Iain Stewart put family ahead of his campaign despite 'disgusting' trolling

A video posted by the MK Labour Party in May mocked the seeming disappearance of Mr Stewart in the early days of campaigning, using #WheresIain, and placing his face on popular children's book character 'Where's Wally?'

While Hannah O'Neill reduced Mr Stewart's majority, the Scot retained his seat in MK South for the third time.

But responding to the criticism of his absence, Mr Stewart confirmed his father required life-saving surgery and branded the tweets 'disgusting.'

He said: "There was a good reason for that and it wasn't something I wanted to make public because it is a very personal issue. At the start fo the campaign, my father had to undergo emergency surgery to correct an abdominal aortic aneurysm and it was life-saving because if it had ruptured, it would have killed him. I make no apologies for putting my family first.

"I was actually quite disgusted by some of the social media trolling that went ahead as a result of it. They never bothered to check before, that's the point."

Speaking after the results, Ms O'Neill said: "I think what we've seen across the country is that people are really hungry for change and it's a movement. Congratulations to Iain, but I'm sure we'll be here again and we'll keep on fighting.

"We have done brilliantly in Milton Keynes. We've run a really positive campaign, we've concentrated on our policies, we've been out every day, and we've looked at social media and tried to speak to as many people as we can.

"We've done incredibly well and that's down to our manifesto and positive campaign. The positivity around what we've done has brought us forward."