The big guns bidding Commons farewell

A TOTAL of 105 MPs have said they will not stand in the General Election – including 65 Conservatives, 19 from Labour and nine from the SNP.

Many of the Tories leaving Westminster are high-profile MPs who have held senior Cabinet positions.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris became the latest Tory MP earlier this month to announce that he will step down ahead of the national ballot, saying it was the “right time” for him to “look for some new challenges”.

Energetic

Nadhim Zahawi, the former Chancellor, Education Secretary and Conservative Party chairman, also said this month that he was quitting, saying the time was right for a “new, energetic Conservative to take over”.

In March, former Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would not stand in the Maidenhead constituency which she has represented for 27 years. Robert Halfon and James Heappey quit their ministerial roles in the same month and announced they would also leave Parliament at the election.

Alok Sharma, the former Cop26 president, also said he was calling it a day after the “honour” of his life to serve as an MP for Reading West. Sajid Javid, the former Chancellor, Dominic Raab, the ex-Deputy Prime Minister and Ben Wallace, the former Defence Secretary – all of whom were once touted as future party leaders – were among the other big-name Conservatives leaving the Commons.

Other high-profile Tories bowing out include short-lived former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Matt Hancock, the ex-Health Secretary who has been sitting as an independent. On the Opposition benches, Harriet Harman, the former acting Labour leader, Margaret Beckett, the ex-Foreign Secretary, and Ben Bradshaw, the former Culture Secretary, are among Labour MPs standing down.

Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke, who both defected from the Conservatives to Labour, have also said they will be leaving.