Labour party suffered major wiped by the SNP in Scotland and the Liberal Democrats also defeated , with this David Cameron is back in No 10, with 331 seats.
The Conservatives made gains in England and Wales as predicted by the exits polls secure 331 seats in the Commons, giving them a slender majority.
The sterling currency, bonds and shares surged on a result that reversed expectations of an inconclusive “hung parliament” with Cameron jockeying for power with Labour rival Ed Miliband.
Instead, Cameron was due to meet Queen Elizabeth before noon to accept a swift mandate to form a government.
“This is the sweetest victory of all,” he told enthusiastic supporters at party headquarters. “The real reason to celebrate tonight, the real reason to be proud, the real reason to be excited is we are going to get the opportunity to serve our country again.”
Miliband was expected to step down as Labour leader. He said on Twitter: “The responsibility for the result is mine alone.”
But despite the unexpectedly decisive outcome, more uncertainty looms over whether Britain will stay in the European Union – and even hold together as a country.
Scottish nationalists swept aside Labour, meaning that Scotland, which voted just last year to stay in the United Kingdom, will send just three representatives of major British parties to parliament and be all but shut out of the cabinet. That could revive calls for it to leave the United Kingdom.
Cameron sounded a conciliatory note towards Scotland, likely to be his first immediate headache.
“I want my party – and, I hope, a government I would like to lead – to reclaim a mantle we should never have lost, the mantle of one nation, one United Kingdom,” Cameron, 48, said after winning his own seat in Witney, Oxfordshire.
Cameron’s victory also means Britain will face a vote which he has promised on continued membership in the EU. He says he wants to stay in the bloc, but only if he can renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Brussels.
Cameron returned, smiling beside his wife Samantha, to the prime minister’s office in Downing Street early on Friday. He is expected to declare victory outside the black door of Number 10 Downing Street after his meeting with the queen.
With less than two dozen seats yet to be declared in the 650-seat house, the Conservatives were on course for an overall majority to govern alone for the first time since 1992. They could also ask a small party to join them in government if they fall a few seats short.
The margin of victory was a surprise even to Cameron, who said he “never quite believed we’d get to the end of this campaign in the place we are now.”
A majority would mean Cameron no longer needs the Liberal Democrats, with which he has governed since 2010. The centre-left party, heir to one of the most storied liberal parties in Europe, was crushed, perhaps reduced to single digits after winning 57 seats five years ago.
Among the other stunning results, Ed Balls, in line to be finance minister if Labour had won, lost his seat. He fought back tears as he expressed sorrow at Labour’s defeat.
“Any personal disappointment I have at this result is as nothing compared to the sense of sorrow I have at the result that Labour have achieved across the UK tonight … and the sense of concern I have about the future,” he said.
The UK Independence Party, a populist group that demands withdrawal from the EU, surged into third place in the countrywide vote tally, but that translated into a win of only a single seat. Its charismatic leader Nigel Farage, credited with making the party into a powerful political force, lost his own bid for a seat. He had said he would step down if he lost.
Cameron and his finance minister George Osborne had bet on Britain’s recovering economy.
Sterling gained more than 2 cents against the dollar to rise above $1.55 for the first time since late February, and looked on track to enjoy its biggest one-day gain against the euro since January 2009.
The FTSE 100 stock index was up 1.45 percent at 6985, approaching a record high set last month. The price of British government bonds also rose.
With almost all of Scotland’s 59 parliamentary seats counted, the Scottish National Party (SNP) had won 56 of them, up from just six five years ago, all but obliterating Labour in one of its historic strongholds.
“We’re seeing an electoral tsunami on a gigantic scale,” said Alex Salmond, the party’s former leader, now elected to represent it in parliament in London.
“The SNP are going to be impossible to ignore and very difficult to stop,” he said, saying such a result would strip Cameron of any legitimacy in Scotland where his Conservative Party would have only one lawmaker.
The United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. England accounts for 85 percent of the population but Scottish politicians elected to parliament in London have held important government posts throughout three centuries of UK history. That will now be impossible with the SNP holding nearly all Scottish seats.
In a body blow to Labour, Douglas Alexander, the party’s campaign chief and foreign policy spokesman, lost his seat to a 20-year-old Scottish nationalist student, who becomes the youngest member of the House of Commons since 1667.
Miliband, a London Socialist and self-described “geek”, never quite connected with working-class voters. He ran a campaign that was widely seen as better than expected, but was always far behind Cameron in polls that asked voters who they saw as a more credible leader.
“This has clearly been a very disappointing and difficult night for the Labour Party,” he told supporters after retaining his own parliamentary seat in Doncaster, northern England. “In Scotland, we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelm our party.”
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is also expected to resign, after seeing the party humiliated as a response to his decision to join the Conservatives in government five years ago, which saw him abandon high profile election pledges. He won his own seat but called it a “cruel and punishing” night.
UKIP’s surge into third place in the overall vote tally, mirroring the rise of similar populist groups elsewhere in Europe, failed to yield it a strong presence in parliament under Britain’s system, in which candidates must place first in districts to win seats. It racked up dozens of second place finishes across the country to both Labour and the Conservatives.
One other loser is the opinion polling industry which is likely to face an inquest over its failure to predict the outcome. Before the election, virtually all opinion polls had shown the Conservatives and Labour neck-and-neck.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is also expected to quit with his party set to be reduced from 57 to eight MPs.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said he is quitting after he failed to win Thanet South, losing by nearly 2,800 votes
Personal triumphs for David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon will not just reshape British politics but could perhaps reshape the future of the United Kingdom itself.
Ed Miliband is expected to make a statement about his own future later after what he said was a “difficult and disappointing” night for Labour which sawEd Balls lose and Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander losing out to the SNP
Nick Clegg held on to his Sheffield Hallam seat but said it had been a “cruel and punishing night” for his party – Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, David Laws, Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy were among a slew of Lib Dem casualties
George Galloway, who was reported to the police for retweeting an exit pollbefore voting ended, has lost to Labour in Bradford West
Nigel Farage has quit as UKIP leader after failing to be elected – although he may stand in the ensuing leadership contest. Douglas Carswell retained his Clacton seat
Conservative minister Esther McVey has lost Wirral West to Labour
The Green Party got one seat after Caroline Lucas retains the Brighton Pavilion constituency she won in 2010
The future, though, belongs to David Cameron who defied all those – including at times himself – who doubted that he could ever increase his party’s support
We now face a generational decision about our future in Europe, with an EU referendum in two years’ time almost certain.
There will also be serious questions about the future of the Union, following an SNP landslide that has turned Scotland into a virtual one-party state.
David Cameron’s victory also represents a colossal achievement.
Only once before in recent history has an incumbent government increased its majority – and that was Mrs Thatcher in her prime in the 1980s.
Jide Adesina of The Afrika Market believes this election has not just defied all the predictions of the pollsters and pundits – but re-echo the fundamental of the new paradigm in British politics for generations to come and their role in global economy especially the commonwealth nations where Africa stands with the Brits
UK ‘Africa Policy’ is multi-faceted. Nowhere does a political party state an explicit policy towards the continent, but many policy areas such as defence, immigration, international development, tax and trade will affect the lives of people in African countries, and also those who might wish to visit or live in the UK. But the African continent, and indeed much of the rest of the world, is not a topic of major discussion in contemporary political discourse.
It is a truism to state that British general elections are decided by domestic politics. It is rare that events such as Iraq war cut through talk of domestic issues to be truly influential for the electorate. This year such a stereotype seems even more pronounced. Development policy, in particular, is relegated to the back-end of the manifestos. Foreign policy is about defending our borders or growing British trade. Africa’s non-appearance in the manifestos is a symptom of a wider disinterest in international affairs during this most insular of elections.
The Hope of African glittered today with Nigerian Born British citizen Chuka Umunna was re-elected with 26,474 votes in streatham Parliament
He said: “It’s been an immense privilege and honour to be re-elected to do the job that I love doing for the community that I grew up in and I have never taken anybody’s support for granted.
“I think some of the results we’ve seen today, but also in the elections we’ve had over the last few years, show that nobody can be entitled to anybody’s support and I’ve fought this election in the same way in many respects that I fought the last election earning people’s support and earning people’s votes again and I feel deeply humbled that they’ve put their trust in me again, deeply humbled.
Kate Osamor is another Nigerian born with a landslide victory in Edmonton seat for Labour with a comfortable win of 25,388 over the Conservatives.
Chi Onwurah victory was a testament of her hardwork, commitment and dedication to service
Helen Grant won the seat for Member of Parliament representing Maidstone
The Afrika Market , The Afrika Herald congratulate the prime minister Mr David Cameron on his victory and hope his tenure will gear more bilateral and purposeful trade , economy and social relations with Africa .
Once again we thank the British press , especially BBC and its media affiliates for their support and unparalleled co-operation during this coverage .
