Five stunning recent political betting shocks

1 Conservatives win a majority in 2015 UK general election

What was meant to happen?
With the Conservatives and Labour neck and neck in the polls, neither party was expected to get a majority.

What were the odds?
A hung parliament was a 1-12 chance, with Conservatives 12-1 and Labour 80-1 to be able to form a government alone.

What did happen?
The Conservatives outperformed expectations by a huge margin, winning 330 seats to claim a working majority of 12 seats.

2 Jeremy Corbyn wins 2015 Labour leadership election

What was meant to happen?
Ed Miliband resigned as Labour leader in the wake of the 2015 election result. Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper were expected to fight it out to succeed him. Liz Kendall was third in the market with left-winger Jeremy Corbyn scraping together just enough nominations to stand with the help of colleagues who thought he should be in the race "to broaden the debate".

What were the odds?
Corbyn started out as a 100-1 shot but was soon slashed to favouritism when an early poll of members gave him a 20-point lead.

What did happen?
The veteran bolted up in the first ballot, claiming 59.5 per cent of the vote. Burnham was runner-up with just 19 per cent.

3 Leave wins UK's 2016 EU referendum

What was meant to happen?
The Remain campaign, for the UK to stay members of the EU was widely expected to be successful, despite Leave being ahead in the occasional opinion poll.

What were the odds?
The day before the vote, Remain was 1-4 favourite, with Leave a 3-1 chance.

What did happen?
Leave won 51.9 per cent to 48.1.

4 Donald Trump wins 2016 US presidential election

What was meant to happen?
The property tycoon was dismissed as a novelty candidate at first. The host of TV's The Apprentice was a 200-1 shot when he announced he was running. Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, was widely seen as the expected successor to Barack Obama.

What were the odds?
Even on the morning of the election, UK bookmakers made Clinton a 2-9 chance, with Trump still freely available at 7-2 and 9-2 in places.

What did happen?
Trump lost the popular vote by 2.86 million votes, but won by 77 in the all-important electoral college and ended up in the White House.

5 Conservatives fail to gain a majority in 2017 UK general election

What was meant to happen?
With a working majority of only 17 to play with, Prime Minister Theresa May called an early election in a bid to broaden the Conservatives' parliamentary advantage.

What were the odds?
The Conservatives were 1-6 - and as short as 1-8 - to achieve another overall majority, with a hung parliament offered at 7-1.

What did happen?
Not only did Mrs May fail to extend her majority, she lost it entirely, falling eight short of a majority. The Conservatives were able to stay in power by working out a deal with the DUP.

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