Election results: How Jeremy Corbyn could now be prime minister

The Labour leader is likely to be head of a very broad, colourful progressive alliance

Jeremy Corbyn may be about to become prime minister.

The exit poll has shown a hung parliament. But the results are so close that if it is correct, the question of who forms a government will be decided in negotiations.

The BBC/Sky/ITV poll suggested the Conservatives will be 12 seats short of the 326 they need for an absolute majority in the Commons.

The poll put Tories on 314 seats, with Labour on 266, the Scottish National Party on 34, Liberal Democrats on 14, Plaid Cymru on three and Greens on one.

The most likely scenario that sees Mr Corbyn enter Number 10 will be as the head of a progressive alliance, including the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and other small parties. Labour has refused to discuss that possibility, but Mr Corbyn has suggested that such an arrangement would be possible.

If he could bring together his own party alongside the SNP, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens, he would have 318 seats according to the exit poll. But if those parties took just a few more seats from the Tories, they would reach 326 and be able to form a government with a working majority.

The exit poll show that neither Labour or the Conservatives could form a government on their own. But if all of the other parties banded together – that would include the Greens and other small parties – then they would be able to gather a working majority and form a government.

Such an arrangement would be decided in private and between the parties, after the results become clear. But discussions are likely to have already begun behind the scenes.

Some parties including the Lib Dems have suggested that they wouldn't join a coalition with Labour. But they had suggested before 2010 that they wouldn't go into government with the Conservatives, before joining a government with them.