Former chancellor and health secretary Sajid Javid has said he will stand down as an MP at the next general election. Mr Javid, MP for the Worcestershire seat of Bromsgrove, said he had made the decision “after much reflection”.
He said his decision had been accelerated by a Tory Party review, which is asking sitting MPs to indicate now whether they want to stand again. Eleven other sitting Tory MPs are set to quit at the next election, expected in 2024. Mr Javid previously served as home secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May, and in 2019 was promoted to chancellor by Boris Johnson.
But he dramatically quit as chancellor after six months in the role, following tensions with Mr Johnson’s then-advisor Dominic Cummings.
The Conservative Party has asked its MPs to indicate by Monday if they want to run again, to aid the party’s preparations ahead of the next election.
Among those to announce they are quitting Parliament in recent days are Dehenna Davison, a levelling up minister, backbenchers William Wragg and Charles Walker, and former work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith.
Eleven current Labour MPs have also said they will be standing down, but they are mostly older – with five over the age of seventy.
Mr Javid, who turns 53 on Monday, has a large 23,000 majority in his Bromsgrove constituency. Unlike some MPs, the boundaries of his seat are not due to be changed under a scheduled review of the electoral map.
Confirming his decision in a letter to the area’s Conservative association, he did not give a reason why he had decided to stand down.
However in a signal that he will continue to operate within the political world, he said quitting as an MP would not “mark the end of my Parliamentary activity”.
Source: BBC
In other news – Harry Potter TV Series May Be Coming Soon
Following the success of the Harry Potter reunion and competition shows, Warner Bros. TV Group boss Channing Dungey has said the company is having discussions about expanding its Harry Potter television catalog.
Dungey was speaking during the U.K. TV conference Content London, where she was asked by Variety about whether or not another television project based on Harry Potter would be coming. Learn more
