Justice secretary Alex Chalk has lost his Cheltenham seat as he became the first cabinet minister of election night to be defeated.
The Conservative had been expected to struggle to defend a narrow majority in a seat he first won in 2015.
He lost by a majority of more than 7,000 to Liberal Democrat candidate Max Wilkinson.
Chalk told Channel Four: ‘It is really tough, it’s a very bleak result but I do hope and expect that some of our talented colleagues will remain to rebuild and re-earn the trust of the British people and I think they can do that.’
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland was the first lawyer casualty of the general election as he lost his South Swindon seat.
Buckland, who held the justice brief from 2019 to 2021, lost to Labour’s Heidi Alexander by a majority of 9,606 in one of the highest-profile early defeats for the Conservatives.
The Conservative vote in South Swindon was down by 25% as his majority of more than 6,600 was wiped out.
Speaking to Sky News, Buckland said: ‘That’s politics. I have lost before. I have won four elections on the trot and I am used to what defeat looks like. But my political life is not over.’
Buckland will have legal work to fall back on: he is head of policy and senior counsel for London firm Payne Hicks Beach.
Former family law solicitor Siobhan Baillie was another Conservative to lose her seat to Labour, as her vote share in Stroud fell by 25%.
In Darlington, solicitor Peter Gibson lost for the Conservatives to Labour by a majority of just over 2,000.
Former Freshfields associate Sam Joynson was unable to hold onto Eastleigh for the Conservatives. The seat had been won by the Conservatives in 2019 with a majority of 15,607 but was taken by the Liberal Democrats this time by around 1,500 votes.
John Stevenson, a solicitor and partner with Carlisle firm Bendles, had been Conservative MP for the town since 2010 but lost to Labour by more than 7,000 votes.
Solicitor Simon Clarke, who was also the government’s levelling up secretary, lost his Middlesbrough South seat to Labour which he had held since 2017.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer, a barrister and former justice minister, lost her Ely & East Cambridgeshire seat to the Liberal Democrats.
But a new swathe of lawyers will enter parliament after winning seats at this election.
Kevin Bonavia, a civil litigation solicitor with east London firm Edwards Duthie Shamash, won key bellwether Stevenage for Labour with a majority of more than 6,500.
Tony Vaughan, a barrister for 17 years, pulled off a surprise victory in Folkstone & Hythe, where the incumbent MP Damien Collins had a majority of more than 21,000. Vaughan won with a majority of 3,729.
Barrister Catherine Atkinson won the Derby North seat for Labour from the Conservatives with 18,619 votes.
In Amber Valley, the Conservatives were defending a majority of almost 17,000 but the seat was taken for Labour by former Crown prosecutor Linsey Farnsworth.
Child protection barrister Jake Richards, unseated Conservative Alexander Stafford in Rother Valley with a 14% majority.
Abtisam Mohamed, a solicitor who founded her own practice in 2014, took Sheffield Central with 16,569 votes ahead of the second-placed Green Party candidate.
