Tories projected to get worst result for 200 years - just how badly does it compare?
The exit poll suggests Rishi Sunak is about to lead his party into a historically terrible wipeout. We take a look at the history of terrible election results.
Watch live: Exit poll reaction at Rishi Sunak's count
Rishi Sunak is set to lead his party into the Tories’ worst ever election result in its near-200 year history.
The Exit Poll suggests just 131 seats, down by 234 seats on 2019.
The results appear so bad, that Jeremy Hunt is now projected to become the first ever Chancellor to lose his seat at an election.
The result would be substantially worse than the current record set by the Duke of Wellington in 1832.
192 years ago, the then-Tory leader was nearly wiped out to the Whig leader Earl Gray, in the first election since the passing of the Reform Act.
The next record low was set in 1906, when the Liberals crushed the Tories’ Arthur Balfour.
Mr Balfour lost 246 seats and fell to just 156, so lost more seats than Mr Sunak is projected to lose, though was left with more Tory MPs in the Commons.
Henry Campbell-Bannerman gained 214 seats, succeeding in winning a majority of 120.
Historians have put the Tory defeat down to widespread splits in the party over the issue of free trade.
The next big landslide defeat for the Tories was 1945, when Clement Attlee pulled off a shock routing of Sir Winston Churchill in the first general election after the war.
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Mr Churchill lost 189 seats, and was left with 197 - a haul Rishi Sunak would have been delighted with.
Labour gained 239 seats to secure a majority of 144.
Then came the famous 1997 landslide, where unlike 2024 Sir Tony Blair won off the back of mass popularity, combined with the unpopularity of the Tories.
Sir John Major presided over 178 seats lost, and was left with 165 MPs in the Commons.
Meanwhile Sir Tony won 418 seats - more than Sir Keir is now expected to win over the course of tonight and tomorrow morning.
He won a majority of 176, six more than Sir Keir is expected to win tonight.
