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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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:
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, has also suggested Brexit negotiations may be delayed. He told the UK to avoid a 'no deal' result
A reminder of our front page this morning. Safe to say this election isn't going quite how Theresa May hoped...
Nigel Evans, the Conservative MP for Ribble Valley, has been among the most prominent critics of Theresa May's campaign.
The backbencher told the BBC he was "totally baffled", saying the 42.4% vote could have been converted into a landslide.
"The campaign was going absolutely swimmingly until we launched our manifesto," Mr Evans said, blaming social care, the 'triple lock' and winter weather payments.
"We derailed our own campaign, we fairly well hijacked our successful campaign - we weren't talking about the Labour Party anymore, we were trying to justify ourselves...the whole thing went downhill from then on."
He demanded to know who had inserted unpopular policies into the document, saying candidates that "should have been winning were absolutely slain on the cross of our manifesto...it's cost us the general election".
"We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, we shot ourselves in the head," he told BBC Radio 5 Live earlier, saying the campaign started as a "Rolls Royce" and ended up as a "clapped out Robin Reliant".
Theresa May is to visit visit Buckingham Palace at 12.30pm to seek permission from the Queen to form a Government, Downing Street has said.
The University and College Union (UCU) says it was "delighted" by an increased turnout among young voters, who may have been "crucial" to some of the shocks on election night.
General Secretary Sally Hunt urged the new government to guarantee the rights of EU citizens currently in the UK, including thousands of university and college staff and students.
"It looks like young people in particular have been inspired to vote in greater numbers in this election with a number of seats in towns and cities with universities and colleges changing hands. This is really encouraging and a vindication of all those, including UCU, who worked so hard to encourage young people to register to vote, and to vote for the first time."
David Miliband, the former Labour Foreign Secretary who narrowly lost the party's 2010 leadership election to his brother, is happy with the result.
An update with the results with 649 of 650 seats declared - in Kensington, the results have been suspended as even recounts have proved too close to call between Labour and the Conservatives.
Conservative 318 seats (-12) 13,650,900 votes (42.4%)
Labour 261 seats (+29) 12,858,652 votes (40%)
SNP 35 seats (-21) 977,569 votes (3%)
Lib Dems 12 seats (+4) 2,368,048 votes (7.4%)
DUP 10 seats (+2) 292,316 votes (0.9%)
Sinn Fein 7 seats (+3) 238,915 votes (0.7%)
Plaid Cymru 4 seats (+1) 164,466 votes (0.5%)
Green Party 1 (+0) 524,604 (1.6%)
Ukip 0 (-1%) 593,852 (1.8%)
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