Full list of Tory MPs stepping down as party fears election wipeout under Rishi Sunak
Lots of Tory MPs are pretty miserable at the moment.
After 13 years in power, they are staring down the barrel of a Labour victory in 2024 if Rishi Sunak doesn’t turn things around.
Polls can often be wrong but with Labour consistently ahead for a year, MPs are starting to feel a change in the air.
A huge survey this week suggested the Tories face a near wipe-out – reduced to third party status in the Commons – if a snap election were to be held.
And the Prime Minister also suffered his third defeat at a by-election since taking the keys to No10 in October, with a 10% swing towards Labour in West Lancashire.
It comes after 12 months of chaos and infighting in the Conservative Party and bleak economic forecasts as Brits face an unprecedented cost of living crisis.
Former PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have both let it be known that they intend to stand again – despite both being forced out of Downing Street by their own MPs.
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James Veysey/TalkTV/REX/Shutterstock)
But it’s enough for Tory big beasts Sajid Javid and Matt Hancock – and a handful of high-profile, young MPs to announce they’re throwing in the towel in 2024 and going back to a ‘normal’ life.
The ex-Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries became the latest to announce her intention to quit. In her parting shot, she accused her colleagues of “stupidity” for toppling her close ally Mr Johnson.
She added: “I’m afraid it’s this behaviour that I now just have to remove myself from.”
Some Labour MPs have also announced they won’t stand again at the next election.
But while Labour’s departing MPs are (so far) aged 60 or over, the quitting Conservatives include Red Waller Dehenna Davison, aged just 29, and 34-year-old William Wragg.
Here’s the list of Tory MPs due to step down at the next election:
George Eustice, 51. Majority in Camborne and Redruth: 8,700. Former Environment Secretary, a role which he described as his “dream job”. He was elected in 2010 and is stepping down as he wants “the opportunity to do a final career outside politics”.
Mark Pawsey, 65. Majority in Rugby: 13,447. Senior backbencher who served as a private secretary in the Business Department. First elected in 2010 but stepping down after a “great deal of consideration”.
Sajid Javid, 52. Majority in Bromsgrove: 23,106. Former Cabinet Minister, who has had a string of top Government jobs, became the first Tory big beast to announce plans to quit. He said he had “wrestled” with the decision.
Douglas Ross, 39. Majority in Moray: 513. The Scottish Tory leader has said he will stand down as an MP to focus on being an MSP at Holyrood. He made enemies among Boris Johnson’s allies by calling for the ex-PM to quit over Partygate.
Dehenna Davison, 29. Majority in Bishop Auckland: 7,962. Red Wall MP who became the first Tory in a Labour stronghold stunned Westminster by stepping back, saying she hasn’t “had anything like a normal life for a 20-something”.
William Wragg, 34. Majority in Hazel Grove: 4,423. Was an outspoken critic of both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and accused No10 of “blackmailing” MPs into keeping Boris Johnson in office.
Chloe Smith, 40. Majority in Norwich North: 4,738. Short-lived Cabinet minister, who was Parliament’s youngest MP when she joined in 2009, left government after Liz Truss’s ousting. Friends say battling breast cancer in 2020 gave her a new perspective.
Chris Skidmore, 41. Majority in Kingswood: 11,220. Rishi Sunak’s net-zero tsar, whose uni band once sang a lurid song about the Queen Mother’s death, said his kids “deserve to see more of their father” and his seat is being axed in its current form.
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Andrew Percy, 45. Majority in Brigg and Goole: 21,941. Quit as his constituency is abolished in the boundary review, saying “I’ve done it for longer than I ever expected or intended.”
Charles Walker, 55. Majority in Broxbourne: 19,807. Procedure geek – who once carried around a pint of milk to demonstrate his freedom – has a huge majority but has been scathing of the recent chaos in the Tory party.
Nigel Adams, 55. Majority in Selby and Ainsty: 20,137. The former Asia Minister revealed he would step down in April after more than a decade in Parliament.
Adam Afriye, 57. Majority in Windsor: 20,079. It emerged last year the MP since 2005 was facing bankruptcy proceedings from HMRC over unpaid tax. If he was made bankrupt he could be disqualified from Parliament.
Crispin Blunt, 62. Majority in Reigate: 18,310. Ex-minister said he would stand down as he marked 25 years in parliament, saying each session has been more “tumultuous” than the last.
Mike Penning, 65. Majority in Hemel Hempstead: 14,563. Ex-minister said “whilst I have by no means reached my ‘sell by date’, I may be described as having reached my ‘best before date’ and it is now time to allow a new candidate.”
Gary Streeter, 67. Majority in South West Devon: 21,430. Perhaps the least controversial resignation, the MP since 1992 wrote: “The time has come for me to step back and let a younger person take over.”
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Matt Hancock, 44. Majority in West Suffolk: 23,194. The ex-Health Secretary lost the whip after abandoning his constituents to join ITV’s I’m a Celebrity – but said he would not stand again for the Conservatives
Edward Timpson, elected 2008, aged 49: ‘ I turn 50 this year, and want to use this opportunity… to return in part to legal practice, but also advocacy roles for vulnerable children and families.’
Jo Gideon, 70. Majority in Stoke-on-Trent: 670. The MP snatched the ‘Red Wall’ seat from Labour in 2019 but has already decided to call it quits. She said she had not “come to this decision lightly”.
Nadine Dorries, 65. Majority in Mid-Bedfordshire 24,664. The close ally of the ex-PM Boris Johnson announced she was is standing down on her new TalkTV show. She has been tipped for a peerage in Mr Johnson’s unpublished resignation honours list.