Former prime minister Liz Truss loses seat to Labour

Liz Truss has lost her seat to Labour in one of the biggest shocks of election night.

The former prime minister, who spent just 44 days in the top job, reflected on her party’s performance and claimed the Conservatives had not “delivered sufficiently on the policies people want”.

She added: “That means keeping taxes low, but also particularly on reducing immigration, and I think that’s been a crucial issue here in South West Norfolk, that was the number one issue that people raised on the doorstep with me.”

Asked whether she accepts some responsibility for that, Ms Truss said: “I was part of that. That’s absolutely true.

“But, during our 14 years in power, unfortunately we did not do enough to take on the legacy we’d been left, in particular things like the Human Rights Act that made it very difficult for us to deport illegal immigrants.

“And that is one of the reasons I think we’ve ended up in the situation we are now.”

Terry Jermy has become the MP for South West Norfolk with 11,847 votes, more than Ms Truss’s 11,217.

He overturned the 26,195 majority which the Tories secured in 2019 – a notional 27.85% swing to Labour.

The result means Rishi Sunak is the only prime minister from the last 14 years whose seat remains blue, after Labour took Uxbridge and South Ruislip and the Liberal Democrats took Witney, Maidenhead, and Henley and Thame.

After she lost her seat, Ms Truss hugged allies and left the counting hall in King’s Lynn without making a speech.

The ex-prime minister was late to the declaration, with the crowd slow-clapping after seven other candidates had been on the stage for several minutes without her.