Vets win seats as election landslide sweeps Labour to power

The veterinary sector is set to have a louder voice in Parliament after two of its members won seats at yesterday’s General Election.

Liberal Democrat Danny Chambers was one of the big winners of the night as he scored a resounding victory in the Winchester constituency.

And he’ll be joined in the new House of Commons by Conservative Neil Hudson, after he won the Epping Forest seat in Essex.

Majority

On a night that saw Labour sweep to power with a landslide victory, Winchester was among dozens of Liberal Democrat gains as Dr Chambers – an existing elected RCVS councillor – won a majority of almost 14,000 over the Conservatives.

There was better news for the Tories further east, though, as Dr Hudson retained the seat vacated by the former Commons deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing, with a majority of more than 5,000.

He previously served as MP for Penrith and the Border in Cumbria, which was among the seats abolished through boundary changes since the last election in 2019.

RCVS president Sue Paterson congratulated both MPs on their wins at today’s Royal College Day. She said having two veterinary voices in the House of Commons “can only be a great thing for our profession”.

Narrow loss

But another Conservative, the former BVA Scottish branch president Kathleen Robertson, narrowly lost out to the SNP in Moray West.

The biggest upset saw former prime minister Liz Truss lose her South West Norfolk constituency to Labour candidate Terry Jermy.

Ms Truss is also one of three former Defra secretaries defeated overnight, as her one-time deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey also lost to Labour in Suffolk Coastal while the man she appointed to the Defra brief, Ranil Jayawardena, was beaten by the Liberal Democrats in North East Hampshire.

Elsewhere, both the current Defra secretary, Steve Barclay, and his Labour shadow Steve Reed were returned to Westminster for the North East Cambridgeshire and Streatham and Croydon North seats respectively.