The campaigning’s over, the votes are in and counted and against all odds Prime Minister David Cameron has won a second term in Downing Street with a narrow majority government.
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In 24 hours of shocks and rival party leaders dropping like flies, a BBC TV exit poll was spot on in forecasting Cameron would win an outright majority.
Voters rejected the Ed Miliband’s call for support and left Labour with just 232 seats as a surge in Scots nationalism ripped the heart out of the party’s traditional homeland support. Labour lost 26 seats.
Scottish Nationalists stormed into Westminster with 56 seats – 50 more than last time round, while the Lib Dems suffered a catastrophe, winning only eight seats compared to the 56 that made them kingmakers in the coalition in 2010.
All this left Cameron sitting pretty with 330 seats – with 326 needed for an absolute majority.
Losing leaders quit
He can also count on Sinn Fein staying away from Westminster and losing their vote, and as they won four seats in Northern Ireland, that increases the Tory majority.
Miliband, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and UKIP leader Nigel Farage all quit after a night of the long knives whittled away at their support.
Cameron could have only dreamed of such a result and now has to look at how to shuffle his cards for the top jobs.
George Osbourne looks likely to stay on as Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Theresa May is pencilled in for a top job.
Many Tories who slipped below the radar as Cameron had to make room for his coalition allies in the last government can expect promotions to the top table of politics over the next few days.
Successful strategy
Many are asking how the pundits and pollsters got their predictions so wrong.
The BBC exit poll was spot on – correct forecasting the number of seats each party would win and their likely share of the vote.
One of the clever strategies that won the election for the Tories was talking up the Scottish Nationalists as a danger to the rest of the country.
Concentrating on the issue saw a surge of support for the SNP north of the border, tossing out 40 Labour MPs, a number that the party could never make up in England and Wales.
Generous in victory, Cameron’s first speech in his second term on the steps of No 10 stated business as usual for the Tories concentrating on the economy and creating jobs.
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