IT has been the best job he could wish for, said Sir Bob Russell, hours after his 18-year political career collapsed.

The veteran Liberal Democrat MP was ousted from the role after a shock general election result which saw him lose by 5,000 votes to victorious Tory Will Quince.

Today, Sir Bob will be setting the wheels in motion to make his four long-serving staff members redundant.

Come tomorrow, he will be driving a white van to Westminster to clear out his office.

Plus he’s got to contact constituents who he has ongoing cases with, to ask if their files should be shredded or sent back to them.

Speaking from his Magdalen Hall HQ on Friday – the future of which is also uncertain – Sir Bob said it was too early to say if he would completely turn his back on politics.

He said: “I am extremely grateful for having 18 years in what’s been the best job I could wish for.

“I am 69, perhaps it is time I stepped aside, others will make that judgement.

“I don’t think age should be a bar, it should be ability and I still have the ability to do a job.”

Sir Bob admitted he was disappointed he won’t be able to see through campaigns he thought he was winning, such as better Army housing and First Aid being in the national curriculum in schools.

After a long pause, he said he had no regrets and listed many of his proudest achievements during his political career.

These have included visiting Colchester soldiers in Afghanistan, getting junction 28 of the A12 open which enabled the Weston Homes Community Stadium to be built and in his previous role on the Home Affairs Select Committee, influencing changes to the jailterm tariff for knife crime.

Since 1997, Sir Bob has held 955 advice bureaux.

He said: “I am obviously disappointed.

“I got elected on an in-coming tide in 1997 and I have gone out in a retreating tide.

“When you look at what’s happened to my colleagues around the country, what’s happened in Colchester is no different.

“There are really high-profile casualties.Ithink the Tories were shocked they won.”

Sir Bob said all the initial indications were he’d win and he was the bookies’ favourite.

He said: “There was nothing on the doorsteps that indicated anything untoward, but this was not a normal general election.

“We have got an appalling situation in Scotland, which contributed to a significant part of the English to vote Conservative to stop Labour going with the Scottish Nationalist Party.

“I shall miss being in Parliament and all the associated things that go with it, but part of me is relieved I will not be at Westminster because I think Parliament will be the ugliest and most fractious in a lifetime.

“More than 50 Scottish MPs will be there who don’t want to be.”

He admitted he didn’t expect the “magnitude” of the swing in the Tories’ favour.

He said: “About three weeks ago my agent and I sensed the Scottish question could be a major factor come polling day.

“The Scottish issue only became something in the last 24 hours.

“We picked up on it once or twice on the doorsteps, but we had far more people raising issues about street lights being turned off.

“In the last 24 hours, it all came together and there wasafear the SNP and Labour would go together to the detriment of the economy.

“What we couldn’t get across was you could vote Lib Dem in Colchester and get someone with far more experience.”

Speaking about Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who stepped down on Friday, Sir Bob said: “If he went wrong, we all went wrong.

“It wasacollective decision to go into the coalition. Economic recovery wouldn’t have happened without us.

“Regrettably the Conservatives ensured the credit was not shared and the Lib Dems took the blame for things that went wrong.

“The Conservatives took the credit for what went right.”

The Lib Dems claimed the Tories in Colchester spent £200,000 on their campaign, but Sir Bob said his party had spent nothing near that.

He said he did not think Colchester’s new Tory MP would need his advice as he has neighbouring party stalwart Bernard Jenkin – who retained his Harwich and North Essex seat–and Witham’s Priti Patel to support him.

But the grandfather-of-four said Mr Quince, 32, would be entering an “uncertain world” and he would advise him if asked, adding: “He will find it quite daunting, quite interesting, quite challenging and quite exciting.”