Liberal Democrat candidates are putting a brave face on a nightmare exit poll which predicts their party suffering a political knockout.
An exit poll by national broadcasters predicts the junior coalition partners will see their 57 seats trimmed to just ten.
And with south-west London a key stronghold with four seats, it could be an anxious night for the likes of Vince Cable, Ed Davey, Tom Brake and Paul Burstow.
However, Liberal Democrats are hoping another poll by pollsters You Gov – which shows them with 31 seats – is closer to the truth.
“Whether it’s my seat or the intelligence we are getting from elsewhere, I believe the picture is much closer to the You Gov poll,” said Ed Davey, who served as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the last government.
“We’ve got two different polls and they are saying very different things. We are in hung parliament territory again and in 2010 we put national interest over party interest.
“We knew going into coalition would hurt us and we might have lost some valued colleagues tonight as a result.
“Liberal Democrats may well have paid a price for acting in the national interest but we should not jump to conclusions about what has happened yet.”
Streatham candidate Amna Ahmad also did her best to accentuate the positives, despite apparently gloomy news.
“I’ve seen two exit polls, the YouGov poll puts the Lib Dems at 31 and another has us lower, but I think it’s still pretty clear this is one of the most uncertain elections of all time,” she said.
“What we’ve learnt is that people are still disenfranchised with politics and it will be interesting to see the turnout across the whole country.
“We need people to feel part of the process and need to have another look at our voting system.
“Electoral reform should be on the cards and people have made it clear they’re looking for alternatives to the two main parties and the voting system is the way to do that.”
Exit polls predict the Conservatives will be the single largest party in the next parliament, though they’d still need support to secure a majority in the House of Commons.
“It would be good if we could continue to have some say in government,” said Liberal Democrat candidate for Mitcham and Morden, Diana Coman.
“The Liberal Democrats for decades have been shaping the political scene and I think it will be seen differently in retrospect.”
