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Dehenna Davison has become the latest Tory MP to announce they will not be standing at the next general election.
The levelling up minister was elected in the red wall seat of Bishop Aukland in 2019.
Davison is the sixth Conservative MP to confirm they are not seeking re-election next time round – with many more tipped to follow them as the party continues to trail well behind Labour in the polls.
Tory bosses have given their English MPs a fortnight to confirm whether they are standing at the next election as they brace themselves for a mass exodus.
Davison said she had been “humbled” to serve in parliament but that the “time feels right for me to devote more of my attention to life outside politics”.
The 29-year-old was one of the youngest MPs to be elected 2019, when Boris Johnson won an 80-seat majority in parliament.
Other figures who have announced they are standing down include former work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith, select committee chair William Wragg and veteran Tories Crispin Blunt and Charles Walker.
South West Devon MP Gary Streeter announced shortly before Davison that he would also not seek re-election, saying: “The time has come for me to step back and let a younger person take over.”
In a statement, Davison said: “For my whole adult life, I’ve dedicated the vast majority of my time to politics, and to help make people’s lives better. But, to be frank, it has meant I haven’t had anything like a normal life for a twenty-something.
“I will always be humbled to have had the opportunity to serve as a member of Parliament. But now the time feels right for me to devote more of my attention to life outside politics – mainly to my family, and helping support them as they’ve helped support me. That’s why I won’t be standing in the next general election.”
She added: “I will always be grateful to the Conservative Party as a whole, and to all the individual members who have supported me, for giving a young, working class lass from Sheffield the opportunity to serve as an MP.
“And I will always be passionate about politics as a means to create meaningful, lasting and positive change.”
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