Liz Truss has lost her seat of South West Norfolk, one of the biggest Conservative losses on a disastrous night for the party. The former prime minister, whose turbulent 45-day period in power has been blamed by many Conservatives for Thursday’s historic defeat, lost her seat by 640 votes to the Labour candidate, Terry Jermy. Truss won a 26,000 majority at the 2019 election, and had not been expected to come under serious pressure at this election. However, activists on the ground said they had seen relatively little of her during the campaign, despite the fact she has been the area’s MP for 14 years. The result in South West Norfolk is likely to become an emblem of what looks set to be the Tories’ worst-ever election result. With 638 out of 650 seats counted, the party had won 118 seats and was on course to win fewer than it did even in 1997. Truss did not give a concession speech after losing her seat. But in an interview with the BBC, she said: “I think the issue we faced as Conservatives is we haven’t delivered sufficiently on the policies people want. And 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.”
Asked whether she accepted some blame for the fate of her party on Thursday night, she said: “During our 14 years in power, unfortunately, we did not do enough to take on the legacy. “We’ve 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 a situation we are now.” Just two years ago Truss was foreign secretary in Boris Johnson’s government, with the Tories just six points behind in the polls. Within the subsequent four months, she became prime minister, announced a tax-cutting “mini budget”, watched the pound collapse and resigned as prime minister. In the meantime, the Conservative poll deficit grew to 27 points. The after-shocks of those chaotic weeks are still being felt, with many Tories blaming her for the party losing its reputation for managing the economy well. One Conservative source said: “We lost our reputation for competence, and once you’ve lost that it’s hard to claw your way back.” However, Truss remained popular with some of her parliamentary colleagues until the end. James Cleverly, the outgoing home secretary, said: “She was a great parliamentarian. However, of course, her most recent time has been marked by her short time as prime minister. “She was very high profile, and of course, that sometimes has an effect and impact on electoral results like this.” He added: “She was my boss as foreign secretary. I will always have a huge degree of affection for Liz and it is really sad to hear the result that I heard just there.”