Pidcock, who is standing again in North West Durham, were poor.

On the basis of the exit poll, it's credible...

Ruth Holliday
BBC Newcastle

The boxes are arriving at the Newcastle count.

The 127 ballot boxes will be counted by 283 count assistants with 475 staff overall at Northumbria University Sport Central.

They include 30 students from Northumbria University acting as runners