Sajid Javid becomes highest-profile MP to join Tory exodus with 11 MPs now quitting and party struggling in the polls

2 December 2022, 11:21 | Updated: 2 December 2022, 12:02

Sajid Javid has become the latest Tory MP to announce he will not stand in the next general election.

The former Chancellor and health secretary announced he had made the decision "after much reflection".

Javid, 52, is the most high-profile of a string of MPs to say they will quit Parliament as the Conservatives struggle in the polls and saw Labour's majority in the Chester by-election rise by nearly 11,000 in Rishi Sunak's first major electoral test as PM.

Conservative chiefs have given a deadline of Monday for sitting politicians to say if they want to stay on.

Veteran Tory MP Charles Walker, who has also said he will step down at the next election, warned that the party will "pay the price" and faces 10 years in opposition.

Javid, 52, has been the MP for Bromsgrove since 2010 and has held many senior cabinet jobs including chancellor, home secretary and health secretary.

He unsuccessfully stood in the leadership race triggered when Boris Johnson was ousted earlier this year.

In a letter posted on Twitter, he said it was "a decision I have wrestled with for some time".

"Serving as the Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove remains an incredible privilege, and I will continue to support the Government and the causes I believe in."

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Javid first came into parliament in 2010 at the start of the Coalition government, and got his first job on the frontbench in 2012 as economic secretary to the Treasury.

Javid quit the latter role - less than three months into the job - after the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his senior adviser Dominic Cummings insisted he sack his aides and replace them with ones chosen by Downing Street.

And he was the first minister to resign in the wake of exists that led to Johnson's downfall.

Tory bosses fear a mass exodus as the party struggles to regain momentum in the polls and suffered a mauling in the Chester by-election with the Labour majority increasing by 11,000.

Other MPs to announce they are quitting including rising star Dehenna Davison who was elected to the Red Wall seat of Bishops Auckland in 2019 and veteran Gary Streeter.

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.