What time will the general election results be announced?

The exit poll will be announced at 10pm on election day, which will give a strong indication regarding the result of the general election, but when will the result be officially confirmed?

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Constituencies in Sunderland and Newcastle typically race to be the first to announce, which will come before midnight. In 2019, Newcastle announced first at 11:27pm, 26 minutes later than in 2017, while Sunderland South set the record in 2001 announcing at 10:43pm.

Basildon and Billericay will be one of the most interesting seats to watch out for on the night and will likely be around midnight. The seat is being contested by Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden, who was parachuted into the constituency despite declaring his loyalty to the north east having been an MP in the region.

In what is normally a safe Tory seat, if that turns red, it may give an indication about how the rest of the night will play out.

A handful of seats will drip through over the next hour, though the majority of those are fairly safe Labour seats.

The results from safer Conservative seats will likely be announced around 2am, with Castle Point amongst them. Represented by the Conservatives' Bob Spink in 2001, the MP defected to UKIP in 2008, losing in 2010 to Rebecca Harris, who's standing again in 2024, having won with the biggest vote share of any Conservative candidate in the 2019 general election.

Around 50 seats will have been announced by 2am, with another 50 more expected in the following hour.

3am will see the biggest batch of results to that point with a number of key seats to be announced, including Fareham and Waterlooville where Suella Braverman is standing, Islington North where Jeremy Corbyn stands as an independent, and Chingford and Woodford Green, where Iain Duncan Smith is standing. Around 100 declarations are set to be made then and another 150 prior to 4am, including Penny Mordaunt's seat of Portsmouth North.

Labour need 326 of the 650 seats to win a majority, which is expected sometime around 4am. Around that time we'll find out whether or not Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has at least held onto his seat in Richmond and Northallerton, with Nigel Farage expected to be confirmed as a Member of Parliament at the eighth time of asking in Clacton

Another 150 seats will be expected around that time, and another 80 before 5am, which should include Jacob Rees Mogg's new constituency of Somerset North East & Hanham and Lee Anderson's Ashfield.

By 5am it's expected there will only be another 100 or so constituencies left to declare, including Liz Truss's constituency of Norfolk South West, and at that point it's likely we're seeing the margin of victory for Labour as opposed to the result itself.

The final constituencies should declare prior to 7am, with the full general election results known by then.

Liam Williams

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