Matt Hancock to stand down as Conservative MP

Former health secretary Matt Hancock has announced that he will not stand as a Conservative MP at the next general election.

The West Suffolk MP said he would continue to represent his constituents until then but was looking to ‘engage with the public in new ways’ in a letter to the prime minister.

He said: ‘The Conservative Party must now reconnect with the public we serve. There was a time when I thought the only way to influence the public debate was in Parliament, but I’ve realised there’s far more to it than that. I have increasingly come to believe that for a healthy democracy we must find new ways to reach people – especially those who are disengaged with politics. The revival of modern conservatism over the next decade will I suspect take place as much outside Parliament as in it.

‘For my part, I want to do things differently. I have discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore – new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and from all backgrounds. I look forward to championing the issues that are dear to my heart, including better support for dyslexic children who get a raw deal from the education system.’

Tory chief whip Simon Hart suspended the whip last month after it was revealed that Mr Hancock would be participating in the reality TV show ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’, in which Mr Hancock finished third.

In his letter to the prime minister, Mr Hancock said the chief whip had ‘made clear he would restore the whip in due course, but that is now not necessary’, meaning he will sit as an independent until the next election.

Mr Hancock resigned from his post as health secretary last year following the biggest public health crisis in a century and a string of public scandals, the last of which being the publication of leaked pictures showing him kissing an aide, breaking social distancing guidelines, that led to him stepping down.

He was replaced by Sajid Javid, who left the role in June this year and has also announced that he will stand down as an MP at the next election.

Mr Hancock arrived on the scene as health secretary in July 2018 as a low-profile Government minister, who was perhaps most famous for starting his own self-titled social media app. Since returning to the UK, his diary of his time as health secretary during the Covid-19 pandemic has been serialised in the Daily Mail.

Prior to becoming health secretary, he held positions as junior minister for digital services, and secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport.