Tory breakaway MP won’t stand in new election
Liberal Democrat MP Heidi Allen has said she will not stand in the general election as she declared that Brexit has “broken our politics”.
The former Tory said she was “exhausted by the invasion into my privacy and the nastiness and intimidation that has become commonplace”, adding that lines were too often crossed and the effect was “utterly dehumanising”.
Meanwhile, fellow former Conservative MP Sam Gyimah was selected to stand for the Lib Dems in the London constituency of Kensington, which would be a knife-edge battle at a general election.
Ms Allen told her South Cambridgeshire constituents, whom she has represented for four-and-a-half years, she “will not re-stand when the next general election comes”.
“But for the last 18 months or so, the Brexit impasse has madebusinessasusualimpossible,” she wrote in a letter.
“Brexit has broken our politics and it is my firm belief that only a confirmatory public vote will bring an end to this sorry chapter and bring healing and light at the end of the tunnel.
“And while Parliament has been in purgatory, we have legislated for almost nothing, changed almost nothing and improved almost nothing. I became an MP because I wanted to make a difference, but while Brexit continues to captivate Parliament, that just hasn’t been possible.”
Ms Allen, a committed Remainer, added: “But more than all of that, I am exhausted by the invasion into my privacy and the nastiness and intimidation that has become commonplace.
“Nobody in any job should have to put up with threats, aggressive emails, being shouted at in the street, sworn at on social media, nor have to install panic alarms at home.
“Of course public scrutiny is to be expected, but lines are all too regularly crossed and the effect is utterly dehumanising.”
Ms Allen originally quit the Conservative Party in February, along with Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry, to join the new Independent Group, later renamed Change UK, formed by ex-labour MPS.
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