Cameron set for UK poll win as Scottish nationalists triumph

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives looked on course May 8 for a surprise victory in Britain's general election which could redefine the country's future in Europe and herald more austerity cuts.

Projections after the vote upended pre-election forecasts of a knife-edge contest with Labour and pointed to a landslide for Scottish nationalists that could reopen the question of independence for Scotland.
 
"This is clearly a very strong night for the Conservative party," Cameron said after being re-elected to his Witney seat in southern England.
 
Although he said it was "too early" to say what the final result would be, Cameron stressed that Britain now "must hold" a referendum on membership of the European Union that he has promised by 2017.
 
Labour leader Ed Miliband admitted it had been "a very disappointing and difficult night".
 
"We haven't made the gains we wanted in England and Wales, and in Scotland we have seen a surge of nationalism overwhelm our party," he said.
 
As the pound rallied on currency markets, a projection by the BBC put the Conservatives at 325 seats -- one short of a clear majority in the 650-seat parliament -- against 232 for Labour.
 
As well as the Conservatives, the other big winners were the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), which has so far won 55 of the 59 seats north of the border, up from just six seats that it held before the May 8 election.
 
Its winners included 20-year-old Mhairi Black, Britain's youngest MP since 1667, who defeated Labour's campaign chief Douglas Alexander.
 
But it was a terrible night for the Liberal Democrats, junior partners in Cameron's coalition since 2010, who lost at least two senior ministers....