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Tory grandee and prominent Remainer Sir Oliver Letwin is to stand down at the next election, his office has said.

Sir Oliver, a former minister and shadow chancellor, was originally elected to Parliament as MP for West Dorset in 1997.

His office confirmed his intention to step aside, saying he had originally planned to do so in 2020.

After 22 years in parliament, the 63-year-old will give up his seat when the next election is called.

Sir Oliver, who was educated at Eton and Cambridge University, began his political career as a member of Margaret Thatcher’s Policy Unity from 1983 to 1986.

He first stood successfully against Labour’s Diane Abbott in Hackney North and Stoke Newington at the 1987 election.

Sir Oliver lost again against Glenda Jackson for the Hampstead and Highgate seat in 1992.

In 1997, he finally won the historically safe Conservative seat of West Dorset.

In 2000, leader of the opposition William Hague appointed Sir Oliver as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury in 2000.

A year later he was made shadow home secretary by new Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

British Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him to the newly-created officer of Minister for State and Government Policy in the coalition government in 2010 but the position was abolished in 2015.

In 2014, he was then appointed as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster until the 2016 Brexit referendum.