Nigel Farage is set to lead a squad of 13 Reform UK MPs in the Commons, the election exit poll suggests.
The party leader is on course to enter Parliament at the eighth attempt by winning in the Essex coastal seat of Clacton.
And in a sign of the collapse in support for the Tories on the right the official exit poll suggests as many as 12 other candidates could join him.
Among the seats it is expected to win is Great Yarmouth, the former seat of Brandon Lewis, a former Tory Northern Ireland Secretary. It is also in place to win in Barnsley North and Barnsley South, two solid Labour seats.
If born out by the results overnight it will lead to major questions about Rishi Sunak‘s decision to call an early election.
And it will cause a huge battle for the soul of the Conservative Party in the weeks to come, with senior figures on the right open to some form of link-up.
Mr Farage celebrated with a glass of win as the exit poll was revealed
The party leader is on course to enter Parliament at the eighth attempt by winning in the Essex coastal seat of Clacton.
And in a sign of the collapse in support for the Tories on the right the official exit poll suggests as many as 12 other candidates could join him.
The Tories are expected to be slashed from the 365 secured less than five years ago to just 131 – their worst performance in modern political history
Labour is on course for a landslide, according to the exit poll projection, with 410 seats. The Conservatives are set for just 131 seats – the lowest number Tory MPs on record.
The exit poll also forecasts the Liberal Democrats on 61 seats and The Green Party on two.
In Scotland, the SNP are expected to secure jus 10 seats with Plaid Cymru in Wales on four.
Ahead of polling booths closing last night, Mr Farage took to X, formerly Twitter, to taunt the Tories over Reform’s popularity under his leadership.
In one post directed at Rishi Sunak, he said: ‘Time to hit the panic button.’
In another post, which featured a video of him visiting a boxing gym on the campaign trail, he said: ‘Let’s deliver a knockout blow to the political establishment today.’
Mr Farage also posted a series of single-sentence policies from Reform’s manifesto designed to outflank the Tories on the Right, including raising the inheritance tax threshold to £2 million, scrapping stamp duty on properties worth up to £750,000 and quitting the European Convention on Human Rights.