Conservative leader David Cameron has met with the Queen and has returned to 10 Downing Street, after his party has so far won 326 seats, three more than needed for a majority.
Labour, having failed to win many of the marginal seats it had targeted in England and Wales, has been decimated by the tidal wave of nationalist support in Scotland, losing 40 seats to the SNP, which secured 56 out of 59 constituencies.
Labour are currently on 230 seats, down 25, with high-profile losses including the shadow chancellor Ed Balls, Scottish leader Jim Murphy and campaign co-ordinator Douglas Alexander.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and UKIP leader Nigel Farage have all resigned. The latter also lost out to the Tories in Thanet South. Miliband described the result as "a very difficult and disappointing night" for the party.
It was also a grim night for the Liberal Democrats, with the party currently holding onto just eight of the 54 seats it secured at the last general election.
While this includes the current deputy prime minister Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam seat, the backlash against the Lib Dems has seen several of the parties most high-profile politicians ousted, including the coalition business secretary Vince Cable.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, energy secretary Ed Davey and senior party figures Charles Kennedy and Simon Hughes were among the Lib Dems other significant losses.
The markets have reacted positively to the news and the pound has seen its biggest rise against the Euro in six years.
UK Print reaction
"A great result for the British economy, if we are going to get out of the deficit we need some consistency at the top for a few more years."
- Patrick Headley, GI Solutions
"There must be a better way to equality of opportunity and reward, and Labour have to work it out."
- Simon Biltcliffe, Webmart
"I believe a change of government just now, as this country gradually moves further away from recession, would be bad for SMEs. This government has helped bring back some confidence and with things like the RGF has encouraged companies like mine to start investing again; for now stability is what's needed and this result helps."
- Duarte Goncalves, DXG Media
"The economy is in the safest hands, considering what the Tories started with they haven’t done badly, they need another 5 years to finish the job. If they don’t then they deserve to be replaced"
- James Dark, Statex
"It would seem the public had a last minute change of heart and undecideds went with what they felt was the safe option: re-electing the Tories. From a business perspective it does feel that carrying on the current economic policy is right and will provide stability. One disappointing aspect has been the inability to deliver the reduction in red tape for business which, if anything, actually feels like the burden is increasing.
"I also feel we need a completely new approach to the apprenticeship programme as we have struggled to attract candidates [with] too many young people being attracted into the degree option, despite the lack of an appropriate job at the end.
"The vote on EU membership will be unsettling for business so I hope will be carried out sooner rather than later. I personally believe we could thrive outside the EU [by] substituting effective trade agreements with existing trading partners. One thing is for certain, the UK was not as ready for coalition government as we believed and seem to crave something more stable and predictable."
- Tony Bates, Fast Graphics
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