I met him the morning after he lost his seat, in Leeds in a coffee shop. He had come straight from the count, and I was arriving for a meeting and getting a coffee on the way in. He was sitting on his own, and he looked absolutely broken.
Spoke to him for maybe 2 minutes, and he was absolutely lovely. Happy for his wife (who had held her seat), and supportive of the new MP for his seat - said that he wished him well etc. Given that he had effectively lost his job a few hours earlier, he was just a nice guy who was polite and happy to chat about the reasons for the defeat - as others have said, a thoroughly decent man.