The new Finchley seat, with similar boundaries to the old Finchley seat, was projected to be held for the Conservatives, albeit by a small majority; when Margaret Thatcher held the seat she normally had majorities of nearly 10,000. Despite most of the new constituency coming from Booth's old seat, Marshall won the selection contest on 1 November 1995, but went on to lose the contest for the seat to the Labour Party candidate Rudi Vis at the 1997 general election, in which the Conservatives experienced their worst electoral defeat in 91 years.