Former cabinet minister Amber Rudd has announced she will not stand in the forthcoming general election.
Rudd, a former home secretary, told the Evening Standard: “I’m not finished with politics, I’m just not standing at this election.”
She added: “I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the prime minister and I want him to succeed.”
The Hastings and Rye MP, who had a majority of just 346 at the last election, resigned from the cabinet and surrendered the Tory whip over Brexit in September.
David Lidington, the former de facto deputy prime minister, also announced today he would not seek re-election. “Politics imposes a heavy cost on family and private life,” he told the The Bucks Herald.
It comes as ten MPs who were expelled from the Conservative Party last month after rebelling over Brexit have had the whip restored last night.
Senior figures including Sir Nicholas Soames and Alistair Burt were among those who have been readmitted to the parliamentary party following a meeting with the Prime Minister.
Twenty-one MPs were kicked out of the party last month after they backed a plan to take control of the Commons timetable to pass legislation to block a no-deal Brexit.
Former ministers Caroline Nokes, Greg Clark, Ed Vaizey, Margot James, Richard Benyon, Stephen Hammond, Steve Brine and Richard Harrington have also had the whip restored.
But Rudd was told by Tory chief whip Mark Spencer that she would not be getting the whip back.
“Receipt of the whip is an honour, not a right and it cannot be discarded or returned at will,” he said.
Asked if she had any regrets about her time in politics, Rudd said: “I felt I made the right steps at those critical points and I am pleased that the Prime Minister has now restored the whip to some of those colleagues.”
She did not rule out a return to Westminster in the future, but said there were “many other things I want to do”.
Several other senior parliamentarians are expected not to stand at the forthcoming election in December.