Six more Conservative MPs have announced they will not be standing at the General Election after Rishi Sunak named the date as July 4th.
That means there are now a total of 121 MPs who have declared they will not be seeking re-election this time around. Of these, 83 were elected to Parliament as Conservative MPs. Six of them made their announcement in the last 24 hours, with the latest to declare they are standing down including two former contenders for the party leadership - Michael Gove and Andrew Leadsom.
They join an exit list that includes former prime minister Theresa May and ex-cabinet ministers Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab, Nadhim Zahawi, John Redwood and Ben Wallace. Since Mr Sunak announced the election date on Wednesday evening, a total of 15 MPs have publicly declared they would not be seeking re-election, eleven of them Conservative MPs.
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As well as Michael Gove and Andrew Leadsom, the other Tory MPs to publicly declare they are standing down since the election was called are Jo Churchill (Bury St Edmunds), Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest), James Grundy (Leigh), Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle), Sir Michael Ellis (Northampton North), John Redwood (Wokingham), Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford), Greg Clark (Tunbridge Wells) and Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet).
Three Labour MPs - Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield), Holly Lynch (Halifax) and Kevan Jones (North Durham) - have joined the Westminster exodus. Representatives of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson also confirmed he would not be seeking re-election in Lagan Valley. Just over a fifth of the 365 MPs elected as Conservatives in 2019 have now
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