While the make-up of the next government is uncertain, the election results have thrown up a host of unpredictable results with a huge variety of vote swings across the country.
Veteran pollster Peter Kellner said on the BBC's election coverage: "Local factors are kicking in like I've never seen before."
Children's Secretary Ed Balls survived a huge scare in the Morley and Outwood constituency, clinging on by just 1,110 votes. Balls claimed the Conservatives had been denied a national mandate to bring cuts to public services.
But the Tories' "decapitation strategy" of trying to unseat prominent Labour figures worked elsewhere. Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, responsible for large parts of New Labour's "Respect" agenda to tackle anti-social behaviour, lost her Redditch seat resoundingly. Another former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, lost Norwich South to the Lib Dems.
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