London Defense Secretary Grant Shapps and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk early on Friday became the first senior Conservative leaders in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's cabinet to lose their seats in the UK general election. .
The poll result so far predicts a disastrous night for the Conservative Party, predicting its lowest total number of seats yet and ending Sunak's tenure.
Shapps lost to Labor in Welwyn Hatfield, while Chalk was defeated in Cheltenham by Liberal Democrat candidate Max Wilkinson, The Independent newspaper reported.
In his concession speech, Shapps attacked the Tory "leniency" that appears to have cost them the election, saying voters do not support divided parties.
While he was a key figure in the Conservative party for decades, having been appointed vice-president in 2005, it was after the 2019 election victory that Shapps took on a higher profile in government.
Shapps, 55, has held five cabinet positions since then: from Transport Secretary and Home Secretary to Energy Security Secretary, Business Secretary and, most recently, Defense Secretary.
After a brief Conservative leadership bid in 2022, Shapps became a major backer of Liz Truss' rival Sunak in that contest.
Shapps oversaw the transport department during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting airport chaos when travel resumed, facing criticism for failing to engage with unions over strikes.
Shapps, who lost to Labor in Welwyn Hatfield, said it was “clear tonight that Britain will have a new government in the morning”.
"What is very clear to me tonight is that it is not so much that Labor won this election, but that the Conservatives lost it," he added.
“Door after door, voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private and then come together in public.”
"Instead, we have tested the patience of traditional Conservative voters, prone to creating an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions that have become increasingly entrenched," he said.
"Today, voters have simply said, 'If you can't agree with each other, we can't agree to vote for you.'"
"We forget a fundamental rule of politics: that people do not vote for divided parties."
According to the exit poll, which is usually quite close to the final count, Labor could win up to 410 seats, comfortably crossing the halfway mark of 326 and achieving a 170-seat majority with the incumbent Conservatives led by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. to only 131 seats.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, 51, narrowly lost in her now former Portsmouth North constituency.
Labour's Amanda Martin, traditionally a frontrunner, won with 14,495 votes to Mordaunt's 13,715, a swing of 18 per cent, the BBC reported.
Her defeat will be a blow to moderate conservatives who hope to wrest control of the party from its populist wing, according to media reports.
The poll result so far predicts a disastrous night for the Conservative Party, predicting its lowest total number of seats yet and ending Sunak's tenure.
Shapps lost to Labor in Welwyn Hatfield, while Chalk was defeated in Cheltenham by Liberal Democrat candidate Max Wilkinson, The Independent newspaper reported.
In his concession speech, Shapps attacked the Tory "leniency" that appears to have cost them the election, saying voters do not support divided parties.
While he was a key figure in the Conservative party for decades, having been appointed vice-president in 2005, it was after the 2019 election victory that Shapps took on a higher profile in government.
Shapps, 55, has held five cabinet positions since then: from Transport Secretary and Home Secretary to Energy Security Secretary, Business Secretary and, most recently, Defense Secretary.
After a brief Conservative leadership bid in 2022, Shapps became a major backer of Liz Truss' rival Sunak in that contest.
Shapps oversaw the transport department during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting airport chaos when travel resumed, facing criticism for failing to engage with unions over strikes.
Shapps, who lost to Labor in Welwyn Hatfield, said it was “clear tonight that Britain will have a new government in the morning”.
"What is very clear to me tonight is that it is not so much that Labor won this election, but that the Conservatives lost it," he added.
“Door after door, voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private and then come together in public.”
"Instead, we have tested the patience of traditional Conservative voters, prone to creating an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions that have become increasingly entrenched," he said.
"Today, voters have simply said, 'If you can't agree with each other, we can't agree to vote for you.'"
"We forget a fundamental rule of politics: that people do not vote for divided parties."
According to the exit poll, which is usually quite close to the final count, Labor could win up to 410 seats, comfortably crossing the halfway mark of 326 and achieving a 170-seat majority with the incumbent Conservatives led by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. to only 131 seats.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, 51, narrowly lost in her now former Portsmouth North constituency.
Labour's Amanda Martin, traditionally a frontrunner, won with 14,495 votes to Mordaunt's 13,715, a swing of 18 per cent, the BBC reported.
Her defeat will be a blow to moderate conservatives who hope to wrest control of the party from its populist wing, according to media reports.
