One of the Liberal Party’s longest-serving MPs, Bronwyn Bishop, has lost her preselection for the seat of Mackellar.

Ms Bishop’s loss, 51-39 to former Liberal staffer Jason Falinski, came after a meeting lasting nearly six hours.

“It’s been an honour to serve the people of Mackellar,” she said as she left the ballot.

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Hard right candidate Walter Villatora was the other person in contention for the preselection.

The defeat will likely bring to an end the political career of one of our most controversial MPs, although the result still needs to be endorsed by the Liberal Party executive.

Some senior Liberals had been critical of Ms Bishop’s decision to stand for the seat again.

The 73-year-old had been the member for Mackellar – a blue ribbon electorate on Sydney’s northern beaches – since 1994, when she defeated Bob Ellis in a byelection.

Prior to that she had served as a senator for seven years.

Click the owl for a summary of Bronwyn Bishop’s parliamentary career  

Ms Bishop holds the record for the longest period of parliamentary service by a woman, having served across both houses for more than 28 years.

At one time Ms Bishop was a hot tip to assume leadership of the Liberals, but she never reached that position.

Chopper-gate the beginning of the end

Most recently she was Speaker of the House of Representatives, but resigned after an expenses scandal.

The new Liberal candidate for Mackellar, Jason Falinski. Photo: AAP

Ms Bishop’s position as speaker was called into question when taxpayers footed the bill for her $5000 helicopter trip between Melbourne and Geelong.

The scandal became known as Chopper-gate, and prompted a review into politicians’ expense entitlements.

Then prime minister Tony Abbott stood by Ms Bishop, but it emerged recently that he’d written a letter of endorsement for Mr Villatora in February.

History of controversy

But Chopper-gate was far from the only time Ms Bishop found herself in hot water.

Back in 1994 and new in the shadow health portfolio, Ms Bishop announced she supported tobacco advertising in her first day on the job.

But that blowback was nothing compared to the flak she copped during her term as aged care minister during the John Howard years.

It was during this time that the ‘kerosene baths’ scandal was uncovered, when it came to light residents in the Riverside Home, a Melbourne aged-care facility, had been forced to bathe in a kerosene solution as a cheap way of preventing scabies.

Some of the residents suffered burns as a result of the baths, while one died a couple of days after the treatment.

After the story emerged, similar tales of mistreatment emerged, spanning across the country.

Julian Leeser. Photo: Mercy Health.

It prompted an outpouring of scorn on Ms Bishop over the standard of care in aged-care facilities, and she was dumped from the portfolio, and the cabinet, following the 2001 election.

Fresh faces

Preselection for retiring party stalwart Philip Ruddock’s seat of Berowra was also decided on Saturday.

Julian Leeser, executive director of the Menzies Research Centre, won the vote on Saturday afternoon.

“Congratulations Julian Leeser on an outstanding win in preselection for Berowra,” Mr Ruddock said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, another long-time Liberal parliamentarian, Bob Baldwin, announced he will also bow out of federal politics in a bid to bring fresh faces into the house.

Mr Baldwin has been the member for Paterson in NSW for 17 years.

Greens candidate for Mackellar, Mike Hall, congratulated Mr Falinski on winning preselection and said he looked forward to welcoming him into the political contest.

“I think he’s got a lot of work to do to undo the damage caused by his predecessor to the Liberal Party in the electorate,” he said.

– with AAP