Election 2017 live updates: Theresa May claims Conservative government supported by DUP will provide 'certainty'
The Independent will be bringing you all the live updates as the UK's next government is formed
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May has said she will form a Conservative government backed by the DUP, claiming it can bring "certainty" to the UK.
After visiting the Queen, the Prime Minister claimed there was a "strong relationship" between the two parties, amid concern over the DUP's controversial anti-abortion and anti-LGBT policies.
The PM has also apologised to Conservatives who lost last night. She said: "I'm sorry for all those colleagues who lost their seats." She will "reflect on what we need to do in the future to take the party forward" after the result, she added.
The UK voted for a hung parliament after shock losses for the Conservatives in the 2017 general election. With 649 of 650 seats declared, the Tories had 318 seats - eight short of the figure needed to win outright - with Labour on 261, the SNP on 35 and Liberal Democrats on 12.
Jeremy Corbyn's party increase its share of the vote by 9.6 per cent, while the Tories were up 5.5 per cent, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and SNP saw small loses and Ukip's vote collapsed.
The live blog has now ended
Politicians, voters, and even their pets have been heading to polling stations and are posing for the cameras at every opportunity.
The Prime Minister has made clear that she would rely on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party in order to get her programme through Parliament, despite concern over its stance on issues including equal marriage, abortion and climate change.
Making no allusion to losses suffered by the Conservatives, Ms May said she intended to press ahead with her plans for Brexit.
She faced calls from within her own party to consider her own position after the election, which she brought forward by three years in the hope it would deliver an increased majority in the Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn urged her to resign and allow him to form a minority administration, declaring: “We are ready to serve this country.”
But, after intensive talks with the DUP, the Prime Minister instead drove the short distance to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen for permission to form a new government.
The final election results came in late on Friday, after Kensington finally declared a Labour win — with a tiny 20-vote majority. They were:
Nicola Sturgeon has just arrived at her polling station in Glasgow with her husband.
Theresa May has said her commitment to the Union "will not waver" as she urged people to back the Conservatives.
Ms May said that the Tories are the only party determined enough to reject SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon's "obsessive drive to break up the United Kingdom".
Writing in the Scottish Daily Mail, the Prime Minister said that people feel "angry and betrayed" by talk of a referendum.
She said that breaking up the UK would put future prosperity at risk and that she announced "now is not the time" when Ms Sturgeon demanded a second independence referendum.
Theresa May has arrived at her polling station in Maidenhead with her husband, Philip.
The Prime Minister greeted reporters and photographers with a cheery "hello" as she arrived with husband Philip to vote at Sonning guide and scout hut on the outskirts of Maidenhead.
Fathers' rights protester Bobby Smith, from Stevenage, demonstrated outside the polling station accompanied by his mother Sheila Doyle-Smith, 59, who was dressed as Elmo.
Mr Smith stood against David Cameron in 2015.
Jeremy Corbyn has just arrived at his polling station in Holloway, North London. He's looking particularly chirpy.
Mr Corbyn told the press gathered outside: "Thank you very much, all of you, for coming here today. It's a day of our democracy. I've just voted. I'm very proud of our campaign. Thank you very much."
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