Ousted Liberal Democrat minister Lynne Featherstone has thanked supporters as she bowed out of Parliament.
Ms Featherstone was the most senior Jewish woman in the coalition government but lost her seat in north London’s Hornsey and Wood Green constituency to Labour.
In an email to supporters on Tuesday, Ms Featherstone said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve - both locally and nationally. I have had the opportunity to help people and to change the world a little bit for the better - the very reason I went into politics in the first place.
“I know how hard it was for my left-leaning constituents - because many of you told me on the doorstep - to decide between keeping me and your genuine fear that if you voted for me that we would get a Conservative government. Ironically we have one anyway.
“And I know from my right-leaning constituents how they feared a Labour government - so voted for me to try and have one less Labour seat.”
Ms Featherstone had been Crime Prevention Minister at the Home Office and was previously a minister at the Department for International Development.
Despite going into the election with a majority of 6,875, she lost her seat to Catherine West by more than 11,000 votes. She had been an MP since 2005.
She offered no suggestion of whether she would remain in politics.
Her ministerial portfolio had led her to be one of the government's leading voices on domestic abuse, sexual violence and female genital mutilation (FGM).
