Former WWE Employee Michelle Donelan Loses Seat Amid Historic Tory Wipeout In UK General Election

Professional wrestling and politics are connected once again as former WWE employee Michelle Donelan lost her seat in the United Kingdom general election on Thursday, July 4. 

The results declared overnight revealed that Donelan, standing in the new constituency of Melksham and Devizes as the Conservative Party candidate after the boundaries were redrawn, lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats' Brian Mathew. Donelan finished with 17,630 votes, while the Liberal Democrats' candidate ended with 20,031 votes. 

The Labour Party will be the new party of government in the United Kingdom, having won a landslide majority in the 2024 general election. Donelan's Conservative Party, meanwhile, secured their lowest return of seats since the party was founded in 1834. 

The Conservative Party had been in government since 2010, first in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats until 2015 when the Tories secured a majority in that year's general election. The Tories' 14-year tenure in government has been rife with turmoil, including five prime ministers. 

Donelan had been a member of parliament since 2015 and she held multiple cabinet posts under three prime ministers from 2020. She was the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology heading into the July 4 general election. 

Alongside her cabinet posts, Donelan is primarily remembered for taxpayers' money being used to settle a lawsuit. Donelan accused two academics who had been appointed to the UK Research and Innovation (a non-departmental public body) advisory group of expressing sympathy for Hamas and sharing extremist views. This led to a libel lawsuit from one of the academics, Kane Sang of Heriott-Watt University, and Donelan publicly detracted the allegations in March 2024.

The lawsuit was eventually settled for £15,000 plus damages but the total expense to the taxpayer ended up being over £34,000 as Donelan was represented by the Government Legal Department. 

Prior to becoming an MP, Donelan worked for WWE as an International Marketing Communications Manager. She was actually still employed by WWE when she was selected as a Conservative Party candidate for the 2015 General Election. 

Pro wrestling and politics are more connected in the United States as WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump served as the 45th President of the United States. He is also set to run as the Republican Party nominee in the 2024 US presidential election. WWE and Vince McMahon were mentioned in Donald Trump's hush money trial earlier this year.