Defence secretary Grant Shapps, education secretary Gillian Keegan and leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt have all lost their seatsA record-breaking number of cabinet ministers lost their seats amid the Tory election carnage.
Nine members of Rishi Sunak’s top team were dumped by the voters - beating the previous record of seven.
They included defence secretary Grant Shapps, education secretary Gillian Keegan and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt.
The others thrown on the political scrapheap were culture secretary Lucy Frazer, Welsh secretary David TC Davies, chief whip Simon Hart, science, innovation and technology secretary Michelle Donelan and veterans minister Johnny Mercer.
Speaking after his defeat was confirmed, 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.”
Their defeats will also have repercussions for the Tories as they attempt to recover from Labour’s landslide victory.
Both Mordaunt and Shapps, on the Conservatives’ moderate wing, were tipped to mount leadership challenges if they had survived.
However, their absence from the Commons increases the chances of the party replacing Rishi Sunak - who is set to resign on Friday morning - with a right-winger.
