From Jacob Rees-Mogg to Jonathan Ashworth: ousted MPs recall their best moments | General Election 2024

After last week’s general election, which re-elected Keir Starmer as prime minister in a landslide victory for Labour, parliament looks like a very different place.

The country elected more new MPs than current MPs on Thursday, with 335 elected candidates taking their seats in the House of Commons for the first time. And some of the most familiar faces from the previous parliament lost their seats, with a record number of government members defeated.

But for most politicians, even those who have held high office, it is the work they did for their constituents that they are most remembered for.

Although Jacob Rees-Mogg has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Business and played a leading role during Brexit, he says it is constituency work that he enjoys most.

The former North East Somerset MP lost his seat to Labour. “What I am most proud of, working with a cross-party group of MPs, is that we successfully campaigned for a very expensive drug, Brineura, to be approved by Nice to treat Batten disease,” he said.

“There is a boy alive today in north-east Somerset who could live normally. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t have survived this long. Children with Batten disease rarely survive beyond their teens. It’s the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

Grant Shapps was first elected to Parliament in 2005, almost 20 years ago, and first became a minister under David Cameron in 2010. Over the years he has served as Transport Secretary, Business Secretary, Defence Secretary and – very briefly under Liz Truss – Home Secretary.

His seat of Welwyn Hatfield was won by Labour in the general election. Looking back on his parliamentary career, he says he has achieved two things that stand out. “Two things, at each end of my ministerial career,” he said. “About 12 years ago, I got a major upgrade to the Streetlink system by introducing it as an app. That enabled citizens to provide help and assistance to people who were sleeping rough. It helped thousands of people get off the streets and even saved lives along the way.”

He added: “Over the last six months, I have secured 2.5% of GDP for defense. These additional tens of billions for our national defense are essential in a more dangerous world. It means our armed forces will get the equipment they need and our country will be better protected from people like Putin in the future.”

“That is of course at risk if Labour does not commit quickly to the timetable for delivering the extra £75 billion. But as an achievement, I think defending the kingdom better is the most important thing I have ever done… so far.”

Last Thursday, Labour won 36 seats over the Scottish National Party (SNP). Alison Thewliss, the SNP’s home affairs spokeswoman, represented Glasgow Central, which was abolished following constituency changes.

Last week she stood in Glasgow North but was defeated by Labour, who won the seat. “The greatest achievements of the last nine years have been those quiet victories for my constituents – the cases that don’t end up in the press but change lives,” she said.

“People who have had money recovered from DWP and HMRC, families who have been brought to safety and reunited despite the Home Office’s efforts to stop them. I have campaigned on many campaigns and I am proud to have made many speeches, but it is the work for my constituents that I will remember most.”

Hannah Bardell, the SNP’s digital, culture, media and sport spokesperson, also lost her Livingston seat to Labour. “There are a few constituency issues to sort out,” she said, reflecting on her greatest achievements, including Lola Ilesanmi, who still sends her a birthday card every year.

“She and her entire family were threatened with deportation after domestic violence because her husband manipulated her to get her visa,” she said. “The husband wanted his little girl to go back to Nigeria to be cut, to be subjected to FGM, and the Ministry of Interior was trying to deport her and her entire family. We managed to intervene to prevent that from happening.”

Another proud moment, she said, was helping to set up the Parliament’s women’s football team. A video of her playing football with a group of female MPs went viral after she played football in the chamber with a group of female MPs. “It showed Parliament in a different light,” she said. “It showed women MPs doing something fun, regardless of party.”

Other MPs involved in the video wrote to the Speaker of the House to apologize, but “I didn’t do it because I didn’t feel like I had anything to apologize for,” she added.

One of the biggest shocks on Thursday night came in Leicester South, where Jonathan Ashworth, who was expected to feature prominently in Keir Starmer’s new cabinet, lost his seat to the pro-Gaza Shockat Adam Independent Party.

Ashworth said there were “three things” he was most proud of during his time in parliament: “Everything I did for the children of alcoholics; working in the national interest during the pandemic; and playing my part in securing a landslide victory for Labour.”

Ashworth highlighted a powerful speech in the House of Commons in which he told parliament that his father had missed his wedding because he “felt he would embarrass me by being there” and that a few months later his father had died and he had to fly to Thailand to arrange a funeral.

“I will work with the government to put in place a proper strategy to support children of alcoholics, on a cross-party basis,” he told the House, “because quite simply, 2 million children are suffering, let’s send them a message that they no longer have to suffer in silence.”