In a very tough night for the Conservative Party, former NPA chief policy adviser Charlie Dewhirst has been elected as a Conservative MP in the Bridlington and the Wolds constituency.
Mr Dewhirst, who is part of a well-known pig farming family in Yorkshire, will be one of just 121 Conservative MPs in the new parliament, after huge losses in a night that saw Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party surge to power, after 14 years in opposition, as Reform UK took big chunks out of the Tory vote.
Mr Dewhirst served as a councillor in his local consituency before winning the nomination for the seat. He stepped down from his NPA role in June, after three-and-a-half years with the association, to focus on his campaign.
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson congratulated Mr Dewhirst on his election. “I am sure he will be an excellent representative for a strong pig farming constituency, and it will be good to have another friendly face in parliament,” she said.
A number of familiar Conservative faces have lost their seats, including the most recent farming minister Sir Mark Spencer, in Sherwood Forest, although Steve Barclay, Defra secretary until the election, retained his seat in North-east Cambridgeshire, as did junior Defra minister Robbie Moore.
Former prime minister and Defra secretary Liz Truss was the Conservatives’ highest-profile casualty of the night, while former Defra ministers Therese Coffey, Theresa Villiers, Ranil Jayawardena and Victoria Prentis were all unseated.
Well-known former Defra secretaries George Eustice and Michael Gove both stood down before the election.
Steve Reed, shadow Defra secretary before the election, and Daniel Zeichner, shadow farming minister, were both elected and are expected to take up their respective roles government.