General election 2017: The big name MPs who lost their seats

Theresa May called this general election in the hopes of increasing the Tory majority in government. However, her party dramatically underperformed and ceded a number of seats to a resurgent Labour Party on a night that also saw a number of high-profile MPs from other parties lose their seats.

Nick Clegg (Lib Dem)

One of the biggest casualties of the night was undoubtedly former Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, whose lost Sheffield Hallam consto Labour's Jared O'Mara.

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Clegg, who held the seat since 2005, was visibly upset as the results were read out, telling voters: "In politics you live by the sword and you die by the sword.

"In my time in parliament, I have never shirked from political battles. I have never retreated from the political battlefield. I have always sought to stand by the liberal values I believe in."

Angus Robertson (SNP)

North of the border, the Scottish National Party had a turbulent night as it looked to retain the 56 seats it won in 2015. It lost 19 seats, including Moray, the seat of deputy leader Angus Robertson. Robertson, who is also the leader of the party in the Commons, was defeated by Conservative candidate Douglas Ross by a 14 per cent swing.

Moray is a seat with typically very strong pro-Brexit and anti-independence voting tendencies, which The Guardian suggests may have been a key factor in Robertson's defeat.

Alex Salmond (SNP)

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond being ousted by a Conservative surge was perhaps a greater shock. His seat of Gordon, in Aberdeenshire, fell to Tory Colin Clarke by 2,607 votes.

However, Salmond insisted we had "not seen the last of my bonnets and me".

He said: "The SNP have lost many fine parliamentarians this evening and that's a grievous blow to the SNP. But overall, the result in Scotland shows the SNP will have won a majority of the seats in this country and the majority of the vote, something which I suspect the prime minister would like to be able to claim in the early hours of this morning but is not able to do so."

Gavin Barwell (Conservative)

Gavin Barwell, the author of 2016's How To Win A Marginal Seat, lost Croydon Central, which he had held since 2010, to Labour's Sarah Jones, who overturned his 2015 majority of 165 to win by 5,652 votes.

Back in office

However, this topsy-turvy election was not without a few comeback stories, and a number of previously-ousted MPs managed to reclaim their old seats across the country.

Vince Cable (Lib Dem)

Vince Cable returns to the Commons following a victory in his Twickenham constituency against the Tories. The former secretary of state for business, innovation and skills strolled to victory with a large margin, two years after his shock defeat.

Zac Goldsmith (Conservative)

In neighbouring Richmond Park, former London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith regained his seat from Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney by 45 votes. He lost the seat last year, after triggering a by-election by leaving the Conservatives to run as an independent in protest to the government's decision to allow a third runway to be built at Heathrow.

Jo Swinson (Lib Dem)

Jo Swinson, of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, regained her seat in East Dunbartonshire from John Nicholson, who was part of the SNP surge at the 2015 general election. She had originally held the seat from 2005 to 2015.

Esther McVey (Conservative)

Finally, Esther McVey was declared winner in Tatton in Cheshire, taking the place of former chancellor George Osborne, who left politics to edit the London Evening Standard. McVey had previously represented the Wirral West constituency in parliament, but was ousted in 2015 by Labour's Margaret Greenwood.