LONDON — Rishi Sunak’s former Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is planning to stand down as an MP, as an exodus of big-name Conservatives quitting before the next election continues.
According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Raab has informed his local Tory association that he doesn’t plan to stand in his Esher and Walton constituency at the next nationwide vote, expected next year.
In a letter to the association, Raab — who quit government last month after a bruising inquiry into claims he bullied civil servants — wrote that he has “become increasingly concerned” about the impact of the job on his young family, the Telegraph reported.
Raab is only the latest senior Tory figure to announce they won’t stand at the next election, as the Conservatives fret over polling that puts the opposition Labour Party well ahead. The former deputy PM’s Esher and Walton seat is particularly vulnerable, and he defeated his Liberal Democrat challenger by just 2,743 votes in the 2019 election.
Raab joins former cabinet ministers including Sajid Javid and George Eustice who have also announced that they will exit parliament at the next election. More than 30 Conservative MPs have so far said they will not run again.
The former Cabinet minister — who stood in for Boris Johnson when the then-prime minister was hospitalized with COVID-19 — is opting to quit after an investigation into bullying complaints that found he had been “unreasonably and persistently aggressive” towards staff. Raab attacked the “flawed” findings at the time.