Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced he will be standing down from Parliament at the next general election. The MP for Spelthorne in Surrey said on X it had been an “honour to serve the residents of Spelthorne since 2010”.
Mr Kwarteng became the UK’s first black Conservative cabinet minister in 2021. A senior figure in former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government, he was sacked as chancellor in October 2022. He lasted just 38 days in the role after a mini-budget he produced resulted in financial turbulence and a revolt from Tory MPs.
In a letter to Ms Truss after he was asked to stand aside, he said “following the status quo” with regards to the economy had not been an option.
The mini-budget of September 2022 included £45bn of tax cuts and was followed by market turmoil, a fall in the value of the pound and rises in the cost of UK government borrowing and mortgage rates. Announcing his decision not to stand again, he said: “I informed my association chair of my decision not to stand at the next general election.
“It has been an honour to serve the residents of Spelthorne since 2010, and I shall continue to do so for the remainder of my time in Parliament.” More than 80 MPs have announced they will leave Parliament at the next election, including more than 50 Conservatives or former Conservatives.
Mr Kwarteng’s brief tenure as chancellor made him the second-shortest serving chancellor behind Iain Macleod, who died a month after taking office in 1970. Prior to his time at the Treasury, Mr Kwarteng served in a number of junior ministerial roles before becoming business secretary under Boris Johnson in 2021. Mr Kwarteng is the latest Surrey MP to announce he is standing down.
The others are: Sir Paul Beresford in Mole Valley, Crispin Blunt in Reigate, Chris Grayling in Epsom & Ewell, and Dominic Raab in Esher & Walton. There are currently 11 MPs for Surrey but the county will have 12 at the next election due to boundary changes.
Mr Kwarteng secured a majority of 18,393 at the last election. His Spelthorne seat has been a generally safe Conservative one, returning a Labour MP only once in more than 100 years.
Source: BBC
In other news – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims cost of living pressures starting to ease
The prime minister has claimed that the burden on hard-pressed households is “starting to ease”. In a BBC interview, Rishi Sunak said pressures from higher bills or mortgage rates were subsiding.
It comes as eight million people on means-tested benefits will receive their final cost-of-living installment. The £299 payment will go directly into bank accounts of those eligible before 22 February without the need to claim. Read more
