As results come in for the 2024 General Election senior members of the government are set to lose their seats, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
If this proves to be the case he will be the first sitting Chancellor to lose his seat in political history after the Lib Dems are expected to win his Godalming & Ash constituency.
Other Conservative ‘big beasts’ like Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt have both fallen victim to the Tory wipeout.
The Lib Dems have won Cheltenham which means justice secretary Alex Chalk has lost his seat.
In Ely & East Cambridgeshire, culture secretary Lucy Frazier has lost her seat to the Lib Dems and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan suffered in Chichester, Sussex
Meanwhile other cabinet members have lost their seats to Labour.
This includes Johnny Mercer veteran affairs minister in his Plymouth Moor View constituency.
Labour is on course for a landslide victory that would rival that of Tony Blair’s election win in 1997.
The party are on course to win 410 seats, the Tories just 131 seats, and the Lib Dems 61 seats.
Meanwhile Reform UK are projected to win four seats while the Green Party are expected to win two seats, having already made a gain from Labour in Bristol Central.
More than half the Cabinet forecast to be unseated
Several Cabinet ministers have faced ‘Portillo’ moments – the shock loss of their seats – in the General Election.
A ‘Portillo’ moment is a reference to Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo who lost what had been regarded as a safe Tory seat in Labour’s 1997 landslide.
The exit poll has predicted that Labour will win 410 seats which could rival Tony Blair’s win of 418 seats in 1997.
Here are members of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet who could be ousted or have been already as the results roll in:
Jeremy Hunt has been chancellor, foreign secretary and health secretary since he became MP for South West Surrey in 2005.
After gaining a notional majority of 10,720 in 2019, Mr Hunt has admitted he now faces a “knife-edge” battle to win the race to be MP in the new constituency of Godalming and Ash, where Liberal Democrat councillor Paul Follows is his key challenger.
The Lib Dems will need a swing of 9.7 percentage points in the share of the vote to gain the seat.
Mr Hunt twice tried to become Tory leader and said his referendum vote for the UK to remain in the EU worked against him in 2019 when Boris Johnson got the top job. In 2022, he backed Mr Sunak over Liz Truss.
Mr Sunak appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2022. He holds the title of longest-serving health secretary, a post he held from 2012 to 2018.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has held a series of cabinet positions under four Tory prime ministers – including energy security and net zero secretary, business secretary and home secretary.
He has been ousted as MP for Welwyn Hatfield, where he was voted in in 2005, by Labour challenger Andrew Lewin.
His professional background is in printing and he founded a printing company in 1990.
His notional majority in 2019 was 10,773. Labour will need a swing of 10.4 points to win the seat.
Penny Mordaunt, the House of Commons Leader, has lost to Labour’s Amanda Martin, who has taken the Portsmouth North seat.
Ms Mordaunt had a notional majority of 15,780 in 2019. Labour was in second place.
Ms Mordaunt, who went viral for carrying two heavy swords at the King’s coronation, was hotly tipped to run for the party leadership if she had managed to cling on.
She had two failed bids under her belt, having lost to Ms Truss and then Mr Sunak. She became an MP in 2010 and was made the UK’s first female defence secretary in 2019, but was bumped from the role after 85 days in a reshuffle.
Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor since 2023, became MP for Cheltenham in 2015.
Mr Chalk’s notional majority in 2019 was 1,421. He has been unseated this time around by Liberal Democrat Max Wilkinson.
Mr Chalk spent 14 years as a barrister before he was elected as an MP and specialised in counter-terrorism, homicide and serious fraud cases.
The legal system has faced severe challenges under his watch – with a backlog of court cases, delays due to Covid-19 and industrial action by criminal defence barristers.
Mark Harper has been Transport Secretary since 2022 and became an MP in 2005.
During his time in the transport post, Mr Sunak scrapped the northern leg of HS2. Mr Harper is also known for chairing the Covid Recovery Group, which opposed the December 2020 lockdown and voted against other Covid restrictions.
He could lose his Forest of Dean seat to Labour challenger Matt Bishop. Labour would need a swing of 15.5 points to gain it. Mr Harper had a notional majority of 15,869 in 2019.
Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary since 2022, will struggle to hang on to his seat of Central Devon, which he gained in 2010.
Mr Stride has been House of Commons leader and paymaster general.
He is often deployed to face the media on behalf of his party – and has made more appearances than any of his Cabinet colleagues during the General Election campaign, according to an analysis by The Telegraph.
He recently said he was most proud of having “supported pensioners” during his time at the helm of the DWP. He has overseen the continuation of the triple lock plus commitment to raise the state pension every year in line with whichever is highest out of wage growth, inflation or 2.5%.
Polls predict a close race between Mr Stride and his Labour challenger Ollie Pearson.
Mr Stride holds a notional majority of 17,300 from 2019, with Labour needing a swing of 15.3 points to his seat.
But it is not all bad news though other leading Tory cabinet members that are expected to keep their seats since the exit poll was published include Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick, and Tom Tugendhat.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss also has an 84% chance of keeping her South West Norfolk seat.
Before the exit poll was published an average of all polls completed during the seven days to July 3 put Labour on 39%, the party’s lowest rating since the campaign began, 18 points ahead of the Conservatives on 21%, followed by Reform on 16%, the Lib Dems on 11% and the Greens on 6%.
The Tories are up slightly on the figures for the previous week while Labour are down, with the averages for the seven days to June 26 being Labour 41%, Conservatives 20%, Reform 16%, Lib Dems 11% and Greens 6%.
On May 22, the day Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the General Election, the seven-day averages stood at Labour 45%, Conservatives 23%, Reform 11%, Lib Dems 9% and Greens 6%.
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