Brown has lost legitimacy to govern, says Tory chairman

Chairman Eric Pickles said the Conservatives would "of course" seek to offer stable government if they became the biggest party in a hung parliament.

However politicians from all the main parties predicted a close finish to the General Election amid warnings that exit polls produce "rogue results."

Mr Pickles said: "My good instinct is that the exit poll is probably wrong but if it's right, Labour have lost the election, they've lost any legitimacy.

"There isn't a possibility of them being able to put together an administration that would be able to last the lifetime of a parliament."

Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove added: "This is another piece of evidence of a comprehensive rejection of Gordon Brown and the Labour Government and a strong vote for change."

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman said the country had not turned "overwhelmingly" to the Tories to provide a government to take the country through the recession.

However, Home Secretary and West Hull and Hessle Labour candidate Alan Johnson admitted the Tories "seemed to have done very well". He stressed all parties would have to look at the "will of the British people" before forming any coalition.

He added: "It sounds like our vote's held up and the Liberal Democrats – the air was coming out of the tyre, it's gradually seeped out from that first debate."

He said that Labour and the Lib Dems had much in common, but he could not see Nick Clegg's party or Labour forming a deal with the Conservatives.

Senior Lib Dems played down the exit poll, which suggested they had made no progress on the last election despite the success of leader Nick Clegg in the television debates.

Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable said the outcome of the exit poll was "very strange" and insisted they had been "horribly wrong" in the past.

Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock that the figure for the Liberal Democrats was almost certainly wrong.