Former MP for Enfield North Nick de Bois told the Enfield Independent he was “proud” of his time in Parliament.

The Conservative candidate was ousted in the early hours of this morning by old foe Joan Ryan, losing by 1,086 votes.

De Bois admitted it was “hard to find one answer” where it went wrong for the Conservatives in Enfield North.

He said: “If you fight a marginal seat you put your hands in the democratic process and you know it is not a meritocracy. Politics shifts and this time is shifted against us.

“I think it is a really hard to find one answer to that, I think if you look at seats like Ilford North which went from a 5,000 majority to a short loss of 300, you have to say what is going on in north east London which has led to the Conservatives losing and we need to challenge that, move forward and examine what is going on.”

Chase Farm Hospital, on The Ridgeway, Enfield, has been a topic of fierce debate between the two rivals but de Bois claims that the hospital has been “misrepresented” by candidates.

He said: “There is no question that it [Chase Farm] played a big part in this but the reality is that Chase Farm was horribly misrepresented by my opponents and in some respects, the issue had moved on. There was a price to pay for it but I don’t think it was the defining issue of this campaign.

“UKIP took 4,500 votes which most likely came from the Conservatives. UKIP may not have won many seats but they certainly didn’t help.”

The former MP also paid tribute to the Enfield Independent, for its campaign on changing knife crime laws.

He said: “We should look back and always be proud of what we managed to achieve, I worked with the Enfield Independent on knife crime, and that is in statute.”