Former prime minister Liz Truss has lost her seat in Labour’s landslide election victory, as the Conservatives suffer a historic election defeat. She lost her South West Norfolk constituency to Labour by 630 votes, having previously held a huge 24,180 majority.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg are among senior other senior Tories to have lost their seats. Ms Mordaunt, who was tipped as a future Tory leadership contender, saw her majority of more than 15,000 overturned in Portsmouth North.
Mr Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, lost in North East Somerset and Hanham, with Labour overturning his 16,000 majority. He told the BBC he wouldn't “blame anybody other than myself” and that it had been “a very bad night for the Conservatives”.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and Michelle Donelan are among a clutch of cabinet ministers to lose their seats. But Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who had been seen as vulnerable in his Godalming and Ash constituency, managed to hold on with slender 891 majority.
‘Sobering verdict'
The Conservatives are heading for a historic loss in terms of seats, on the back of a dramatic 20 point decline in support. The party lost a string of seats in southern England to the Liberal Democrats, who have won over 60 seats and are set for their best result in a century.
They have also seen their vote squeezed by Nigel Farage's Reform UK, which has won 14% of the vote.
Unlike the last election in 2019, when as the Brexit Party it stood aside in more than 300 Tory-held seats, Reform's decision to field candidates across Britain contributed to heavy Tory losses, particularly in Brexit-voting areas.
Conceding the election after he was re-elected in Richmond and Northallerton, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the results a “sobering verdict” for his party. Speaking after losing her seat, Ms Mordaunt said her party had “taken a battering because it failed to honour the trust that people had placed in it”.
She warned against “talking to an ever smaller slice of ourselves,” adding, “if we want again to be the natural party of government, then our values must be the people's”. In other high profile Tory losses:
- Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer lost to Labour in Plymouth Moor View
- Education Secretary Gillian Keegan lost to the Liberal Democrats in Chichester, a West Sussex seat the Tories have held for a century
- Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer lost Ely and East Cambridgeshire, also to the Liberal Democrats
- Chief Whip Simon Hart – in charge of party discipline – lost to Plaid Cymru in Caerfyrddin, as the Tories lost all their seats in Wales
Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland, who also lost his seat, told the BBC his party faced “electoral Armageddon”. He said too many Conservatives had focused on “personal agendas and jockeying for position” instead of “concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do”.
“I've watched colleagues strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds, and say stupid things they have no evidence for, instead of concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do,” the former justice secretary said.
Asked whether he was referring to former home secretary Suella Braverman, who days before polls opened published an article in the Daily Telegraph strongly criticising the government, he said: “Yes, and I'm afraid that's not an isolated example.”
“I'm fed up of personal agendas and jockeying for position. The truth is now with the Conservatives facing electoral Armageddon, it's going to be like a group of bald men arguing over a comb. Sir Robert said for the party to move further to the right would be a “disastrous mistake” that “would send us into the abyss”.
Speaking earlier, before his defeat, Sir Jacob said it was “clearly a terrible night” for his party, that had come to take its “core vote for granted”.
“We need to win voters at every single election. If you take your base for granted… your voters will look to other parties.” He thought the party had made a mistake by ousting Boris Johnson, who led it to victory in the 2019 election but was forced to step down as prime minister in 2022 following a series of scandals.
Former cabinet office minister Steve Baker, who BBC projections gave less than a 1% chance of holding onto his seat, said his party was having an “incredibly difficult night”. He said Rishi Sunak had a “brilliant mind” but acknowledged he had made mistakes during the campaign, including the decision to leave D-Day commemorations early.
— CutC by bbc.com
