I’ll not fight the Tory Party, says Hammond as he quits Commons

PHILIP HAMMOND has announced he will stand down as an MP, telling his constituents he is “aggrieved” he cannot rejoin the Tory benches but will not stand against the party.

The former chancellor had the whip removed after he voted against the Government for the Benn Act, which required Boris Johnson to request an extension to Article 50 from the EU.

Although some ejected Tories have been allowed to return to the party’s benches, he has not.

In a letter to his constituents in Runnymede and Weybridge, Mr Hammond said while he was “aggrieved” and “saddened” to find himself unable to contest his seat as a Tory, he still supported the party and would not run against it as an independent candidate.

“The Conservative Party that I have served has always had room for a wide range of opinions and has been tolerant of measured dissent,” he said.

Mr Hammond added he will remain “an active party member”.

In a thinly veiled criticism of Mr Johnson, he said he supported a “broad-based, forward-looking, probusiness and pro-markets centre-right party”.

Since leaving the Tory benches, Mr Hammond has been critical of the Prime Minister’s leadership. Last month, he said he would put up “the fight of a lifetime” against “entryists” he said were dominating the party.

“This is my party. I have been a member of this party for 45 years,” he said at the time.

He made the announcement as Anne Milton, a former Tory education minister who had the whip withdrawn by Mr Johnson, announced she would stand as an independent candidate in her Guildford constituency.