Michael Portillo Conservative Stephen Twigg Labour The constituency of Enfield Southgate returned a memorable result in the 1997 United Kingdom general election, when the seat's incumbent Member of Parliament, the Conservatives' Michael Portillo, lost to Labour's Stephen Twigg.

The result came as a shock to many politicians and commentators, and came to symbolise the extent of the Labour landslide victory under the leadership of Tony Blair.

[1] There was a poll in The Observer newspaper on the weekend before the election which showed that Portillo held only a three-point lead in his hitherto safe seat.

There was a memorable interview between Portillo and Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman on election night prior to the calling of the result in Enfield Southgate.

Although Twigg retained the seat with an increased majority in the 2001 general election, David Burrowes won it back for the Conservative Party in 2005 with a swing of 8.7%.