Exit poll cheers Cameron as drama unfolds

Accompanied by pregnant wife Samantha, the Tory leader drank Coke as he chatted with regulars at Witney's New Inn pub as the drama of a cliffhanger election began to unfold.

Just before 1am Mr Cameron – who had earlier spent two hours chopping logs at his constituency home – moved on to his count knowing there was a long night ahead before discovering whether he could yet claim the keys to Downing Street, or fall just short of an outright majority.

Shortly afterwards he could celebrate the Tories' first gain of the night from Labour – a 9.4 per cent swing in the Gloucestershire seat of Kingswood, 135th on the Tory target list, which would have been enough to bring a roar at Tory headquarters and give hope that the exit poll had been a little pessimistic.

By that time Gordon Brown, accompanied by wife Sarah who has spent much of the campaign at his side, was already at the Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in preparation for his count.

Having seen the exit poll and watched the first results at his North Queensferry home, he will already have been aware that he faced a long and difficult night with his future hanging in the balance.

Earlier in the day, around Yorkshire and the rest of the country, queues were reported outside polling stations as turnout appeared high at the end of an election campaign which may have begun as a slow burner but was ignited thanks to the historic televised leaders' debates.

For the leaders themselves the day provided relative calm after a frenetic campaign but the drama took hold the instant the clocks hit 10pm – as teams of council staff prepared to start counting votes at leisure centres and town halls across the country – when the wraps were taken off the exit poll.

It projected the Tories winning 307 seats, Labour on 255 and the Liberal Democrats on 59, confirming weeks of opinion polls that have suggested there would be a hung parliament.

As frustrated voters, some of whom had queued for hours, discovered that they would not be able to cast their vote, the poll – later revised to reduce the Tories to 305 and raise the Liberal Democrats to 61 – sparked an immediate spin battle between the parties.

Senior Labour figures insisted there was no overwhelming mandate for the Conservatives – with Alan Johnson claiming that Mr Cameron's Big Society had been a "big flop" – while the Conservatives were keen to insist it was "an utter rejection of Labour".

In the vacuum between the close of polls at 10pm and the first results coming in, Labour Ministers sparred with senior Tories on the airwaves and in the television studios – even if they could not claim victory, they were at least ready to declare their opponents the real losers.

Meanwhile everyone scratched their head over how "Cleggmania" and the supposed Liberal Democrat surge in the wake of the televised leaders' debate could possibly leave the party one seat down from its showing in 2005.

By 10.50pm, Houghton and Sunderland South kept up its record of being the first seat to declare with Labour predictably holding onto this stronghold. But it was the 8.4 per cent swing from Labour to the Tories – much greater than the 5.5 per cent swing projected in the exit poll – which gave cause for Conservative optimism.

"Very strong first result for Cameron", trumpeted the Conservative press operation, with party activists further buoyed shortly afterwards by the second results – in Washington and Sunderland West – which showed an even bigger swing, more than 11 per cent.

As results continued to trickle in, Sunderland Central failed to produce a shock win for Mr Cameron, although the Tories could take consolation in a swing of nearly five per cent.

After taking in the findings of the exit polls and the first results at their constituency homes, the party leaders ventured out into the public glare for what would prove to be a very long night.