DAVID CAMERON is facing days of wrangling before he can claim the keys to No 10.

The Conservative leader, celebrating his own re-election in Oxfordshire, conceded that the outcome after a night of chaos and confusion remains on a knife edge, with the likelihood of the first hung Parliament since 1974 looming large.

He said: “Whatever happens, what is clear is that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern our country.”

An exit poll of 17,600 voters, at 130 polling stations around the country, suggested the Tories would win 305 seats – leaving them 21 short of a Commons majority.

Some early results suggested David Cameron might win a small majority, with huge swings away from Labour in several Labour-held constituencies.

But later Labour increased its share of the vote in Wales and Scotland, while the Liberal Democrat “bounce” failed to materialise.

They failed to make inroads into both Labour and Conservative target seats, and high- profile casualties included Lembit Opik in Montgomeryshire. But John Pugh did manage to hang on to his Lib-Dem seat in Southport.

Key Labour figures insisted if the exit poll was correct Gordon Brown would try to stay in No.10, by striking a deal with the Liberal Democrats.