UK General Election: 2am betting update

LONDON, UK - Odds on there being a hung Parliament plunged sharply in the last ten minutes as a poor performance at the polls by the Liberal Democrats and a smaller than expected swing in favour of the Conservatives in some key seats suggested no party would gain overall control.

At 1am a Tory majority was trading at 5/6 with Paddy Power and a hung parliament at 10/11 but there was a sudden move towards a hung Parliament on the Betfair market at about 1.50am. At 2am the betting was 4/9 a hung Parliament and 13/8 a Conservative majority. A Labour majority was 150/1.

On the spread betting markets, Sporting Index offered 315-320 Conservative Seats, 223-228 Labour Seats and 69-73 Liberal Democrat Seats, which would imply the Tories would be roughly eight seats short of a majority.

The Liberal Democrats seem to have failed to capture votes in their crucial target seats and are trading well below the low 90s prediction that the spread betting firms had them on less than a week ago.

There were widespread reports of voters failing to get their votes registered in time on the back of higher than expected turnouts in some seats and there looks likely to be challenges in marginal constituencies with narrowly defeated candidates almost certain to ask for their seats to be re-contested.

Financial markets are pricing in a 124 point fall in the FTSE 100 index tomorrow morning but sterling was trading up 0.70 at 1.486 versus the US dollar in early morning trading.

UK General Election betting