Ruth Kelly, replaced today as Transport Secretary by Geoff Hoon, has announced that she will step down as MP for Bolton West at the next election.
Having already resigned from the cabinet to spend more time with her four young children, Ms Kelly told a meeting of Labour supporters in her constituency that she will not stand for Parliament again.
Ms Kelly has been MP for Bolton West since May 1997 and had a majority of 2064 in 2005.
Results from the 2005 General Election here.
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5 Comments
Has she taken another week to decide this, or did Brownistas leak the Cabinet resignation before she’d told her local party? Probably the latter. It would have been better for them to wait, as I worried she might be angling for Brown’s job, being rather opposed to her socially conservative religio-political views.
Now she’s gone. Perhaps there is a (liberal) god after all! (Over to you, Laurence….)
No, but I think there’s a liberal dog
blog, its spelt blog 😉
There is an issue here about the crazy hours MPs work which makes parenting difficult.
MPs should work 9 to 6 like everyone else.
Not everyone works 9-6.
In fact, I suspect less than half the population works from 9-6.