Exit poll: Conservatives surprisingly strong in UK election

The Conservative Party fared much better than expected in Britain’s parliamentary election, with an exit poll and early returns suggesting that Prime Minister David Cameron would remain in his office at 10 Downing Street. All day Thursday across the nation of 64 million people, voters streamed to schools, churches and even pubs for a say in their country’s future. About 50 million people were registered to vote, and turnout appeared high for Britain’s most unpredictable vote in decades.

If the exit poll was accurate then obviously it’s a very, very clear victory for the Conservatives and a very bad night for Labour.

London mayor Boris Johnson

The exit poll projected that the Conservatives would get 316 seats — up from 302 and far more than had been predicted — and Labour 239, down from 256. The Liberal Democrats would shrink from 56 seats to 10, while the Scottish nationalists would grow from six to 58. The anti-immigration, anti-Europe UK Independence Party was projected to win two seats.

I’ll bet you my hat, eaten on your program, that it is wrong.

Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown