UK election exit poll 2017: What is it, how does it work?

VOTERS across Britain are going to the polls today in the UK General Election 2017. But will the exit poll be released tonight?

General Election pollsPA


The exit poll for the UK election will be published as soon as polls close across Britain at 10pm today. 

General election polls usually reveal which party will go on to win the General Election as votes are counted through the night. 

Exit polls are conducted outside polling stations and take a random sample of people who have actually voted in the election. 

This means the exit poll is much more reliable than normal polls that ask voters who they plan to vote for on election day in advance. 

Exit poll surveys from across the country are compared to previous years and the data is used to project a build of the national picture. 

The exit polls, which are run for the BBC, ITV and Sky, have a good reputation for getting the result right over many election cycles. 

Back in the 2015 election, the shock exit poll revealed that the Conservatives would go on to win a majority. 

In contrast, the pollsters got the election result wrong in 2015. Campaign polls said the election was mostly likely to result in a hung parliament. 

After the 2015 result came in, the British Polling Council admitted: "The final opinion polls before the election were clearly not as accurate as we would like."

There was no exit poll in the EU referendum 2016 because broadcasters had no way of knowing if it would be accurate or not. 

Therefore the last polls before the referendum result got the outcome wrong and it looked though Remain were on track to win. 

The YouGov opinion poll released as polling stations closed put Remain ahead by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Even Leave campaigner Nigel Farage said: “Turnout looks to be exceptionally high and (it) looks like Remain will edge it.” 

On election night, Professor John Curtice fronts the exit poll team of analysts from a number of universities across the UK. 

After the 2015 election, he said: “Rule number one with conducting any exit poll is to forget anything and everything you have read, seen, or looked at in advance. 

“You have to go with the data produced by the polling itself, and have faith in the method and design that has been developed across recent elections.”