Critical marginal seat MP Bridget Archer LOSES her Tasmanian seat of Bass in election 2025

By ZAK WHEELER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 16:07 BST, 3 May 2025 | Updated: 16:07 BST, 3 May 2025

A key seat in the election has changed hands from Liberal to Labor as the conservative party is completely eradicated in Tasmania.

Liberal MP Bridget Archer lost her seat in the electorate of Bass to Labor’s Jess Teesdale in a shocking upset on Saturday. 

Ms Archer failed to regain the seat which encompasses Launceston in the state’s north which she had held since 2019.

During the 2022 election Ms Archer became the second MP in 20 years to win back-to-back terms after winning with 51 per cent of the vote. 

But at this election the national swing towards Labor forced the MP out with results showing Ms Teesdale 10 per cent ahead of her in the votes. 

Ms Archer gave an emotional concession speech once the results became undeniable at her election party. 

‘There’ll be plenty of time to rake through the ashes of what’s happened today. Now is the time for grace, it’s a time to feel how we’re feeling’ she said, according to the ABC.

‘I feel pretty sad about what’s happened but I think we can also just feel that there’s nothing else that could’ve been done.’

Liberal MP Bridget Archer lost her election in the electorate of Bass in Tasmania on Saturady

Labor’s Jess Teesdale unseated the popular MP in a stunning upset 

The now-former MP said she fought ‘every day’ in Parliament for the values of the Liberal Party and of liberalism during her time in government.

Ms Archer conceded that her closeness to Peter Dutton might have been the final nail in her political coffin and that his unpopularity may have impacted her election.

Reactions on social media to her ouster were largely supportive of Ms Archer with some even claiming she was the only leader the Liberals had left and that she should have gone independent.

‘If Bridget Archer loses her seat she should get to sue the entire Liberal Party for everything they’re worth,’ one X user wrote.

‘She was obviously the only leader the Liberals had in their ranks, certainly the only person who could’ve won an election, but look what they’ve done to her. Pathetic.’

‘In amongst a plethora of disasters for the LNP, an underrated one is the loss of Bridget Archer,’ another added.

‘She is exactly the type of moderate who could move the Libs back to something that resembles a party Australia might actually vote for.’

‘I feel sorry for Bridget Archer, but she should have become a Teal and left,’ a third said.

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Critical marginal seat MP Bridget Archer LOSES her Tasmanian seat of Bass in election 2025

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