In one of many shock results last night, Labour ripped up the odds to take the Battersea seat from the Conservative Party.

Bookies said two months ago the odds of a Labour Party win were a huge 12/1, but Marsha de Cordova defeated incumbent MP Jane Ellison on a 10 per cent swing.

In the first Labour victory of the night, disability rights campaigner Ms de Cordova overturned a majority of almost 8,000 to win the seat, with 45.9 per cent of the vote share.

This was a 9.1 per cent increase in share since the 2015 election.

The defeat puts an end to a seven-year parliamentary run for junior minister Ms Ellison, over half of which was spent on the front bench. She was appointed by David Cameron as public health minister in October 2013 but moved to the Treasury in the role of Financial Secretary in Theresa May's Government.

Ms Ellison gained 41.5 per cent of the vote share, but it was not enough to defeat her Labour opponent.

Former Chancellor George Osborne said the former MP's unexpected departure would require a "very big post-mortem".

In a tweet, Ms de Mordova said: 

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also tweeted his congratulations. Mr Khan is a former MP for Tooting, a seat this year held by Dr Rosena Allin Khan for Labour.

Britain was left with a hung parliament after the election results were announced last night. Labour’s victory in Southampton Test made it impossible for any party to reach the 326 MPs required to achieve an absolute majority in the House of Commons.

In a statement in Downing Street, today Prime Minister Theresa May made clear that she would rely on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party in order to get her programme through Parliament.