Friday 13 December 2019 9:10 am | Updated: Friday 13 December 2019 9:16 am

Election survivors: All the MPs who only just held onto their seats

Dominic Raab was run close by the insurgent Liberal Democrat opponent

With every General Election comes speculation that Westminster stalwarts and cabinet ministers might lose their seats, and this was no different.

But for some, last night brought a sigh of relief, as campaigners hoping they would be ousted were proved wrong.

Theresa May

For one Theresa May (remember her?) this was exactly what happened, as the former Prime Minister’s Maidenhead constituency voted her back in – but with a much smaller majority than last time.

May received 32,620 votes in Maidenhead, 57.7 per cent, as the Lib Dems beat Labour to second place, with just under a quarter of the vote.

She said: “At this election people were faced with a very clear choice about whether or not they wanted to ensure that Brexit was delivered and they knew that if a Conservative majority government got in that we would deliver Brexit.”

Dominic Raab

It seems strong and stable worked this time for the former PM – but some were run closer to the wire.

One such survivor was foreign secretary Dominic Raab, whose nerves will surely have been jangling over the last week amid predictions he would cave in to an Liberal Democrat insurgency.

But on the night the Lib Dems’ leader Jo Swinson lost her own seat, Raab held on to his own Esher and Walton constituency with 49 per cent of the vote share.

However, he only narrowly held off Liberal Democrat Monica Harding, who won 28,389 votes, with a 27.7 per cent swing in her favour.

As his narrow victory was announced, Raab described it as a “very difficult campaign”.

He added that the election “felt a little bit like a referendum because of the way the tactical voting went, but at the end of the day we secured half the vote share and that gives us a very strong mandate”.

Iain Duncan Smith

Labour threw everything at the former Tory leader’s Chingford and Woodford Green seat, amid speculation the Brexiteer could be booted out this time around.

But despite hundreds of activists pounding the pavement over the last week, Iain Duncan Smith narrowly made it across the line with 23,481 votes to Labour’s 22,419.

Faiza Shaheen, the Labour candidate, managed a 1.9 per cent swing in her favour, and won 45.9 per cent of the vote, but with few alternatives to Duncan Smith, it was not enough to take the seat (Lib Dem candidate Geoff Seeff won only 5.7 per cent of votes).

Ian Lavery

Labour party co-chair and former miners’ union boss Ian Lavery was run close to the wire tonight, after enthusiastically supporting Jeremy Corbyn throughout his time as party leader.

But his Wansbeck constituency in Northumberland, a once-solid Labour constituency, very nearly kicked him out.

Lavery won a majority of 10,485 in 2017, but that was cut to just 814 this time around, meaning the traditional red seat will become a big target for the Tories in the next contest.

Boris Johnson

Let’s not forget the Prime Minister, who faced a concerted Labour effort to unseat him by Ali Milani.

The challenger even brought a bulldozer into the constituency at one stage, in an attempt to remind Johnson’s voters of his promise to lie in front of one so as to block a third runway at nearby Heathrow – a promise the PM has since reneged on.

But it was not enough on the night, with Johnson winning 25,351 votes to Milani’s 18,141.

After the result came in, Milani tweeted: “I’m sorry we couldn’t give you the result you deserved.

“To each and everyone of the activist who joined us on this journey: thank you so much.”

But for some, it wasn’t so lucky, with some major scalps falling last night including Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, former London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith and DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds all being unseated.

Read City A.M.‘s round-up of all the big election night casualties here.