Former prime minister Theresa May to stand down as MP at next general election
Former prime minister Theresa May has announced she will stand down as an MP at the next general election.
In an exclusive statement to her local paper, Mrs May said she had taken the “difficult decision” to quit the Commons after 27 years representing her Maidenhead constituency.
Theresa May has represented Maidenhead for nearly three decades. Pic: PA
The 67-year-old also pledged her support to Rishi Sunak’s government and said she believed the Conservatives could win the next election.
Politics latest: ‘Pretty good innings’: Minister pays tribute to May as former PM joins Tory exodus
Elected seven times, Mrs May had been the Conservative MP for the Berkshire seat since 1997.
She served as prime minister from 2016 to 2019, having previously held the position of home secretary since 2010.
Mrs May entered Downing Street after David Cameron resigned after the country voted to leave the European Union – something he campaigned against.
However, the fateful choice of the “new Iron Lady” to call a snap election and the Brexit chaos that followed saw her forced out of the job three years later.
Mrs May’s decision to leave Westminster adds to an exodus that has seen more than 60 Tory MPs say they will not fight their seats at the next election – the highest total since 1997.
High profile MPs who have said they will quit include former cabinet ministers Ben Wallace, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Kwasi Kwarteng.
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When could the next general election be?
In a statement to the Maidenhead Advertiser, the Conservative politician, a vicar’s daughter known for her fashionable footwear, said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to serve everyone in the Maidenhead constituency as the Member of Parliament for the last 27 years.
“Being an MP is about service to one’s constituents and I have always done my best to ensure that I respond to the needs of local people and the local area.
“Since stepping down as prime minister I have enjoyed being a backbencher again and having more time to work for my constituents and champion causes close to my heart including most recently launching a Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.
“These causes have been taking an increasing amount of my time.
“Because of this, after much careful thought and consideration, I have realised that, looking ahead, I would no longer be able to do my job as an MP in the way I believe is right and my constituents deserve.
“I have therefore taken the difficult decision to stand down at the next general election.”
The 2017 party conference in Manchester ended in humiliation
Pic: Reuters
She added: “I will continue to work hard for all my constituents until the general election.
“As I pass the baton on I will be working with my successor to secure a Conservative victory in Maidenhead. I remain committed to supporting Rishi Sunak and the government and believe that the Conservatives can win the election.
“I would like to thank all those who chose me to represent them as their member of parliament.
“I have always said there is no greater privilege than being an MP; I have served as home secretary and prime minister but none of that would have been possible without the people of Maidenhead and the constituency which I have been proud to call my home.”
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Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds said the number of Tories standing down showed there was “no confidence” in Mr Sunak and the Conservatives electoral prospects.
But Treasury minister Gareth Davies denied this was the case, telling Sky News he was “personally sad” to see Mrs May stand down “after a pretty good innings”, but that it was “completely reasonable” for people to decide to leave parliament ahead of an election.
He said: “Each one has made their own decision for personal reasons and I respect every single person’s decision to do so.”
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Mrs May arrived in Downing Street in 2016, after an uncontested leadership election, faced with the task of bringing together party and country after the traumas of the EU referendum.
But her decision to call an early election in the hope of securing the comfortable majority she needed to implement her Brexit plans ended in disaster.
A poorly received manifesto and hastily withdrawn social care policy, which saw her insist “nothing has changed”, coupled with a robotic campaigning style, saw her deprived her of her slim majority in the Commons and dependent on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
From then on she was engaged in a day-by-day struggle to keep her plans on course and maintain the fragile unity of her government.
That year’s conference in Manchester ended in humiliation as she was handed a P45 by a comedian on stage, lost her voice to a persistent cough and ended her speech with letters falling off the backdrop behind her.
After repeated failed attempts to get her Brexit plans through and with the party in open mutiny, her fate was sealed.
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2019: Theresa May resigns
Nicknamed the Maybot, for rarely revealing her emotions, Mrs May fought back tears as she announced her departure from Number 10 in Ma 2019.
With her voice cracking, she said at the time: “I will shortly leave the job that it has been the honour of my life to hold – the second female prime minister, but certainly not the last.
“I do so with no ill-will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love.”
Unlike many other former prime minister’s, Mrs May remained parliament and active on the backbench, not afraid to criticise the government.
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Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is looking at both tax rises and spending cuts in the budget, in her first interview since being briefed on the scale of the fiscal black hole she faces.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well,” the chancellor said when asked how she would deal with the country’s economic challenges in her 26 November statement.
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Ms Reeves was shown the first draft of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) report, revealing the size of the black hole she must fill next month, on Friday 3 October.
She has never previously publicly confirmed tax rises are on the cards in the budget, going out of her way to avoid mentioning tax in interviews two weeks ago.
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Chancellor pledges not to raise VAT
Cabinet ministers had previously indicated they did not expect future spending cuts would be used to ensure the chancellor met her fiscal rules.
Ms Reeves also responded to questions about whether the economy was in a “doom loop” of annual tax rises to fill annual black holes. She appeared to concede she is trapped in such a loop.
Asked if she could promise she won’t allow the economy to get stuck in a doom loop cycle, Ms Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do.”
She said that is why she is trying to grow the economy, and only when pushed a third time did she suggest she “would not use those (doom loop) words” because the UK had the strongest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year.
What’s facing Reeves?
Ms Reeves is expected to have to find up to £30bn at the budget to balance the books, after a U-turn on winter fuel and welfare reforms and a big productivity downgrade by the OBR, which means Britain is expected to earn less in future than previously predicted.
Yesterday, the IMF upgraded UK growth projections by 0.1 percentage points to 1.3% of GDP this year – but also trimmed its forecast by 0.1% next year, also putting it at 1.3%.
The UK growth prospects are 0.4 percentage points worse off than the IMF’s projects last autumn. The 1.3% GDP growth would be the second-fastest in the G7, behind the US.
Last night, the chancellor arrived in Washington for the annual IMF and World Bank conference.
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The big issues facing the UK economy
‘I won’t duck challenges’
In her Sky News interview, Ms Reeves said multiple challenges meant there was a fresh need to balance the books.
“I was really clear during the general election campaign – and we discussed this many times – that I would always make sure the numbers add up,” she said.
“Challenges are being thrown our way – whether that is the geopolitical uncertainties, the conflicts around the world, the increased tariffs and barriers to trade. And now this (OBR) review is looking at how productive our economy has been in the past and then projecting that forward.”
She was clear that relaxing the fiscal rules (the main one being that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to rely on taxation alone, not borrowing) was not an option, making tax rises all but inevitable.
“I won’t duck those challenges,” she said.
“Of course, we’re looking at tax and spending as well, but the numbers will always add up with me as chancellor because we saw just three years ago what happens when a government, where the Conservatives, lost control of the public finances: inflation and interest rates went through the roof.”
Pic: PA
Blame it on the B word?
Ms Reeves also lay responsibility for the scale of the black hole she’s facing at Brexit, along with austerity and the mini-budget.
This could risk a confrontation with the party’s own voters – one in five (19%) Leave voters backed Labour at the last election, playing a big role in assuring the party’s landslide victory.
The chancellor said: “Austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, all of those things have weighed heavily on the UK economy.
“Already, people thought that the UK economy would be 4% smaller because of Brexit.
“Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting.”
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