Generally the place was packed with well over a hundred supporters, many staffers, Sayeeda Warsi and 2 MPs - the other one was Stephen Phillips, who was almost never off the phone for 4 hours. All of us were on the phones, trying to persuade voters to get out and vote as the clock counted down to 10 o'clock. At around 8pm Boris came in and thanked everyone personally and gave a short 3 minute speech before heading off again on the campaign trail. I phoned a multitude of areas including several West London suburbs, Worcester Park and Chingford but nowhere was left out.
I arrived with boxloads of chocolates [Heroes and Celebrations were a big hit], jelly babies and lots of jaffa cakes from the Tesco in Westminster, but then at around 9pm I headed out and bought some Lockets, a couple of crates of beers and a couple of bottles of wine to ease the throats of the volunteers who never ceased working until the end.
Huge admiration must go out to the staff at CCHQ who worked tirelessly, with real discipline and total focus - even though many were out on their feet. Sayeeda was there throughout until she had to go off to do the live TV post election debate.
You can never tell with elections and turnout was clearly down with the rainy day but in my view Boris wins. I spoke to several Labour voters throughout the day who simply would not back Ken. There was also a lot of support for Boris's plans, the fact that he is clearly pro businesses, jobs, and cycling, and most importantly his way of telling it like it is.
