David Cameron is set to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace to confirm his second term as Prime Minister, as the General Election put his Conservative Party on the brink of securing an absolute majority in the House of Commons in what he termed ''the sweetest victory of them all''.

Mr Cameron returned to 10 Downing Street after a dramatic night which saw the Scottish National Party sweep Labour out of almost all its strongholds north of the border, while the Liberal Democrats suffered savage losses and question marks were raised about the futures of Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage.

And Tories claimed the biggest scalp of the night as shadow chancellor Ed Balls went down to defeat by a margin of 422.

In a speech accepting re-election as MP for Witney, Mr Cameron set out his intention to press ahead with 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.

''My aim remains simple - to govern on the basis of governing for everyone in our United Kingdom,'' he said.

He made clear that he was determined not to allow the rising tide of nationalism to lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom, saying: ''I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland.

''In short, I want my party, and I hope a Government I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost - the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government in the coming days.''

And he praised celebrating activists and officials at Conservative Campaign HQ in London for their role in ''the sweetest victory'' for the Tories in a generation.