BRITAIN is heading for a hung parliament with the Conservatives the largest party, according to a TV exit poll tonight.
Tory leader David Cameron was left tantalisingly close to the door of Downing Street with his party on 307 seats - 19 short of an overall majority.
Gordon Brown's Labour would have 255 seats and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats would have 59 seats, according to the poll.
The BBC/ITV News/Sky News poll interviewed 18,000 voters, who had already cast their ballot, at 130 polling stations across the UK.
Brown, Cameron and Clegg could now be set to negotiate a deal to see who could form a government.
Exit polls are analysed by a team of voting experts and statisticians in order to produce the 10pm final forecast.
At the last election an exit poll commissioned by the BBC and ITV News forecast a Labour majority of 66 - the correct prediction.
But political pundits warned exit polls can also give rogue results.
In 1992 a BBC exit poll forecast the Conservatives would only just have more seats than Labour in a hung parliament, but the Tories secured an overall majority of 21.
Voters flocked to the polls in the wake of the most closely fought campaign for a generation.
All three parties reported high turnout at polling stations across the country.
Final opinion polls had pointed towards a possible hung parliament.
Turnout is predicted to be the highest since 1992, when it hit a staggering 77.7 per cent as John Major confounded the polls to cling to office.
Tory leader David Cameron was left tantalisingly close to the door of Downing Street with his party on 307 seats - 19 short of an overall majority.
Gordon Brown's Labour would have 255 seats and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats would have 59 seats, according to the poll.
The BBC/ITV News/Sky News poll interviewed 18,000 voters, who had already cast their ballot, at 130 polling stations across the UK.
Brown, Cameron and Clegg could now be set to negotiate a deal to see who could form a government.
Exit polls are analysed by a team of voting experts and statisticians in order to produce the 10pm final forecast.
At the last election an exit poll commissioned by the BBC and ITV News forecast a Labour majority of 66 - the correct prediction.
But political pundits warned exit polls can also give rogue results.
In 1992 a BBC exit poll forecast the Conservatives would only just have more seats than Labour in a hung parliament, but the Tories secured an overall majority of 21.
Voters flocked to the polls in the wake of the most closely fought campaign for a generation.
All three parties reported high turnout at polling stations across the country.
Final opinion polls had pointed towards a possible hung parliament.
Turnout is predicted to be the highest since 1992, when it hit a staggering 77.7 per cent as John Major confounded the polls to cling to office.
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