General election 2015: What to expect when the polls close

Polls close at 10pm Credit: PA

Here's what to watch out for once the polls close this evening:

9:55pm: ITV News' coverage of election night begins and will continue throughout the night with no commercial breaks

10pm: Polls close - unless voters are already in a queue to cast their votes

Moments after the finals votes are cast, ITV will reveal the results of an exit poll from 20,000 voters, jointly commissioned by ITV, BBC and Sky

11pm: Sunderland is usually the first city to declare a result

A teenager carries a ballot box in Sunderland during the 2010 General Election Credit: PA

1am: Of the five seats expected to declare results, Nuneaton, a Conservative-held marginal seat and Dagenham, a Labour marginal seat, will prove the most crucial

2am: Around 40 seats are set to declare their results, including the once-safe Labour seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath and the South Essex seat of Castle Point, which Ukip is hoping to snatch from the Tories

2:30-3am: Liberal Democrat marginals including Eastleigh, Bermondsey & Old Southwark and Kingston & Surbiton discover their fate

3am: A tense time for Scottish Labour as leader Jim Murphy learns whether he has kept hold of his Renfrewshire East seat, while Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander discovers whether the SNP has snatched his Paisley and Renfrewshire South constituency

3am: The polls have put Ukip ahead in Thurrock, but will the Essex constituency be the party's first seat in a general election?

3:30am: Labour will find out whether it has won Conservative-marginal Loughborough from the education secretary Nicky Morgan

Will education secretary Nicky Morgan keep hold of her Loughborough seat? Credit: PA

3:30am: All eyes will be on Grimsby, which Ukip has been hoping to swoop from Labour

4am: Ed Miliband's seat, Doncaster North, posts its results, as does Twickenham, which has been Vince Cable's since 1997

4:30am: Will Nick Clegg be able to keep Sheffield Hallam? A recent poll suggested that the Lib Dem leader would, thanks to tactical Tory voters who want to keep Labour out

4:30am: David Cameron finds out if he's kept hold of his Oxfordshire constituency Witney. In 2010 he won with a 22,740 majority

4:30am: Former SNP First Minister Alex Salmond finds out whether he has taken the Aberdeenshire seat of Gordon from the Liberal Democrats

4:30am: Ed Balls clung onto his West Yorkshire constituency Morley and Outwood with a majority of 1,101 in 2010 - how will he fare this time around?

Ed Balls will find out at around 4:30am if he has kept hold of the Morley and Outwood seat Credit: PA

5am: The Greens' only sitting MP Caroline Lucas and the Respect party's George Galloway find out if the votes are in their favour in Brighton Pavilion and Bradford West, respectively

5am: He's had high-profile backing from Hugh Grant, now Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, finds out whether he has kept his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey seat, or lost out to the SNP

5.30am: Tory defector to Ukip, Mark Reckless, will learn whether he has kept hold of Rochester and Strood

5.30am: Employment minister Esther McVey finds out if she has kept hold of Wirral West - in 2010 she took the seat with a slender 2,436-majority

6am: High-profile Tories George Osborne and Boris Johnson find out if they've got seats - the chancellor is looking to hold onto Tatton and the London Mayor is standing for Uxbridge and South Ruislip

George Osborne and Boris Johnson find out their fate at 6am Credit: PA

6am: Has Ukip leader Nigel Farage won South Thanet? This is the time he'll hear the result

7am-12pm: Declarations from 16 seats should arrive at around 7am, with a further six seats expected to disclose their results at noon

1pm: Liberal Democrat marginal St Ives is expected to be the last to declare its results at 1pm

Click here for the full list of declaration times