General Election 2015: Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown says he will eat his hat if exit poll is right

Exit poll predicted Conservatives would win 316 seats

Paddy Ashdown speaks to Andrew Neil on the BBC about the exit poll on election night (BBC)

It certainly raised a few eyebrows as exit polls suggested the Lib Dems would be reduced to just ten seats, while the Tories would only be a few short of an overall majority – but Paddy Ashdown was having none of it

The former Lib Dem leader told Andrew Neil on the BBC that he would 'publicly eat my hat on your programme' if the exit poll turned out to be correct.

When asked just how damaging such a result would be for the Lib Dems, Lord Ashdown quoted a YouGov poll which gave the party more than treble the number of seats.

He said: "What you have seen in the last 24 hours, I think there's a YouGov poll out now which gives us not 10, not 20 seats but 31 seats, so one or the other of these polls, either the exit poll or YouGov is wrong, and I will bet you my hat eaten on your programme that that's wrong."

The exit poll for the BBC, ITN and Sky, released before results started pouring in predicted a hung parliament, although the Tories would be on 316 seats – just ten short of a majority – with Labour winning 239 and the Lib Dems winning just ten.

The SNP was predicted to win a total of 58 seats while Ukip and Green were predicted to win two each.

If the poll is correct it would mean Nick Clegg's party would have enough seats to form a second Coalition with the Tories, taking them to the slimmest of majorities with 326.

The exit poll is the most accurate poll before the final results are announced in the early hours due to the fact it refers to how people have voted rather than will vote.