LONDON: On Friday, former prime minister Theresa May declared that she would resign as an MP at the next election, joining an increasing number of members of the UK’s ruling Conservatives who have deserted leader Rishi Sunak.
May, 67, is the most well-known of several prominent Conservative legislators to declare that she will not run for reelection in this year’s national election, which pollsters project will hand their party a crushing defeat.
Since October 2022, the Conservatives have continuously lagged behind Keir Starmer’s Labour opposition, and it is generally believed that they will be ousted from office after 14 years in office.
May has been the southeast England constituency’s representative since 1997. She also held the office of prime minister from 2016 to 2019, which was a turbulent time for the UK as it tried to negotiate its exit from the European Union.
Former UK PM claims she is still “committed” to Sunak
May told the local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, “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.”
Addressing issues near to her heart, such as human trafficking and contemporary slavery, had been “taking an increasing amount of my time,” she said.
“As a result, I have realized that, going forward, I would no longer be able to perform my duties as an MP in the manner that I feel is proper and that my constituents deserve,” the MP stated after giving it much thought.
May stated that she was still “committed” to backing Sunak and that she thought the Conservatives would prevail in the election, which is anticipated to take place in the second half of the year.
With 64 Conservatives and former Conservatives declaring they will not seek reelection, the number of Tories quitting parliament has surpassed that of Labour’s resounding victory under Tony Blair in 1997.
The figures, according to Labour chairperson Anneliese Dodds, indicated that there was “no confidence” in the future of the Conservative party.
This was refuted by Treasury Minister Gareth Davies MP, who stated on Times Radio that MPs were stepping down “on all sides of the house.”
Of the 650 MPs in parliament, nearly 100 have declared they will not run for office again.
Brexit problems
Tim Bale, a political scientist and the author of a book about the Conservative party’s rightward turn since Brexit, said that the possibility of facing opposition will cause many Tories to defect.
He told AFP that he suspected some of them were also motivated by conflicting emotions on the extreme right-wing populist turn their party appears to be taking these days.
According to reports in the British media, the Conservative Party is having difficulty fielding candidates, and some of its Members of Parliament are distributing leaflets that omit their party affiliation.
Requests for reaction from a Conservative representative were not immediately answered.
From 2010 until 2016, May was the interior minister under David Cameron, the prime minister at the time.
However, May became prime minister less than a month after Britain voted to leave the EU on June 23, 2016, following Cameron’s subsequent resignation.
In an attempt to break the impasse over the conditions of Britain’s exit from the EU, she called a general election in 2017, but the outcome was a hung parliament.
She resigned in May 2019 after the Tories lost badly in the European elections and she was unable to get her package through parliament.
Brexit dominated Theresa May’s tenure as prime minister, but she presided over terror attacks in London and Manchester as well as the fire that destroyed the Grenfell Tower block in the UK capital, killing seventy-two people.
