Tories lose seats held by four previous prime ministers

The Conservatives lost five seats held by four former prime ministers in a historically bad showing for the party in a general election.

In a night of multiple “Portillo moments”, they lost constituencies previously held by David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to the Liberal Democrats and Labour. Of the seats of the five Tory premiers since 2010, only one is still in Conservative hands – Rishi Sunak’s.

Opponents said the defeats show the public blamed Tory leaders for the mistakes made over the past 14 years.

A Lib Dem source said: “This is a historic result for the Liberal Democrats. The former seats of three Conservative prime ministers – Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Theresa May – will now go gold. This is a record night for the Liberal Democrats.”

Mr Cameron – now Lord Cameron – represented Witney in Oxfordshire for the Tories from 2001 to 2016. Previously considered a safe seat, with a 25,000 majority, it fell to the Lib Dems with a majority of more than 4,000.

Mrs May stepped down as an MP for Maidenhead before the election with a majority of nearly 19,000. This was overturned on Thursday by a Lib Dem majority of almost 3,000.

Mr Johnson represented two seats in Parliament: Henley-on-Thames and Uxbridge. The first was snatched by the Lib Dems and the second by Labour.

Ms Truss stood again in her South West Norfolk seat, which was previously one of the safest in the country. On Friday morning she narrowly lost it to the Labour candidate by 630 votes.

Elsewhere, Finchley and Golders Green, most of which was represented by Margaret Thatcher from 1959 to 1992, went from Tory to Labour. It had previously turned Labour in 1997 before returning to the Conservatives in 2010.

John Major’s former Huntingdon seat remained Conservative.