Rory walks out on Tories to run for mayor of London
RORY Stewart has quit the Tories to run as an independent candidate for London mayor after blasting the party’s ‘increasingly aggressive’ tone under Boris Johnson.
The former leadership contender, who is resigning as an MP, said he wanted to eradicate ‘the suffocating embrace of our dying party politics’.
He announced his ‘resignation from the Conservative party’ at an event on Thursday night, although it was not clear until yesterday morning that he was being serious.
Mr Stewart, who was among the 21 Tory rebels who had the whip removed by the Prime Minister after voting to block a No Deal Brexit, said yesterday that he had been on a ‘painful journey’.
The MP for Penrith and The Border said: ‘ I’m leaving that Gothic shouting chamber of Westminster, I’m getting away from a politics which makes me sometimes feel as though [US President Donald] Trump has never left London.’
And he told the London Evening Standard: ‘It’s been a painful journey for me. I suppose it was really crystallised when I had the Conservative whip removed.
‘I’ve been proud to be a member of the Conservative Party.
‘There are many values I share with it. I parted company largely over Brexit and the tone of the party, which has become increasingly aggressive.’
The first suggestion of his decision came at an event at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night, when he came on stage and read out a letter about the Prime Minister’s behaviour during his time at Eton, which Mr Stewart also attended.
The letter was written to Mr Johnson’s father, Stanley, in 1982 by former house master, Martin Hammond. It said the future prime minister had adopted a ‘disgracefully cavalier’ attitude to his classical studies and ‘sometimes seems affronted when criticised’.
Mr Stewart said the reading of the letter constituted his resignation from the party. Though it was taken as a joke, Mr Stewart formally confirmed that he would step down as an MP yesterday morning when he said he was quitting to run for London mayor.
He will be pitted against Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey in next year’s election.
Mr Stewart revealed he would embark on a walking tour of all 32 London boroughs to hear the concerns of voters first hand. ‘Really, what I’m hoping to do over the next 30 days is listen,’ he said.
An open letter announcing his decision to run for mayor appeared on the front page of yesterday’s Evening Standard and his resignation triggered tributes from some moderate Tory MPs.
Former colleague Amber Rudd, who resigned from the Cabinet and surrendered the Tory whip last month, said the departure of an ‘outstanding’ MP and minister was a ‘loss to politics’.
‘One of the strongest speakers in Parliament. Principled, patient, thoughtful. I feel certain he’ll be back,’ she tweeted. But Tory MP Shailesh Vara said: ‘ Diehard Remainers leaving the Conservative Party doesn’t make the party any less One Nation.’
Mr Stewart, 46, is a former diplomat who served as deputy-governor of two provinces in Iraq following the war of 2003 and ran a humanitarian foundation in Kabul.
He once walked across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal – a journey of 6,000 miles that took 21 months.
He served as international development secretary until his resigna
‘A painful journey’ ‘He has other ambitions’
tion in July, and was among the Tories who voted to take control of the Commons timetable in order to prevent a No Dealt.
The PM retaliated by stripping the rebels of the Conservative whip, and Robert Craig, the president of Mr Stewart’s Conservative association, suggested that may have prompted his decision. ‘He has other ambitions,’ said Mr Craig.
Writing in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald Mr Stewart explained he decided not to stand for re-election as an independent MP in Penrith as he didn’t want to ‘ test loyalties [ or] destroy old friendships’ in the constituency.
Mr Stewart was welcomed to the mayoral race by Mr Khan and Tory candidate Mr Bailey.
Private polling carried out for Mr Stewart suggests he is already in joint second place in the race, level with Mr Bailey, and that he has higher name-recognition than the Conservative candidate.