Gavin Barwell loses his seat in Croydon Central

Housing Minister Gavin Barwell has lost his Croydon Central seat to Labour in an astonishing turnaround in fortunes for the 45-year-old, who has only been Minister for Housing, Planning and Minister for London at the Department of Communities and Local Government for a year. Barwell, like his predecessor Brandon Lewis, was a Minister of State and not, as in previous years, a more junior Under-Secretary of State, reflecting increasing consternation within the government about the state of the housing market. Appointed in July last year, Gavin Barwell was elected as Conservative MP for Croydon Central in May 2010 and only weeks ago the Queen approved his addition to her Privy Council. Given the other upheavals and the looming hung parliament and Theresa’s potential exit as leader, the loss of Croydon Central is not a huge surprise. It was one of the UK’s most marginal seats which Gavin Barwell won by just 165 seats in 2010. Last night he lost it to Labour and both Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa paid visits to his former constituency during the campaign. But such a heavyweight visit by a Prime Minster couldn’t help Barwell, who lost by 5,652 votes to Labour’s Sarah Jones. She now…