Grant Shapps was an MP for 19 years.Grant Shapps has become the latest Tory cabinet minister to lose their seat as the party’s night goes from bad to worse.
The defence secretary was booted out in Welwyn Hatfield, the seat he has represented since 2005.
His defeat is further confirmation that the Conservatives are suffering their worst ever election result.
Shapps was re-elected in 2019 by 10,995, but his support collapsed as Labour’s Andrew Lewin won the seat by 3,000 votes.
He is the second cabinet minister of the night to lose their seat, following justice secretary Alex Chalk’s defeat to the Lib Dems in Cheltenham.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan is also expected to lose her seat to the Lib Dems in Chichester, while Labour expect to dump Commons leader Penny Mordaunt in Portsmouth North.
Shapps said: “What is crystal clear to me is that it’s not so much that Labour won this election, but rather that the Conservatives have lost it.
“On door after door, voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private and then be united in public.
“Instead, we’ve tried the patience of traditional Conservative voters with a propensity to create an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions, which have become increasingly indulgent and entrenched.
“Today, voters have simply said ’if you can’t agree with each other, then we can’t agree to vote for you’.”
