Javid latest Tory MP to announce he will quit

FORMER Cabinet minister Sajid Javid has become the most prominent Tory MP yet to announce he is stepping back at the next general election, shortly after the party was stung by another mid-term defeat.

The ex-chancellor and health secretary did not give a reason for his exit, saying only that he had “wrestled” with the choice for “some time”, and pledged to continue to support the Prime Minister “in any way I can”. He said his decision had been “accelerated” by the fact Conservatives have been asked to confirm their intentions for contending the next nationwide poll at an “early stage”. He joins a steady stream of Tory colleagues saying they will not run at the next vote, which will be no later than January 2025, including Chloe Smith, William Wragg and rising star Dehenna Davison.

Senior Tory MP Charles Walker, who has also said he will step down at the next election, said the Chester vote was a “sort of live fire exercise” for the Tories’ performance in the polls. “We certainly weren’t going to win it,” he told Times Radio.

“And I think the scale of the loss reflects where we stand in the opinion polls at the moment. So, in a sense, this by-election was a sort of live fire exercise for where the opinion polls currently have us.”

Sir Charles said the Tory party is in a “better place” than it was six weeks ago when Liz Truss was leading the country. But he said he thinks it is “almost impossible” for the Conservatives to come back to win the next general election. “I hope what Rishi Sunak does is make sure Labour doesn’t wipe the floor with us, that we perhaps win 220 seats, and we form a viable opposition,” he said.