A dejected Mr Miliband told supporters at the party’s HQ he took ‘absolutely and total responsibility’ for the defeat. He said: ‘Now it’s time for someone else to take leadership of this party. So I am tendering my resignation.’
Mr Miliband quit with the final results still to be called – but the Tories on course to win 331 seats, giving them a surprise five-seat majority.
Labour is expected to finish with just 232 MPs, down 24, in its worst result since Neil Kinnock lost to Margaret Thatcher in 1987. The Lib Dems finished with just eight seats in its worst ever electoral defeat.
The SNP in contrast picked up 50 seats to move to 56 MPs, while Plaid Cymru stayed level on three, Ukip lost one of its two seats and the Greens held their only seat in Brighton.
While Mr Cameron was preparing to visit the Queen in Buckingham Palace at 12.30pm, his main political rivals were facing political extinction. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg resigned - accepting the defeat had been 'cruel and punishing'.
Ukip's Nigel Farage also threw in the towel, but suggested he could bid to become party leader again after taking the summer off to 'enjoy' himself.
After the scale of the Tory victory became clear, Mr Cameron this morning declared his intention to 'govern for everyone in our United Kingdom' - a recognition of extraordinary gains by the SNP, which almost swept the board in Scotland.
He told cheering Conservative activists at the party’s London HQ that the result was ‘a great victory’, adding: ‘I remember 1992 and that was an amazing victory. I remember 2010 achieving that dream of getting Labour out and getting the Tories back in.’ But he added: ‘But I think this is the sweetest victory of all.’
In Scotland, the SNP tide has swept aside Labour and Lib Dem big beasts including Jim Murphy and Douglas Alexander in a tide of nationalism which has already sparked calls for a second independence referendum.
The Lib Dems are fighting for their survival as a political party, with ministers including Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, David Laws, Ed Davey, Simon Hughes, Lynne Featherstone and Jo Swinson all voted out. They are on course to be left with just eight seats.
Ukip has secured as many votes as the SNP and Lib Dems combined, but will finish with just one MP.
Some 50million people were eligible to vote in the most closely fought campaign in a generation. Opinion polls in recent weeks had Labour and the Tories neck and neck, suggesting Britain faced political deadlock.
But an exit poll released at 10pm on Thursday showed voters had switched to the Conservatives at the last moment, suggesting Mr Cameron would win 316 seats. However, as the night wore on, the scale of the Tory victory proved to be even more convincing.
By 6am, a revised forecast was even better for the Tory leader, putting him on course to win 325 seats, exactly half the number of seats in the Commons. At 12.30pm, Mr Cameron was expected to win 331 seats - the first Tory majority since 1992.
Mr Cameron all but declared victory in a speech in his Witney constituency in the early hours of the morning, in which he made clear he plans to lead a Tory government, offering an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union and to build on the economic foundations laid by the coalition since 2010.
But in a nod to the political tsunami in Scotland he added: 'My aim remains simple - to govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom.'
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