David Cameron is all set to return to Downing Street as Britain’s prime minister, after an extraordinary election night in which the Conservatives outperformed even their own expectations and Labour and the Liberal Democrats suffered painful losses.
With votes still being counted, Cameron appeared within striking distance of a working majority in the House of Commons.
At his count in Witney, Cameron claimed the Tory result was a “positive response to a positive campaign” that included a strong plan for the economy for the next five years.
He added that he wanted to “govern for everyone in our United Kingdom”. “Above all I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together,” he said.
He also pledged to "reclaim the mantle that we should never have lost.. of One Nation... And that is how I intend to govern."
Cameron was elected in his ultra-safe Tory seat with more than 35,000 votes.
Earlier, Boris Johnson, tipped as a possible successor to Cameron, said that the voters had sent a clear message that they “decisively rejected” what he described as Labour’s attempts to take the UK back to the 1970s.
Johnson also declared it had been an “amazing night” for the Conservatives and praised what he described as the “common sense” of the British people.
Ed Miliband, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, all but conceded defeat on Friday morning, saying he was “deeply sorry” for a “very disappointing and difficult night”.
Cameron said he hoped to form a government in the coming days after his party enjoyed what he described as a "very strong night".
With counting winding down, the Conservatives had won 304 of 650 seats with an exit poll suggesting they were on track to win 316 seats in the lower house of parliament, just shy of a majority but with ample options to form a government.
Scottish tsunami
With almost all of Scotland’s 59 parliamentary seats counted, the Scottish National Party had won 55 of them, all but obliterating Labour north of the border.
Opponents fear the SNP is preparing to use an emphatic win to renew its push for an independence referendum even though it lost such a plebiscite only last year.
“We’re seeing an electoral tsunami on a gigantic scale,” said Alex Salmond, the party's former leader. “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.
