David Ward absent as he loses seat by over 7000 votes

The now former MP lost the seat to Labour’s Imran Hussain, who claimed a 17.1% majority.

Mr Ward wasn’t present on the platform as the results were read out by the returning officer.

The pro-Palestine politician previously won by a slender margin of 365 votes in 2010, but was described in media reports as “clearly upset” and “a dejected figure” as Bradford’s deputy council leader Imran Hussain took the seat this time around.

Hussain – defeated by George Galloway at the 2012 Bradford West by-election – won 19,312 votes to Ward’s 12,228.

The defeat marks the end of a controversial five years in Parliament for Ward, who was suspended by the Lib Dems in 2013 after he refused to apologise for questioning Israel’s right to exist.

His suspension was just one of a number of notorious incidents in a stint as MP marked by incendiary rhetoric on Jews and Israel.

Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock accused him of “deliberately abusing the memory of the Holocaust” with “sickening” comments he made about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians on Holocaust Memorial Day 2013.

He courted further controversy in July 2014 by suggesting that he would fire rockets at Israel if he lived in Gaza, and in January was criticised for making “a disgraceful attempt to delegitimise Israel” by ambassador Daniel Taub.

Ward had tweeted ‘Je suis #Palestinian’ in the aftermath of an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.