General Election 2015 analysis: The winners and losers here in the East

After weeks of campaigning, and plenty of ups and downs, we now know who will form the next government.

It was a night of drama and shocks in the East, with some of the region's most notable MPs falling on their swords and others hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

Our Political Correspondent has been assessing how each of the major parties fared here and asks what next as we prepare to do it all again in five years time.

The Conservatives

The Conservatives have had a great night across the East. The task they set themselves at this election was to hold onto all the seats they already had and win a few more.

That is exactly what they have done in our region, holding on and even increasing their majorities in marginal seats they won in 2010 , like Thurrock, Waveney, Ipswich , Bedford and Northampton North.

They also won back Corby that they lost to Labour in the 2012 By-election. And they have taken Colchester from the Liberal Democrat Sir Bob Russell.

Re-elected Conservative MPs are thrilled with this result. During this campaign the Prime Minister told me Colchester was one of those extra seats he hoped would bring him a majority.

Despite an intensive campaign and high-profile Conservative visits to Colchester, I don't think the Tories really believed they would win it from the Lib Dems until last night.

Labour

For Labour this is a disastrous result.

They had 15 target seats in the Anglia region that they hoped to win back.

Labour politicians on the campaign trail this week admitted to me they would not win all of them, but even up to the final results they were optimistic they would make some gains from the Tories and hang on in Corby.

But Labour have only gained two seats in the East in Norwich South and Cambridge where their opponents were the Liberal Democrats.

That record is sure to have played a major part in Ed Miliband's decision to tender his resignation.

Liberal Democrats

If it was a bad night for Labour it was worse for the Liberal Democrats.

Over the past four elections they have slowly built their parliamentary representation in our region from one seat in 1997 up to four by 2010 .

Now they are back to a single MP, Norman Lamb in North Norfolk.

Being in coalition has cost them support not just at local council level but parliamentary level.

Now, Nick Clegg has paid for the failure - resigning as leader of the party.

This collapse was not what they were expecting.

Just days ago I interviewed Nick Clegg and he was keen to talk about the East because he believed the results in our region would be better for the Liberal Democrats than in other parts of the UK.

How wrong he was.

UKIP

As for UKIP, their rise in support has delivered just a single MP, Douglas Carswell in Clacton.

But they have won many thousands of votes in the East, coming second in lots of constituencies.

That didn't stop Nigel Farage from suffering the same fate as Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband though by calling time on his leadership of the party.

Despite the disappointment, UKIP believe that today's result could be a stepping stone for 2020.

Of course, what Nigel Farage and his party have wanted for a long time is a referendum on Europe.

With a Conservative majority in the commons, it looks like that's exactly what we will get.

A round up of the Norfolk results with Kate Prout

A round up of the Essex results with Hannah Pettifer

More: Every result from the Anglia region

More: Lamb cools leadership talk following Clegg resignation

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