David Cameron is preparing to travel to Buckingham Palace this lunchtime to meet the Queen of England after returning to Downing Street as Prime Minister in the wake of a shock election victory he described as the 'sweetest victory of all'.
In the biggest scalp of the night, shadow chancellor Ed Balls - who Mr Cameron described as 'the most annoying person in modern politics' - lost his seat to the Tories by just 422 votes.
Ukip's Nigel Farage also looked set to resign as party leader within hours after losing his bid to enter Parliament for the seventh time.
After the scale of the Tory victory became clear, Mr Cameron who is expected to see the Queen at 12.30pm, declared his intention to 'govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom' - a recognition of extraordinary gains by the SNP in Scotland.
A deflated Ed Miliband threw in the towel after a series of crushing election losses, as he said he was 'deeply sorry' for Labour's 'difficult and disappointing' election night.
