Gary Lineker just perfectly summed up the election

The Ipsos Mori exit poll for BBC, ITV and Sky has predicted that the Conservative Party will lose 17 seats tonight.

The exit poll, which is not the definite result, predicts the Tories will win 314 seats, robbing them of their majority.

This was not what anyone was expecting.

Many commentators and polling companies predicted a Conservative majority - and discussions about the election focussed on how big of a majority Theresa May would win.

It's also a shock prediction for the Liberal Democrats, who many thought would struggle to gain any ground this election.

And very few people believed Jeremy Corbyn would be able to increase the Labour party's total seats, even if he could increase their share of the vote.

As such, Theresa May's gamble in calling an election three years ahead of time, may not have been the safe bet she was expecting.

All of this is of course dependent on the exit polling being correct.

Gary Lineker, who in recent years has become an active commentator on UK politics on Twitter, summed up the reaction:

The tweet has already been liked over 25,000 times and shared nearly 12000 since it was posted at six minutes after the exit poll was released.

Prior to this Lineker also commented on the benefit of a 'strong opposition'.

Results as they come in live on the Independent

More: The exit poll says it could be a hung Parliament and everyone is saying it's a disaster for Theresa May