Landlord representation in Parliament will be hugely diminished after 50 Tory MPs with residential rental properties either lost their seat in the election or had previously stepped down.

Many were the sector’s allies and had prompted the government to tone down the Renters (Reform) Bill and forced it to focus on improving the courts before abolishing Section 21.

Using the latest data from 38 Degrees, which showed that 72 Tory MPs had declared residential property that makes more than £10,000 a year, after last night’s Labour landslide, 37 of them had lost their seats, including Gillian Keegan and Paul Howell.

Howell had reported the biggest list of rental incomes with two flats in County Durham, five houses in Durham, nine houses in Darlington and an apartment in Spain on his register of interests.

Rental properties

Before the election, 13 of those with rental properties decided not to stand including Chris Grayling and Sajid Javid.

Of those who lost their seats, Bill Wiggin, Theresa Villiers, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Anne Marie Morris, Karl McCartney, Marco Longhi, Philip Davies, Steve Double, Nick Fletcher, and Adam Holloway were all in the gang of 49 rebels who encouraged renter reform amendments to the Bill.

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who clocked up the largest portfolio - seven flats in Southampton, 50% of a holiday home in Italy and 50% of an office building in London – has held onto his seat along with 21 Tory colleagues. Others also managing to do so include Suella Braverman and Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown.

Although there are some Labour and Lib Dem MPs with rental properties, including David Lammy, Emily Thornberry and Lucy Powell, it’s probably safe to assume that most of the incoming Labour MPs are much less likely to be private landlords – and hence, less likely to be sympathetic to the particular challenges of the PRS.