It has been 20 years since the 1997 General Election where Tony Blair’s Labour won in a landslide on May 5 after 18 years of Conservative rule.

In Watford, Labour’s Claire Ward won 45.3 per cent of the vote, beating nearest rival Robert Gordon, Conservative, to the seat by nearly 6,000 votes.

Her election was particularly notable as, at the time, she was just 24 years old.

She held the post for three terms until she fell to third place at the 2010 General Election, behind winner Richard Harrington and the Liberal Democrat Sal Brinton.

If you wondered what Ward has been up to in her post-parliamentary career, she has been an executive director of the Independent Pharmacy Federation, and currently is chair of Pharmacy Voice – an association of trade bodies representing community pharmacy contractors.