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When a sitting MP loses their seat it happens very publicly, standing on stage with the other candidates as the results are announced - but what happens to the people working behind the scenes?
When an MP is not re-elected, their staff - in Parliament and in their constituency - are also made redundant.
Omar Sharif works as a Parliamentary assistant to Jo Platt, who was MP for Leigh, in Greater Manchester, a former Labour stronghold and the former seat of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
Ms Platt, who is taking part in a review of Labour's election defeat, lost her seat to the Conservatives after a massive 14% swing against her party.
Mr Sharif describes the feeling as a kind of "grief".
"It's horrible, I mean I was at the count, and I was doing some sampling, and when you're looking at the figures coming in, you're basically looking at your own redundancy in front of your eyes.
"Horrific. It is nauseating, it is anxiety-inducing. Every door that you knock or every conversation that you have, and they say that they're voting Tory, you think 'great that's another letter of my P45 right there'."
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Mr Sharif also noted that the prospect of being unemployed made Labour's "heart-breaking" election defeat an even worse experience.
Image caption Omar Sharif campaigning with former Labour MP Jo Platt during the election
"I don't know what's worse to be honest... it is that double whammy of losing a campaign and losing a job at the same time."
Many staff working for Labour and other opposition parties, at party headquarters and around the country, also face an uncertain future, as budgets are cut after the general election.
'Desperately sad'
But for those who work directly for MPs - the bag carriers, speech writers, caseworkers and administrative assistants who keep the wheels of democracy turning - the termination of employment is swifter and, arguably, more brutal.
MPs and their staff have up to two months to wind up their offices, and depending on their length of service, some staff may receive a redundancy payment, according to advice issued by the House of Commons.
Image caption Labour activist and parliamentary staffer, Jake Kelly, with former MP Graham Jones
Jake Kelly, who works for Graham Jones, another of the 59 Labour MPs who lost their seats at the general election, says it was "surreal" to have to return to Westminster after election night.
"[It was] desperately sad, as a staffer, as someone working for an MP, you're seeing very slowly over the course of three hours, your job being counted away, every single vote is a step away from me being employed," he says.
But he adds: "I don't think anyone would ask for the public's sympathy, we know what we signed up for. We knew the kind of employment we were applying for."
Callum Littlemore, who works for Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds, who lost her seat of Brecon and Radnorshire to the Conservatives just four months after winning it in a by-election, describes his "sense of sadness".
"Both in the sense that this person you work for and you put all this time in for has not been returned or rewarded for the hard work they've done - and also it's a few weeks before Christmas and you're set to be made redundant and you've got to change your whole life in the New Year."