Defeated candidates face up to a life with shattered dreams

WHEN they finally wake up today, exhausted after a relentless month on the campaign trail, hundreds of defeated candidates will be contemplating a very different life after the election.

Some will never have expected to win, others will have harboured false hopes of a life at Westminster. But dozens of MPs defending their seats will have fought for their lives until the close of polls yesterday and waited agonisingly as the ballot papers were stacked up, only to have their dreams shattered by the verdict.

In one night, a career as an MP spanning years will be brought to a shuddering end. By the time they will have made it to bed in the early hours – or even mid-morning after drowning their sorrows – there will have been precious little to raise the spirits.

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For those who find themselves cast aside as an MP having lost an election it can be a shattering experience. Just ask Chris Leslie, a Government Minister under Tony Blair who was suddenly dumped on the political scrapheap five years ago when he lost his Shipley seat.

He said: "You worry about your family and friends, the disappointment for them, and you worry about your team.

"Whatever party you're from you'll have your supporters who will be disappointed and you're hoping they don't feel too bad about it..

"Hundreds of candidates who will have secretly hoped they were able to win will have their hopes dashed."

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Keighley-born Mr Leslie was only 25 when he won the Shipley seat for Labour in 1997, becoming the youngest MP in the House of Commons at the time. He was a junior Minister before he was 30 and became Constitutional Affairs Minister in Labour's second term in office.

But in 2005 he was one of those Labour MPs who lost their seats as the Tories finally showed signs of a revival, Philip Davies beating him by just 422 votes.

Mr Leslie added: "If you're a candidate who has invested a phenomenal amount of time and emotional energy trying to win support it can feel like it's an election completely about you as an individual. But the reality is most elections are not about you, they're about the national party.

"If you're unfortunate enough to lose it will feel very bad for a couple of weeks," he said. "But actually there's a big wide world beyond politics. It's not impossible for people to return to normal work, a good occupation, and find other ways of using their skills."

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After the agony of losing, Mr Leslie went on to become director of the New Local Government Network think tank

This time round he is Labour's candidate in what should be the safe seat of Nottingham East.

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