Election 2024: Education winners and losers

Two former education secretaries and two former skills ministers were booted out of parliament in yesterday’s general election.

The Liberal Democrats defeated Gillian Keegan in her Chichester constituency by 12,146 votes, overturning a 21,000 majority.

Michelle Donelan, who famously served less than two days as education secretary, was also ousted by the Lib Dems.

Luke Hall and Andrea Jenkyns both served brief stints in the skills minister post under various prime ministers in the last few years.

Jenkyns, best known for raising her middle finger at protesters outside Downing Street on the day she was appointed at DfE, was defeated by Labour in her Leeds South West and Morley constituency.

Hall, who was only made skills minister in March this year, was defeated by the Liberal Democrats in his Thornbury and Yate constituency, overturning a 12,369 majority.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson was the first MP to be elected last night. She does not officially become the education secretary until appointed by the prime minister, expected later today.

At the declaration in her Houghton and Sunderland South constituency, Phillipson said a Labour government would be “determined to build a better Britain where background is no barrier, no matter who your parents are or where you were born.”

Shadow skills minister Seema Malhotra and Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson were both re-elected.

Conservative Peter Aldous, who championed the sector as chair of the all party parliamentary group (APPG) for further education and lifelong learning, lost to Labour.

And Jonathan Gullis, co-chair of the APPG on apprenticeships, lost to Labour in Stoke-on-Trent North.