General Election 2024: How election night will unfold hour by hour
By Maya Bowles, Westminster Producer
Voters have decided who will be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom on Thursday after polls closed.
Votes will be counted across the UK, and constituencies will start to declare their results.
ITV News' election night programme will guide you through the night, as the results are announced and the shape of the new parliament emerges.
So what will the night look like? Here are the key moments to watch out for as the election unfolds, and a rough guide to when we can expect key seats to be declared.
It’s important to note that these times are based on the last election, and since then many of the boundaries between constituencies have been redrawn to reflect population changes, which could slow things down.
Watch ITV News' Election 2024 Live Programme throughout the night with our expert panel, including Nicola Sturgeon , George Osborne and Ed Balls , as they break down what the results mean for you.
11:30pm - The race for the first result
For years, two areas have raced to be the first in the country to declare their result. But this will be different this year because constituency boundaries have been redrawn.
Historically it’s been Sunderland and Newcastle who battle it out to declare first, reflecting their Tyne-Wear football rivalry. Between 1992 and 2015 Sunderland was always the fastest, but in the last two elections, Newcastle beat them to it.
But this election, Newcastle has ruled itself out of declaring first because of boundary changes and uncertainties around staffing.
Sunderland expects its three seats to all be declared before 1am, with Houghton and Sunderland South set to be its first.
But this year, there’s another name in the North East that’s in the running to win the counting race - the new seat of Blyth and Ashington. In 2019, the old seat of Blyth Valley was the third seat to declare, but that was after officials had to do a recount.
Key seats to look out for:
Basildon and Billericay (midnight) - This is likely to be the first Conservative seat to be announced. The constituency has drawn some controversy recently after Tory party Chairman Richard Holden was “parachuted” into the safe Tory seat in Essex, despite previously representing North West Durham.
While the seat has always been true-blue, a recent YouGov poll suggested the Tories would beat Labour by only two percentage points.
Holborn and St Pancras (2am) - This is Sir Keir Starmer’s seat in central London. Starmer holds the seat with a huge majority of 49%.
Lothian East (3am) - A significant Labour victory would rely on significant gains in Scotland, where they need to win back seats they previously lost to the SNP.
Labour’s number one target seat in Scotland is Lothian East, formerly East Lothian, another bellwether constituency. The SNP currently have a majority of less than 4,000 votes in the seat.
Islington North (3am) - This is the seat of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who currently sits as an independent after he was stripped of the party whip over anti-semitism.
A 2020 investigation found there was anti-semitism under his leadership, which he said had been "dramatically overstated". But Corbyn's long-held seat of Islington North is one where Labour is battling against him to win.
Rochdale (3am) - Rochdale in Greater Manchester is currently held by controversial figure George Galloway of the Workers Party. He won the seat in a February by-election, in which Labour had to disown its candidate for comments he made about Israel.
Labour have put forward a new candidate in the hope they can win the seat back from Galloway.
Nuneaton (3am) and Thurrock (3:30am) - These seats are just two of those considered bellwethers, which means the local results in those seats always line up with the national result.
Nuneaton in particular is seen as the ultimate bellwether and is projected to turn red for the first time since 2010, with Labour expected to get 43% of the vote.
Subscribe free to our Election Briefing newsletter here for exclusive and original campaign coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox at 5pm every weekday
Aldershot (3am) and Macclesfield (4:30am) - These are both Tory strongholds which are expected to go red for the first time since 1918. A change to Labour here would likely be representative of a large Labour majority.
Clacton (4am) - This is the seat where Nigel Farage is running, after he made the surprise announcement in the middle of the election campaign that he will be leading the Reform UK party and running as an MP.
Clacton is the only seat ever to be won by UKIP, the party which Reform UK grew out of.
Richmond and Northallerton (4am) - A seat everyone will have their eyes on is Rishi Sunak’s constituency in North Yorkshire.
One poll last month by Savanta predicted a Tory wipeout, with one of the seats projected to turn red being Sunak’s own.
That would make him the first-ever sitting prime minister to lose his seat. Sunak’s North Yorkshire seat has never been Labour.
Godalming and Ash (5:30am) - Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s seat in Surrey is a key target for the Liberal Democrats. No Chancellor of the Exchequer has ever lost their seat in a General Election, but polls suggest Hunt will lose his to the Lib Dems, along with many other ‘blue-wall’ seats.
Hunt’s seat is currently called South West Surrey, and he’s been the MP there since 2005 with a large majority.
Bristol Central (4am) - Bristol Central is a key target for the Green Party, who currently only have one MP in Brighton. The Bristol seat is currently held by Labour Shadow Cabinet Member Thangam Debbonaire with one of the party’s largest majorities, but most polls are predicting a possible defeat to the Greens.
Bristol Central has a high number of younger voters, many of whom have turned away from Starmer’s Labour party, particularly over his response to the conflict in Gaza and Israel.
When will we know who has won?
This is difficult to say. In 2019, ITV News gave its seat prediction at 4:47am, but it all depends on how tight the race is.
The more seat results that have come in, the better idea broadcasters and election experts have of the average swing.
The evening begins with a lot of Labour seats, so it’s unlikely to be until later in the night when we will get a full picture.
What will ITV News' election coverage look like?
ITV’s election night programme, Election 2024 Live: The Results, will be anchored by Tom Bradby, who lead the channel’s coverage in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
On hand will be ITV News' Robert Peston, Anushka Asthana and Paul Brand plus ITV's leading election analysts Professor Jane Green and Professor Colin Rallings.
ITV News reporters will be on the ground around the UK throughout the night, bringing news from every corner of the country.
At 6am, Good Morning Britain will come on air with Susanna Reid and Ed Balls co-anchoring.
ITV will remain on air from 9.25am with Julie Etchingham leading the coverage.
Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Every day in the run-up to the election Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda…