MR Tony Blair swept sensationally to power this morning with a record breaking landslide election victory as the British people took dire revenge on the Conservatives after 18 years in power.
At 3.30 a.m. Mr John Major bowed to the inevitable and conceded defeat.
Mr Major said he had telephoned Mr Blair an hour earlier to congratulate him on his success and promised the Conservatives would be a "vigorous opposition".
"Tonight we have been comprehensively defeated," he said. "We will listen to the voice of the people."
As Mr Blair prepared to name the cabinet to lead Britain into the next century, a Tory bloodbath loomed as Mr Major led his party to its worst ever defeat since 1832. As Labour claimed Tory marginals with truly staggering swings of 10, 14 and 18 per cent, the Conservatives faced the possible loss of up to 190 seats with the BBC projecting a final Labour majority of some 167 seats in the new parliament.
Early this morning, the BBC was predicting that there would be absolutely no Tory MPs left in Scotland or Wales.
Mr Paddy Ashdown also seemed likely to realise his prediction of a Liberal Democrat breakthrough, with the party hoping to take as many as 60 seats.
"Out, Out, Out," cried jubilant Labour supporters as Mr David Mellor led an astonishing cast of ministers and backbenchers - including Mr Michael Forsyth, the Scottish Secretary - who fell to defeat. And as senior Tories considered their options, the sensational news from Enfield in north London was that Mr Michael Portillo, the Defence Secretary and formerly thought a likely Conservative leadership challenger, had also lost his seat by 1,700 votes.
The Foreign Secretary, Mr Malcolm Rifkind, also lost his seat in Edinburgh Pentlands, as did Mr Ian Lang, to the Scottish National Party, in Galloway.
Mr Blair, 44 next week, will travel to Buckingham Palace later this morning to become Britain's youngest Prime Minister since 1812 after a night of truly seismic political change across Britain.
Speaking after his reelection at Sedgefield at close to 1 a.m., Mr Blair, surrounded by members of his family and visibly feeling the emotion of the night, said he felt "a deep sense of honour, a deep sense of responsibility and a deep sense of humility".
While the country waited for Mr Major to concede, Mr Blair told his constituents: "You have put your trust in me and I will not let you down." The prime minister in waiting said: "This is a vote for the future it is not a vote for outdated dogma or ideology of any kind. It is a vote for an end to division in this country."
After the early exit polls forecast a swing to Labour of 13%, the party had to wait until well after midnight before claiming Birmingham Edgbaston with a 10% swing, twice that needed to take the seat.
In quick succession Labour claimed Basildon - which heralded the Tories' unexpected triumph in 1992 - with a swing of to per cent. Portsmouth North fell to Labour, on a 14 per cent swing. Crosby went Labour with a swing of 18 per cent, while the proof of tactical voting on the ground came when the Liberal Democrats made their first gain of the night at Sheffield Hallam.
The news that Sir Marcus Fox, chairman of the 1922 Committee, and Mr David Hunt, a former cabinet minister, had lost their seats left other apparently safe Tories biting their nails and thinking the unthinkable.
Former minister and Tory Europhile Edwina Currie fell to an expected defeat in Derbyshire and immediately called on Mr Major to vacate the leadership, paving the way for Mr Michael Heseltine or Mr Kenneth Clarke. She said the voters had punished the party for adopting a euro sceptical position.
Arch Eurosceptic Mr Nick Budgen crashed to defeat in Wolverhampton South West, the seat he inherited from Mr Enoch Powell in 1974. Mr Norman Lamont, a former Chancellor, who once accused Mr Major's government - of giving "the appearance of being in office but not in power", crashed to defeat at the hands of jubilant Liberal Democrats ink Harrogate. Another Euro dissident, Mr Rupert Allason, fell to defeat at Torbay, where the Liberal Democrats had a majority of 12 after a recount.