Jeremy Corbyn calls for Theresa May to quit: PM has a mandate of lost confidence

A delighted Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing underdog, has called on Theresa May to quit as the prime minister of the UK after a night of misery for the Conservatives.

Corbyn, speaking in London after retaining his Islington North seat with a thumping majority of more than 33,000 votes, said the British electorate had voted for hope and "turned their backs on austerity".

"The election campaign has gone on for the past six weeks, I have traveled the whole country and spoke at rallies and events across the country and, do you know what, politics has changed and it isn't going back into the box where it was before," he said.

"People have said that they've had quite enough of austerity politics...They are voting for hope and turning their backs on austerity.

"I am very proud of the results that are coming in all over the country tonight of people voting for hope, voting for hope in the future and turning their backs on austerity.

"If there is a message from tonight's result, it's this: the prime minister called the election because she wanted a mandate.

"Well, the mandate she has got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost votes and lost confidence. I would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all of this country."

The comments come after the UK broadcasters' exit poll projectiction put the Conservatives on 314 (-17), Labour on 266 (+34), the SNP on 34 (-22) and the Liberal Democrats on 14 (+6).

May, who succeeded David Cameron as Tory leader in the wake of the Brexit vote last June, called the election to strengthen her hand at the negotiating table with Brussels. But the move seems to have backfired, with May's political future looking extremely shaky.

According to the Telegraph, senior Conservatives said this morning that she had made "fundamental strategic errors" and said that her closest aides should be "banished" from Downing Street.

They complained that the campaign had been centred around a "cult of personality" and "central control", adding: "It has completely blown up in our face".