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:
Some more statistics for you:
7 - seats that the Conservatives are expected to be short of a majority in the Commons.
29 - gains made by Labour.
68.7 - percentage turnout, the largest since 1997.
207 - women MPs elected, a record total.
66 - sitting MPs lost their jobs.
82.4 - percentage of votes that went to either the Tories or Labour, up from 67.4% in 2015.
1.8 - Ukip's percentage vote share, down from 12.9% in 2015.
99 - years that Canterbury was a Conservative seat, until now.
782,000 - pounds lost in deposits by candidates failing to receive 5% of the vote share.
Eric Pickles, a former Conservative minister who stood down at the election, has admitted his party "underestimated" Jeremy Corbyn.
"It's going to be very difficult but that's democracy, that's what people voted for and it's up to us to get on with the job," he told the BBC.
"It's clearly not a happy moment for the Conservative Party but it's not a fatal moment."
Mr Pickles said: "I think I did, and a lot of other people did underestimate Mr Corbyn, and getting the percentage share he did and turning over a number of Conservative seats is an achievement."
Donald Trump has written his first tweet of the day, but no comment from the US President on the general election result as yet.
He is referring to testimony given by the former FBI Director James Comey yesterday. Read more about that here
Still no result in Kensington, where the vote remains too close to call despite several recounts.
Analysts are talking about the impact of the shock result on the perception of Jeremy Corbyn, both inside and outside the Labour Party.
Sceptics blamed dire poll showings for Labour after the snap election was called on the leader's policies, following persistent controversy over infighting, past links with the IRA and his stance on terrorism and nuclear weapons.
But Mr Corbyn has now led Labour to a 40% share of the vote, which while not securing a victory, deals a significant blow to the Tories.
Other analysts have seen the cause of the vote more in Theresa May's failures than her rival's success.
The latter stages of the campaign saw the Prime Minister hampered by accusations of "hiding from the public" while remaining absent from rallies and television debates, and repeating soundbites in stage-managed interviews.
Tory MP Nigel Evans claimed the Tory manifesto "lost us the election", demanding to know who inserted controversial policies on social care and fox hunting.
“We didn't shoot ourselves in the foot, we shot ourselves in the head,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
An update from our business editor, Josie Cox:
Global credit ratings agency S&P has said that the outcome of the snap election “should have no immediate impact on the ratings” of the UK’s debt. “Depending on the political calculus and the final Government make-up, there is […] likely to be a shift in domestic macroeconomic policy, including on various aspects of public expenditure given the electorate's apparent rejection of further austerity measures,” the agency writes. It adds, however: “Our ratings on the UK already take into account a less predictable policy framework following the vote to leave the EU in June 2016. “In our view, the lack of a majority for any party is likely to delay Brexit negotiations, scheduled to start very soon. Furthermore, we do not exclude the possibility of another snap election. These considerations are reflected in our current negative outlook on the long-term ratings.” S&P currently has a AA rating on the UK, which is the third highest rating on its scale. A higher rating indicates that a country’s debt is less likely to default.
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