He was one of a number of Cabinet ministers that lost their seats.
Johnston, who was fundamental in the rollout of the expanded childcare hours, tried to address some of the challenges faced by the sector when he spoke at Nursery World’s Business Summit in February.
At the event in London, he urged people to get in touch with him if they had any suggestions about tackling retention in the sector, and with any practical problems in general that he could fix.
After his keynote address and questions he stayed to talk to people individually.
Despite his willingness to engage with the sector, the former minister failed to secure enough votes to retain his seat, losing to Liberal Democrat candidate Olly Glover.
Johnston had been the MP for Wantage in Oxfordshire since 2019. The boundary was changed this year to Didcot & Wantage.
