What time will we know who has won the UK 2017 general election?

Britain is holding a snap election on 8 June, which will be the second general election in two years. After voting for the candidate we want to see win our constituency, most of us will stay up to watch the first results be declared and then head to bed - and wait to find out the result in the morning.

For those pulling an all-nighter to see who is declared the winner, here is a breakdown of what to expect over the night.

When is the exit poll?

The 144 polling stations will open at 7am and close at 10pm on Thursday 8 June, after which there will be an exit poll predicting the outcome of the election.

Commissioned by the BBC, ITV and Sky, it has been fairly accurate in forecasting the final result.

The exit poll correctly predicted a strong Conservative lead in the 2015 general election.

Who will declare the first results?

Houghton & Sunderland South is the first constituency to declare results at 11pm on Thursday. It will be followed by Washington & Sunderland West at 11.30pm and Sunderland Central at 12am.

The first seat in London to be declared will be Battersea, which will be declared at around 2am. It has been represented by Jane Ellison for the Conservatives since 2010.

The majority of the 650 parliamentary seats will be declared between 2am and 6am. The final constituencies will be declared late Friday morning, but the winner will already be clear by then.

When will we know the results?

British elections are decided using the first past the post system, in which one party needs to win at least 50% of the seats in the House of Commons (326 out of a total of 650) to form a government. The system generally results in a two-party competition, which usually produces single-party governments.

If there is a clear winner, the final result should be known at around 3am on Friday morning.

In 2010, however, the election led to a hung Parliament where no single party had a majority of votes. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including low voter turnout.

The 2010 election result saw a coalition emerge between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. If this happens again, we could end up with a coalition government, which can take days to negotiate.