BREAKING: UK Election Ends In Hung Parliament As Theresa May’s Conservatives Fall Short Of Majority

May’s party needed to win a majority of the 650 seats in parliament to take office, and their inability to do that means she would have to form a coalition or attempt to govern with the backing of other smaller parties.

A total of 650 Westminster MPs are being elected, with about 45.8 million people entitled to vote. A party needs 326 seats to have an overall majority.

As things stood at 7.50am on Friday morning, the Conservatives had won 315 seats, a loss of 12, while Labour had won 261, a gain of 29.

With just a handful of seats left to declare, Thursday’s poll shows gains for the opposition Labour Party.

And with 645 of the 650 seats now declared, no single party will be able to secure an overall majority, with a hung parliament now guarantee.

The result also plunges domestic politics into turmoil as Brexit talks are expected to begin next week.

The backlash could derail negotiations with the other 27 EU countries ahead of Britain’s exit from the bloc, due in March 2019, before they even begin in earnest.

May had been expected to win comfortably. Her decision to call an early election cost a handful of her ministers to lose their seats including Ben Gummer, the architect of the Tory manifesto, and Jane Ellison, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

The biggest shock of the night so far has been the Liberal Democrat MP Nick Clegg losing his seat to a Labour candidate. He was deputy prime minister of the UK from 2010 to 2015 in a coalition government with the Conservatives.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd clung onto her Hastings and Rye seat after fierce speculation that she could be ousted.

The Conservative nightmare was perhaps only matched by the SNP with the party losing 21 seats including its two Westminster big beasts Angus Robertson and Alex Salmond.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats managed to make four gains, securing 12 seats in all.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, urged Mrs May to resign as he said she should “go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country”.

However, Mrs May insisted the UK needed a period of stability as she delivered a speech following her re-election as the MP for Maidenhead.

She said: “At this time, more than anything else, this country needs a period of stability.

“If, as the indications have shown and if this is correct, the Conservative Party has won the most seats and probably the most votes, then it will be incumbent on us to ensure that we have that period of stability and that is exactly what we will do.”

But EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger told German radio he was unsure Brexit talks could start later this month as scheduled. He said discussions with a weak UK negotiating partner could lead to a poor outcome.

May had called an early election to try to improve her negotiation positions on Brexit, but from the outcome of the elections, it shows her decision backfired.

British media say May will not resign from her sit despite the election outcome.

Final election results are expected to come in by lunchtime on Friday.