Two out of three health ministers lose their seats as UK faces hung Parliament

The minister for general practice, David Mowat, is one of two Tory health ministers who has lost their MP seats overnight, as the UK is this morning looking at a hung Parliament.

As Prime Minister Theresa May’s election gamble failed to pay off, with Tories losing at least 12 MPs and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour gaining 30, Mr Mowat lost his Warrington South seat to Labour candidate Faisal Rashid.

And Mr Mowat – the minister who has been in charge of rolling out the GP Forward View – was not the only one of the former Government’s health team to be ousted by the electorate, as public health lead Nicola Blackwood lost her Oxford West and Abingdon seat to Liberal Democrat Layla Moran.

Ms Blackwood, the minister in charge of the criticised childhood obesity strategy, and who has looked at whether Capita should be paying practices compensation for its support services disruption, lost out by a narrow 800 votes.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has held onto his South West Surrey seat, albeit with a chunk taken out of his majority by GP Louise Irvine who came second.

Former Tory Government health minister Ben Gummer also failed to be re-elected as the MP for Ipswich, losing to Labour’s Sandy Martin, while former Coalition Government health minister Jane Ellison’s Battersea constituency was one of the first key Conervative losses when it was declared for Labour’s Marsha de Cordova at around 1am.

It is widely expected that Prime Minister will attempt to form a minority Government with the backing of Northern Ireland’s DUP.

Most GP leaders have yet to react to the election result but former RCGP chair and London GP Professor Clare Gerada told Pulse she feared the situation of a hung Parliament would cause difficulties for the UK in negotiating its exit from the EU.

She said: ‘I think the problem is Brexit. I think we need leaders who put the country ahead of party and of their ego.’

Adding that UK politics are now ‘in a mess’, she said: ‘I think Labour should form the Government and have a unity across, policy by policy.’