ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Amber Rudd today revealed she will quit the House of Commons next week - but her hopes of returning fully to the Conservative fold were dashed by the Chief Whip.

“I’m not finished with politics, I’m just not standing at this election,” the former home secretary told the Evening Standard.

She said she had met Prime Minister Boris Johnson and now hoped to get the whip, which she resigned last month, restored.

However, Chief Whip Mark Spencer wrote to her this afternoon refusing. “Receipt of the whip is an honour, not a right and it cannot be discarded or returned at will,” he ruled.



Ms Rudd resigned from the Cabinet in solidarity with 21 Conservatives who were sacked from the whip for voting to prevent a no-deal Brexit in September.

She also resigned the Tory whip at Westminster and indicated she could stand against her party in a London seat if the punishment for the 21 was not rescinded.

Last night Mr Johnson met 10 of the 21 last night and offered them the whip back, while No 10 sources made clear the rest could return in future.

“I spoke to the Prime Minister and had a good meeting with him a few days ago,” she revealed. “I’m really confident of my position.

"I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the Prime Minister and I want him to succeed.”

As a former holder of three senior Cabinet positions — energy and climate change secretary, home secretary and work and pensions secretary - she was not short of offers from campaigns and the private sector.

She was talking to a leading non-government organisation about a role focusing on climate change and also wanted to pursue her strong interest in how cyber security needs to adapt for the modern world.

Ms Rudd said she had no regrets about sacrificing a Cabinet career to stand by colleagues she believed had acted bravely. “Yes, it was a difficult thing to do,” she said.

“I thought about it very hard. I felt I wanted to do it out of solidarity with colleagues I had been in cabinet with, people whose values as Conservatives I shared and respected. I could not stand by while they were apparently being expelled from the Conservative Party

“I’m just very pleased the party appears to be reasserting itself, although it’s disappointing it does not include a few of them.

“I feel a sense of relief that they have been welcomed back and the party can be what it should be, representing different views on Europe as well as on everything else.”

Ms Rudd would not rule out a return to the Commons in future but said there were “many other things I want to do”.

Asked if she had any regrets, Ms Rudd said: “I felt I made the right steps at those critical points and I am pleased that the Prime Minister has now restored the whip to some of those colleagues.”