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David Cameron's second term as British Prime Minister was confirmed Friday after his Conservative Party won enough seats to form a working majority in the 650-member House of Commons. Shortly before noon Friday, London time, the Conservatives, or Tories, had won 324 seats to 229 It would be the first time the Conservatives had won a parliamentary majority since 1992. Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister to win re-election since Margaret Thatcher.

I have today written to UKIP's National Executive Committee and offered my resignation. I look forward to a well deserved holiday!— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 8, 2015

<p>Labour Party grandee Jack Straw, leaving Parliament after 36 years that included several Cabinet stints, called the party's showing in Scotland "an unbelievably bad situation in Scotland which frankly nobody anticipated."</p> <p>Throughout the campaign, Scottish voters told pollsters and journalists they were tired of being taken for granted by Labour, and many had not been impressed when Miliband joined forces with Cameron to urge Scottish voters to reject independence in last September's referendum. Scots whose families had for decades voted Labour turned away in droves.</p>

The Times and the Mirror are citing royal sources suggesting that the Queen could end up running the nation if there is no clear winner in the UK election. But does she have the power to fire or hire a prime minister?

:: Follow the election results live on skynews.com, our mobile apps and on Sky News TV from 10pm. Voters are going to the polls across the country to decide who will form the next government. Polling stations opened at 7am and close at 10pm in the United Kingdom's 650 constituencies.

Voting for UKIP is like writing a “suicide note” which will “not be forgiven” if it denies Britain the chance to vote on whether to remain a member of the EU, Iain Duncan Smith warns today. In a heartfelt intervention just 48 hours before polling day, the former Conservative leader urges those considering voting UKIP not to jeopardise a decades-long campaign he has waged to change Britain’s relationship with Brussels. • Latest election polls for May 5 The Work and Pensions Secretary describes a vote for Ukip as “unfathomable” as it risks allowing a weak minority Labour government – backed...

(Reuters) - Britain's Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have named their newborn daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, a choice that honors the baby's late grandmother Princess Diana and her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth.

The Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby girl, Kensington Palace has announced. The princess was born at 8.34am this morning weighing 8lbs 3oz, with the Duke of Cambridge present for the birth. Kensington Palace announced the birth shortly after 11am this morning, some five hours after Kate was admitted to the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington. The Duchess and her newborn daughter are both 'doing well', a palace spokesman said. The announcement came by way of a statement released by Kensington Palace shortly after 11am. It was then posted on the palace's official...

Britain's opposition Labour Party has taken a 1 percentage point lead over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, according to a YouGov opinion poll published on Friday, though still within the poll's margin of error.

Perhaps there is something to the presumed wisdom of crowds. An April NBC News poll found that, while the American public was hopeful that a framework nuclear deal with Iran might prevent a conflict over the Islamic RepublicÂ’s atomic weapons program, 68 percent believed that Iran could not be trusted to abide by the terms reached in Lausanne. The reason why most Americans donÂ’t believe the Iranian government can be trusted is simple: The mullahs in Tehran are not honest brokers. The latest evidence of Iranian duplicity was identified this week by British investigators who notified the United Nations...

The U.K. government wants BP to still stand for “British Petroleum.” The Financial Times reported that Downing Street would do all it could to block a takeover of BP. Weakened and shrunken down due to the massive, and still rising, toll stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, BP could become a takeover target from one of the larger oil majors out there. Rumors have been swirling in recent weeks that perhaps ExxonMobil or Chevron could be eyeing the British oil giant, so much so that BP’s CEO Bob Dudley had to publicly dispel any notion that his company is for...

The best thing about the British elections, some might say, is their relative brevity... But while 30 March was the ceremonial kick-off in a race that will end in just over a month, a shadow campaign has been going on much longer. And it has some analysts and politicians worried that the UK is heading down a path toward the US model of electioneering that lasts months and even years. The culprit, they say, is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, passed in 2011, which mandates general elections every five years. It's a change from past tradition, which set five years as...

Ed Miliband’s most senior adviser pays no tax on his reported £300,000 earnings in Britain, The Telegraph has learned. David Axelrod, a former adviser to Barack Obama, admitted that he is not resident for tax purposes in the UK. Labour confirmed it pays Mr. Axelrod in dollars through his consultancy and that he “lives in the US, works in the US and pays taxes in the US”. While it is unclear how much tax Mr. Axelrod will pay in the US, the rates of tax for companies are often significantly lower than for individuals. The admission comes after Ed Miliband...

Teachers are avoiding class discussions on Islamic extremism for fear they may have to report pupils to the police, a teachers' union says. New counter-terror rules aiming to expose radicalisation require schools to report any concerns about pupils. The National Union of Teachers says the rules are too heavy handed and stifle much-needed debate in schools. The Conservatives said the guidance made clear that no teacher should feel unable to talk about sensitive issues. A party spokesman said teaching about "fundamental British values" actively encouraged such discussions. In certain circumstances teachers could also face prosecution if they failed to alert...

A future Labour Government is committed to outlaw the scourge of Islamophobia by changing the law and making it an aggravated crime, according to the Party’s Leader Ed Miliband. “We are going to make it an aggravated crime. We are going to make sure it is marked on people’s records with the police to make sure they root out Islamophobia as a hate crime,” Miliband told the Editor of The Muslim News, Ahmed J Versi in a wide ranging exclusive interview. “We are going to change the law on this so we make it absolutely clear of our abhorrence of...

Children as young as three are being asked to sign a contract pledging not to use transphobic language at school. The pledge is contained in a ‘home-school agreement’ which all children must sign before they start at Turnham Primary School in September. The infants must also promise to refrain from using homophobic and racist phrases and to be tolerant of people with different sexual orientations and lifestyles. Each child must print their name and provide a signature to confirm that they understand their ‘responsibilities’ while attending the school. It is understood that teachers at the South-East London school introduced the...

When reports emerged that a dog had allegedly been poisoned at Crufts, David Cameron appeared to be extremely worried that a similar fate might befall the Downing Street cat, Larry. Talking to Heart FM, the Prime Minister promised to ‘double the security around him and make sure he’s ok’. But this morning Larry looked far from ‘ok’ when police sniffer dog Bailey turned up on his doorstep. Perhaps the PM has more important things to think about – or perhaps police security is what Cameron had in mind to waylay any attempts on his cat’s life. But needless to say,...

NIGEL FARAGE'S hopes of becoming an MP have been given a massive boost with an opinion poll showing the Ukip leader has a commanding nine-point lead in South Thanet. Research privately commissioned by the anti-Brussels party revealed he has opened up a significant gap ahead of Tory candidate Craig Mackinlay in race to win the Kent seat on May 7. Figures also show that Mr Farage has met more voters over the past month than his Labour and Tory rivals put together. Raising a pint of bitter to celebrate St George’s Day in the constituency today, Mr Farage said: “There...

Ten years ago today Benedict began his transformative papacy Ten years ago today Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope, taking the name Benedict XVI. One surprise of the papacy that followed was that his visit to Britain was a such resounding success – so successful, in fact, that the benefits are still felt to this day. In the months leading up to the papal visit in September 2010, we had militant atheists, campaigning secularists and many sections of the anti-Catholic lobby doing their worst to cast a shadow over the visit. The National Secular Society launched its (grammatically suspect)...

<p>An unemployed woman has her heart set on a 'fairy-tale church wedding' - and believes the taxpayer should foot the bill as it is her basic human right to be a bride.</p> <p>Anna Broom, of Gillingham, in Kent, has not worked since the age of 19, during which time she has claimed more than £100,000 in benefits.</p>