How many seats did Labour win?

Labour loses 40 seats to the SNP 'Tsunami'

Ed Miliband at a rally in Colne on Wednesday (Getty Images)

Labour failed to win the election as the party suffers a massive defeat at the hands of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP.

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Labour won 232 seats and secured 30.4 per cent of the total vote.

The party lost 48 seats in total, with 40 of those being taken from them by the SNP.

Ed Miliband has now announced that he will be stepping down following the defeat and has said that it is:"time for someone else" to take over the party and that he was "truly sorry" for his lack of success.

A few shock departures from the Labour front bench included, Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who lost his seat to Conservative candidate Andrea Jenkyns by 422 votes.

"Any personal disappointment I have at this result is as nothing compared to the sense of sorrow I have at the result Labour has achieved across the UK," he said.

In addition, election campaign chief Douglas Alexander and the party’s leader in Scotland, Jim Murphy, have also been forced to step down.

Harriet Harman has now confirmed that she will too step down, as Deputy Leader, once a new leader was in place.

Former First Minister and Labour peer, Lord McConnell, said his party had experienced a "catastrophic night".