The Result

[RedToothBrush]

Exit poll in 5 mins.

Pull up a chair.

So Labour are gaining 1% share of votes overall, but Tory are losing shedloads and Reform are gaining shedloads. The Swingometer is indeed interesting. It's not so much a Labour victory as a Reform one, but fair play with FPTP Labour have destroyed it.

Labour have held Gateshead Central. BBC didn't show it. I am flicking between the BBC and Sky. Kay Burley is annoying but Sky are more on the ball with breaking results.

I wonder in the constituencies with low turn out how many have no ID.

I'm watching ITV, enjoying the chat.

LBC says turnout is way down on 2019

Northumberland, Reform is second again!

I wonder why the North East is so good at getting the results in so quickly? Purely local competitiveness?

South Shields. Labour hold, Reform second, Tories fourth behind the Greens, apparently.

Low turnout.

Yeah I turned over from Channel 4 because it was just a load of bickering.

Lib Dems confident about Chichester apparently

Woo, blimmin' 'eck. Harrogate is posh. Love Betty's.

Low turnout will help this time but we've been first in many years with a much higher turnout. It mainly is local competitiveness and there's a huge amount of practice in the runup to ensure it's a really slick operation. We're also a small city and polling stations are only a few miles away from the count so boxes are at the sports centre within minutes.