10 pm:Exit poll suggests a hung parliament with big Conservative gains but no overall majority of 326 seats and Liberal Democrats failing to benefit from the Clegg effect. Prediction of 307 seats for Conservatives, 255 for Labour, 59 for the Lib Dems and 29 for others greeted with widespread scepticism.
10.50 pm:Labour's Bridget Phillipson (right) is the first MP elected to the new parliament as Houghton and Sunderland South becomes the first constituency to declare.
11.45 pm:Conservative shadow chancellor George Osborne says Gordon Brown should resign if exit poll is accurate but Peter Mandelson offers first hint that Labour could offer Lib Dems electoral reform in return for support.
12.30 am:Head of electoral commission Jenny Watson defends returning officers who turned hundreds of waiting voters away from polling stations across the country when voting closed, says officials are operating a system "at breaking point".
1.05 am: Conservatives make first gain of the night, taking Kingswood from Labour with a swing of 9.4 per cent and the Tories see big swings in their direction across the northeast.
1.40 am: Gordon Brown re-elected in Kirkcaldy, says it is his duty to help the country have a strong, stable government. Former Labour minister David Blunkett (right) admits to Jeremy Paxman on BBC that Labour "might have regrettably lost the election".
2.05 am:Scottish Nationalists lose Glasgow East to Labour. SNP leader Alex Salmond says Labour's vote held up in Scotland because of Scots' fear of a Tory government.
2.25 am:Big blow to Lib Dems as Lembit Opik (right) loses Montgomeryshire to Tories with a swing of 13.2 per cent. Lib Dems fail to win Guildford, their top target seat.
3.10 am:David Cameron re-elected in Witney, says Labour has "lost its mandate to govern" but does not call for Brown's immediate resignation. Promises to put the national interest first for a strong, stable government.
3.45 am:Conservatives win Carlisle, 132 on their list of target seats, overturning a huge Labour majority in this working-class constituency. Top Tories admit exit poll could be correct and Britain may be heading for hung parliament.
4.10 am: Labour holds Rochdale, where Brown met pensioner Gillian Duffy and was caught referring to her as a bigot. A lifelong Labour supporter, Mrs Duffy decided not to vote this time.
4.30 am:Education secretary Ed Balls narrowly holds seat in Morley and Outwood, depriving late-night TV viewers of this election's "Portillo moment" but solicitor general Vera Baird loses Redcar to Lib Dems.
4.40 am:Conservatives claim two high-profile Labour scalps within minutes as former home secretary Jacqui Smith loses Redditch after a campaign dominated by her dubious expenses claims and communities minister Shahid Malik (left) loses Dewsbury.
5 am: Former home secretary Charles Clarke, one of Brown's most vocal critics within Labour, loses Norwich South to Lib Dems.
5.50 am:Greens win first ever seat in parliament when MEP Caroline Lucas (right) picks up Brighton Pavilion from Labour. Zac Goldsmith, socialite and environmentalist, wins Richmond Park for the Tories.
6.05 am:Margaret Hodge (left) holds Barking for Labour, easily beating off the challenge from British National Party leader Nick Griffin, who claims government has brought immigrants into constituency to defeat the right-wing party.
6.45 am:Nick Clegg re-elected in Sheffield Hallam, acknowledges "a disappointing night" for the Lib Dems. Calls on everyone to "take a little time" to get the right government.
8.30 am: Former actor Glenda Jackson holds Hampstead and Kilburn.
9 am:Mandelson hints that getting rid of Brown could be part of the price for Lib Dem support for a Labour government. "There will be a number of permutations," he says. "I'm not ruling anything in, or anything out."
10.30 am: Brown issues statement saying he has asked cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell (left) to arrange for the civil service to support parties in discussions on the formation of government.
10.45 am: Clegg says Conservatives must have first chance to prove they can form a government but makes clear electoral reform is essential for Lib Dem support.
2.30 pm:David Cameron says he wants to make "a big, open and comprehensive offer" to the Liberal Democrats and opens the door to talks about electoral reform.
4.30 pm:Cameron and Clegg talk by phone, agreeing "to explore further proposals for a programme of economic and political reform".