What time will we know the general election result?
Our guide to timings for polling day and counting night as Labour win general election with a huge majority.
Labour has secured a sweeping victory in the general election.
Outgoing prime minister Rishi Sunak admitted defeat around 5am on Friday, just before Sir Keir Starmer secured the 326 MPs needed to become the new tenant of No 10.
Election 2024 live updates: Exit poll forecasts Labour landslide as Tories face wipeout
With 646 constituency results declared, Labour emerged victorious in 412 seats. The Conservatives secured 121 seats, while the Liberal Democrats triumphed in 71 constituencies.
Reform UK managed to secure four seats.
The SNP has nine seats, Plaid Cymru secured four, Sinn Fein has seven, and the DUP has five. The Green Party gained 6.8% of the votes and four seats.
Here’s our breakdown of key timings throughout the night:
When are votes counted?
First, ballots have to make it from polling stations to the counting hall, which could take minutes or hours, depending how far they have to travel.
Once there, slips are verified to ensure they match data from their polling stations (such as the number of ballots issued throughout the day), before being mixed with postal votes for counting to begin in earnest.
When should we expect the first results?
A handful of seats declared a result before midnight.
Traditionally, this honour has fallen to one of the Sunderland constituencies, although at the last two elections, in 2019 and 2017, that crown was snatched by Newcastle Central.
This time around, however, it was Houghton and Sunderland South who were first to declare.
Who has won in my area?
Bookmark this page and check out our interactive map to find out who has won.
And will there be a result by then?
The magic number for a parliamentary majority is 326 seats, although in reality the actual number is slightly lower due to various factors.
If a party pulled off the slightly implausible achievement of winning 326 seats consecutively, a result could have been confirmed by about 3.30am.
However, Labour secured the 326 MPs at around 5am.
Which will be the last seat to declare?
The final two seats left to declare are South Basildon & East Thurrock (recount on Friday afternoon) and Inverness, Skye & West Ross-Shire (recount on Saturday).
