Key Political Figures Suffer Defeat in a Landmark Conservative Election Loss
Liz Truss, Grant Shapps, and Penny Mordaunt are among a number of senior Tories who lost their seats as Labour was handed a landslide victory.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak and a number of his potential replacements, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, managed to survive the Tory bloodbath.
With 649 out of 650 seats declared, Labour has won a commanding majority with 412 seats, while the Conservatives are down to only 121 seats.
It’s 244 less than what the Tories won in 2019 and 225 down from the number of Tory seats before Parliament was dissolved in May.
Many of the right-wing votes were split by Reform UK, which only won five seats but came second in almost 100 constituencies. Some seats were won by razor-thin margins, including London’s Hendon where Labour won by just 15 votes.
Casualties
The most notable casualty in this election has been former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who lost her South West Norfolk constituency to Labour by just 630 votes, while over a third of votes went to Reform UK and Tory-allied independent candidate James Bagge.
Related Stories
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, an ally of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, lost the new North East Somerset and Hanham constituency to Labour’s Dan Norris.
Mr. Shapps, the defence secretary, and Ms. Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, both of whom have been tipped as potential contenders for Tory leadership, have also lost their seats to Labour, narrowing the battlefield to replace Mr. Sunak.
Others lost to Labour include veterans minister Johnny Mercer, Attorney General Victoria Prentis, Tory deputy leader Jonathan Gullis, former Business Secretary Dame Thérèse Coffey, and former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan, science secretary Michelle Donelan, justice secretary Alex Chalk, culture secretary Lucy Frazer, and illegal immigration minister Michael Tomlinson, lost their seats to the Liberal Democrats.
In Wales, the Conservatives suffered a wipeout, losing all 14 seats that it had won in 2019, including chief whip Simon Hart’s defeat by Plaid Cymru and Welsh secretary David TC Davies’s defeat by Labour.
Former transport secretary Mark Harper and former Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, who have been vocal opponents of government measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, both lost their seats, with Mr. Harper losing by just 278 votes.
Miriam Cates, a 2019 intake and a prominent figure on the Tory right, also didn’t survive the election.
Survivors
Besides Mr. Sunak, Mr. Hunt managed to hold on to his Godalming and Ash seat, defeating Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Follows with a narrow majority of 891 votes.
The former chancellor previously said he risked facing a “Portillo moment,” a phrase that describes the unexpected defeat of former Conservative defence secretary Michael Portillo in 1997.
Former Minister without Portfolio, who was also projected to face his “Portillo moment,” clung to his Basildon and Billericay constituency by 20 votes.
Former business and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch held her North West Essex seat by a majority of 2610 votes, while former Minister without Portfolio Esther McVey and former policing minister Chris Philp also survived with narrow majorities.
Some former ministers secured more comfortable wins including Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden; former home secretaries James Cleverly, Dame Priti Patel, and Ms. Braverman; former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, former health secretary Victoria Atkins, former education secretary Kit Malthouse, former energy secretary Claire Coutinho, former security minister Tom Tugendhat, and former Europe minister Nusrat Ghani.
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith also held onto his seat, along with Mark Francois, chair of the European Research Group, and Danny Kruger, who co-chairs the New Conservatives group with Ms. Cates.
