General Election 2015 results: Ed Balls loses Morley and Outwood seat to Conservatives in shock upset
Ed Balls, Labour's shadow chancellor, has lost his seat in Morley and Outwood in the most sensational turn of events during this election.
The shock upset is an embarrassing blow for Labour which had expected to be in contention for forming a minority government.
The bruising evening and morning has in fact left Labour trounced by the surprise surge of the Tories on polling day, and left the fate of party leader Ed Miliband hanging in the balance.
Miliband has arrived at Labour's headquarters and is expected to announce his resignation before midday, according to several reports, after all but conceding defeat after holding his seat in Doncaster.
In Balls's Leeds constituency, Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns gained the narrowest of majorities in the Leeds constituency with 422 votes giving her the win and claiming the scalp of one of British politics heavyweights.
Balls brought in 18,354 votes compared to Jenkyns's 18,776.
After losing the seat, Balls said "We will now face a five years where questions will arise about the future of our Union, about whether we can stay as a member of the European Union and fight for jobs and investment, whether we can make sure we secure our National Health Service at a time when public spending is cut.
"Those are real concerns to me and to many people across the United Kingdom."
The Conservatives took a surprise lead in the exit polls and have taken a number of Labour seats, while the Labour party in Scotland has been wiped out by the SNP.
David Cameron hailed the "sweetest victory" in a generation for the party, speaking at Tory headquarters this morning.
Cameron will make a visit to the Queen at 12.30pm.
The Conservatives' coalition colleagues the Lib Dems also suffered a humiliating turnout as nearly every senior minister was unseated and the party has been left with just a handful of MPs.
At a speech in his Sheffield Hallam constituency, Nick Clegg indicated he could resign.