Former cabinet minister Ed Vaizey has announced he will step down at the December general election.



Calling it “one of the hardest [decisions] I have ever taken”, Vaizey said the time was right to move on.



“I am passionate about the arts, our creative industries and technology and I want to specialise in these sectors,” he wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.



“Let me make one thing clear: I am and will remain an enthusiastic supporter of you as our Prime Minister,” he added.

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“I believe that your One Nation agenda is the right path for the Conservative Party, and will be working hard to help my successor, party and Prime Minister achieve a decent majority.”

After much reflection I have decided not to stand at the next election. I will campaign hard for my successor & look forward to @BorisJohnson and @conservatives winning a great majority. Thanks to all in Wantage & Didcot who supported me over so many years #vexit pic.twitter.com/irVsn1G2a2 — Ed Vaizey (@edvaizey) November 6, 2019

Vaizey, who served as culture, media and sport secretary under former Prime Minister David Cameron, was not recalled to cabinet when Theresa May took charge in 2017.



The politician was one of 21 Tory MP rebels who voted against the government in a bid to block a no-deal Brexit over summer.



He is one of 10 of those rebels that Downing Street welcomed back into the party as it attempted to push Johnson’s Brexit deal through the Commons.



Vaizey said in his letter: “I want to thank you for returning the whip to me, despite our temporary differences.



“I also thank my association, which has been supportive of me for the last seventeen years.”



Vaizey joins former chancellor Philip Hammond and a host of other MPs who have said they will step down at the next election.

Hammond, who has consistently opposed Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy since leaving his role as chancellor, said he made the decision with “great sadness.”

He said he had to leave politics after the Prime Minister withdrew the whip from him and 20 other Tory rebels, who moved to block a no-deal Brexit earlier this year.

He joins a list of MPs that will not contest their seats again which includes former home secretary Amber Rudd, erstwhile deputy prime minister Sir David Lidington and culture secretary and former treasury select committee chair Nicky Morgan.

Other prominent names stepping down include Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart who is fighting the next London mayoral election and Liberal Democrat MP Heidi Allen who left the Conservative Party over its Brexit stance.

Read more: Rory Stewart: The ex-Tory mayoral candidate in need of a London story

Former chancellor and father of the house Kenneth Clarke – who has been MP for Rushcliffe since 1970 – and fellow grandee Sir Nicholas Soames are both stepping down after losing the Conservative whip after rebelling against Boris Johnson’s government on Brexit.

Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey is also leaving parliament after a controversial stint as Labour’s most prominent pro-Brexit parliamentarian.

Other familiar faces leaving the house at the next general election include speaker John Bercow, former defence secretary Michael Fallon, Jo Johnson – brother of the Prime Minister, former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable and former education secretary Justine Greening.

Read more: The mayoral candidate in need of a London story

Conservative MPs standing down at the next general election

Nicky Morgan – Culture secretary and former Treasury committee chair

Sir Alan Duncan – MP for Rutland and Melton and former Europe minister

Rory Stewart – MP for Penrith and The Border and former secretary of state for international development

John Bercow – MP for Buckingham and Commons speaker

Mark Field – MP for Cities of London and Westminster

Michael Fallon – MP for Sevenoaks and former defence secretary

Nick Hurd – MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner and Northern Ireland minister

Jo Johnson – MP for Orpington and universities minister.

Claire Perry – MP for Devizes

Mark Prisk – MP for Hertford & Stortford

Keith Simpson – MP for Broadland

Glyn Davies – MP for Montgomeryshire

Jeremy Lefroy – MP for Stafford

Caroline Spelman – MP for Meriden and former environment secretary

David Tredinnick – MP for Bosworth

David Jones – MP for Clywd West and former Wales secretary

Seema Kennedy – MP for Ribble South, minister, and former Downing Street PPS

Richard Harrington – MP for Watford

Sir Nicholas Soames – MP for Mid Sussex and former defence minister

Alastair Burt – MP for North East Bedfordshire and former Foreign Office minister

Richard Benyon – MP for Newbury

Sir Patrick McLoughlin – MP for West Derbyshire

Mims Davies – MP for Eastleigh and under secretary of state for employment at the Department for Work and Pensions

Sir David Lidington – MP for Aylesbury & former deputy prime minister

Bill Grant – MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock

Hugo Swire – MP for East Devon and former minister of state in the Northern Ireland Office and minister of state in the Foreign Office

Peter Heaton-Jones – MP for North Devon

Sarah Newton – MP for Truro and Falmouth

Margot James – MP for Stourbridge and former Business minister

Ross Thomson – MP for Aberdeen South

Ed Vaizey – MP for Wantage

Read more: Polls put Conservatives in line for a comfortable election victory

Labour MPs standing down

Gloria De Piero – MP for Ashfield and shadow justice minister

Ronnie Campbell – MP for Blyth Valley

Kevin Barron – MP for Rother Valley

Jim Fitzpatrick – MP for Poplar and Limehouse

Kate Hoey – MP for Vauxhall

Albert Owen – MP for Ynys Mon

Teresa Pearce – MP for Erith and Thamesmead and ex-shadow housing minister

John Mann – MP for Bassetlaw

Geoffrey Robinson – MP for Coventry North West

Stephen Pound – MP for Ealing North

Stephen Twigg – MP for Liverpool West Derby

Ian Lucas – MP for Wrexham

Owen Smith – MP for Pontypridd and former leadership challenger

Adrian Bailey – MP for West Bromwich West

Ann Clwyd – MP for Cynon Valley and former secretary of state for international development and chair of the parliamentary Labour Party

Helen Jones – MP for Warrington North

Jim Cunningham – MP for Coventry South

Paul Farelly – MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme

Roberta Blackman-Woods – MP for City of Durham and shadow minister for housing and planning

Read more: When will we have a UK general election?

Liberal Democrat MPs standing down at the next general election

Sir Vince Cable – MP for Twickenham, former leader of the Lib Dems and former business secretary

Heidi Allen – MP for South Cambridgeshire

Norman Lamb – MP for North Norfolk

Read more: Rory Stewart ‘doesn’t speak for London’: Lib Dems mayoral candidate

Independent MPs standing down

Philip Hammond – MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, former chancellor, foreign secretary, defence secretary, and transport secretary

Kenneth Clarke – MP for Rushcliffe, former chancellor, home secretary, health secretary, justice secretary, education secretary and the father of the house

Oliver Letwin – MP for West Dorset and former chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Guto Bebb – MP for Aberconwy and former defence minister

Nick Boles – MP for Grantham

Justine Greening – MP for Putney and former education secretary

Dame Louise Ellman – MP for Liverpool Riverside and chair of the Transport Select Committee

Amber Rudd – former home secretary and MP for Hastings and Rye

Joan Ryan – MP for Enfield North

Ann Coffey – MP for Stockport

John Woodcock – MP for Barrow and Furness

Read more: Labour to back Prime Minister’s call for December election