Portillo moments: Tory Cabinet ministers likely to lose their seats

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Several Cabinet ministers are facing potential “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.Voter intention surveys have suggested a Labour lead of around 20 points, while massive multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) studies, which forecast constituency level results, have consistently indicated a Labour landslide.Here are members of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet who could be ousted when 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 could be ousted as MP for Welwyn Hatfield, where he was voted in in 2005, by Labour challenger Andrew Lewin.His