The former Chipping Barnet MP had represented the constituency for 19 years before losing to Labour’s Dan Tomlinson last week

Former MP Theresa Villiers – (Credit – parliament.uk)

The former MP for Chipping Barnet has said she is ” sad to be leaving this role” following her defeat in the general election last week.

Theresa Villiers, who had held the seat since 2005, lost by 2,914 votes to Labour’s Dan Tomlinson, who is the first Labour candidate to win in the constituency since its creation in 1974.

In a statement this week, Villiers said: “It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve the people of Chipping Barnet as your Member of Parliament. Barnet is a special place and I have always fought to keep it that way.”

She added: “I congratulate Dan Tomlinson on becoming the new MP and wish him well for the future.”

Villiers’ statement also referred to a range of issues that featured in her campaign to hold the seat. She said: “While I am sad to be leaving this role I have undertaken for nearly two decades, I do so knowing that I worked as hard as I possibly could on the issues that matter to us here in Barnet such as more GP appointments, more apprenticeships, more money for schools, better NHS facilities, more police, saving our local police station, fighting overdevelopment, and opposing Ulez expansion.”

During her time as an MP, Villiers served as a cabinet minister under both David Cameron and Boris Johnson, including nearly four years as secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Before becoming an MP, she was a member of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2005.

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