Amber Rudd announces she will not stand in forthcoming general election

Former Cabinet minister Amber Rudd has become the latest senior parliamentarian to announce she will not stand in the forthcoming general election.

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.

She announced that she would stand down as an MP in an interview with the Evening Standard on Wednesday.

But she said: “I’m not finished with politics, I’m just not standing at this election.”

The former home secretary said she would be leaving the Commons on “perfectly good terms” with Boris Johnson and said she wanted him to succeed.

Her decision last month to quit the Cabinet came after 21 of her colleagues lost the Tory whip when they backed a plan to take control of the Commons timetable to pass legislation to block a no-deal Brexit.

Ten of the MPs had the whip restored on Tuesday evening.

Asked if she had any regrets, Ms 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”.

Her decision comes after several other senior parliamentarians announced that they will not stand at the forthcoming election in December.

Conservative grandee Sir Patrick McLoughlin, who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Transport Secretary and Conservative Party chairman, said he would not seek reelection in his Derbyshire Dales constituency.

Sir Patrick said he felt it was “now time for me to move on” after 33 years in Parliament.