The Tories were already descending into bitter recriminations today after the bombshell exit poll showed them heading for meltdown.

Senior Conservatives immediately demanded Rishi Sunak quits after the extraordinary figures emerged on the close of polls.

A former Cabinet minister - who regards their own significant majority as under threat - said Mr Sunak had 'knifed' Boris Johnson and would be remembered as the 'worst PM ever'. 

Another veteran Conservative said Mr Sunak '100 per cent' has to go, even though the result was better than some had feared. 'The question is whether they appoint a new leader before party conference (in September) or after,' they added. 

Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC that the Tories did not have a 'divine right' to votes.

'It's clearly a terrible night for the Conservatives... I think that there were issues with changing the leader,' he said. 

'Voters expect the PM they have chosen to remain the PM... the Conservative Party took their core vote for granted.'

He added: 'Big figures in politics make a difference.'

Dame Andrea Leadsom, who stood down from Parliament, said voters are 'sick of all this woke stuff'.

The extraordinary exit poll showed Sir Keir winning 410 of the 650 seats. That would be a majority of 170 - just short of the 179 achieved by Tony Blair.

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. 

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems could get 61 - and Nigel Farage's Reform insurgents are predicted to have 13 after effectively leeching millions of votes from the Conservatives. 

That could include Mr Farage himself taking Clacton, while Conservative sources in Great Yarmouth confirmed they expected Reform to triumph there. 

However, polling guru Sir John Curtice warned that the numbers for Reform were highly uncertain. 

Mr Sunak gave a deadbat response, merely praising activists. 'To the hundreds of Conservative candidates, thousands of volunteers and millions of voters: Thank you for your hard work, thank you for your support, and thank you for your vote,' he posted on X. 

A Tory spokeswoman insisted that they would wait for the full results to emerge. 

Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said his party had 'got to respect the scale of this likely defeat and then learn from it'.

He told Sky News: 'I was a candidate in 1997 and I know what it feels like to taste bitter defeat. I think the time for recrimination is not now. I think a lot needs to be looked at in terms of the cumulative build up of events that led to this wholesale rejection of the Conservatives.'

Another ex-minister, Brandon Lewis, said: 'I think Rishi is somebody who will feel this very strongly and ultimately he's the leader of the party, he was the Prime Minister.

'He didn't wait until the very last minute for an election and then call it when he had to call it. He chose when to call an election and he'll know that he made that decision.

'That's nobody else's issue, the Prime Minister makes that decision.

'I suspect right now that's weighing on him very, very strongly. The fact that we're even in a position where the sitting Prime Minister is in one of the safest in the country and we're wondering if he might be at risk, it's a shocking place to be.

'He will go down as the Conservative Prime Minister and leader who had the worst election result in over a century.

'That's not something he would have been looking to do when he became leader of the party.'

Sir Brandon said the ousting of Mr Johnson was the key moment in the downturn in the party's fortunes.

'I do think if you're looking for that one moment where the polls changed dramatically and never came back, it's when a group of MPs decided to override the mandate that Boris Johnson was given by the public, not just our members overwhelmingly, but the British public,' he said.

'And then a few weeks later, we did it again when our members chose Liz Truss.

'But particularly, when the British public gives someone a mandate and a small group of people effectively say, 'we've got a better idea', I think that's a problem.

'I think we saw that with Margaret Thatcher, and we're suffering now from what we've done with Boris Johnson.'

However, Lord Jo Johnson - brother of the ex-PM - warned against the Tories trying to be 'Reform-lite'.

'I'm stunned by Reform's arrival as a major force in the land,' he told Sky News.

He said it was 'quite possible' that Reform will come second across vast swathes of the 'red wall' in the North West, North East and Midlands.

'These elections do raise a really important issue as to whether it's a sensible thing for the Conservatives to try to be 'Reform-lite' and expect that to be a winning political strategy, it doesn't look to be from what we're seeing today,' he said.

He said the Conservatives are in danger of being 'drummed out' of London and that it would be a 'big mistake' if the party stops trying to appeal to a range of voters.

Lord Johnson said it was a mistake 'to be a sort of Reform-lite sort of party that apes the policies and attitudes and mentalities of Reform without really being fully emotionally and intellectually committed to them… because it doesn't come across as authentic'.

Although the exit survey, run for broadcasters by Sir John, is not guaranteed to be exact, it has accurately reflected the outcome in the past few elections.

The SNP would be slashed to 10, meaning they would no longer be the biggest party in Scotland. 

Sir Keir gave a muted reaction to the bombshell, posting on social media: 'To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party - thank you.' 

But his allies were far less restrained, with Lord Mandelson gloating that he was 'gobsmacked' and an 'electoral meteor' had 'struck planet Earth'. He said it would have required a 'superman' to save the Tories and Rishi Sunak 'is not superman'.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner - who could be set to become deputy PM within hours - said the numbers were 'encouraging' and praised Sir Keir's leadership. 

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting was in tears as he was told the figures on live TV. 

A dire campaign for Mr Sunak came stuttering to a halt last night, with the PM making a series more defensive visits in the South East.

He now faces the prospect that he could be out of Downing Street by tomorrow morning, if the results pan out as badly as anticipated in the coming hours.

Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson told Sky News that it looked like a 'massacre'. 

A host of big beasts including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Goldaming & Ash and Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield will now be waiting nervously to see if they fall victim to the Labour and Lib Dem onslaught. There are fears those with the highest majorities could end up most vulnerable, with Home Secretary James Cleverly and even ex-PM Liz Truss thought to be at risk. 

The Tories could quickly plunge into a dangerous new phase of crisis, with questions over whether it can even survive amid the challenge from Reform. 

Former home secretary Suella Braverman has already waded into the shadow leadership contest, penning an article on the eve of the election blaming the failure to tackle immigration.  

Sir John Curtice told the BBC: 'It looks as though Reform may win more seats than many polls suggested.

'This is largely because, not only has the Conservative vote fallen far in seats they previously held, but also because Reform has advanced most in areas people voted Leave in the 2016 EU referendum.

'However, how many seats Reform will win is highly uncertain – our model suggests there are many places where they have some - but a relatively low - chance of winning.'

Conservatives with big majorities had become increasingly nervous during the day, despite CCHQ claiming that higher-than-expected turnout could help them.