James Heappey to leave (UK) MoD Role and stand down as MP
 

Armed forces minister James Heappey will not stand at next election - BBC News

Apparently he is to step down from his ministerial post in a month's time. One suspects the reasons include the unmentioned anger at no defence spending increase and disappointment at not replacing Ben Wallace.
(Mods - any chance of correcting the typo in the title?)

One also suspects he's leaving a sinking ship?

Armed Forces Minister goes down without a fight?

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....67cc05b2f0.png

That makes about sixty Conservative MPs standing down at the next election.

Yep, he makes it a grand total of 62 to date. Not counting actual and potential future defections..,

A somewhat presumptuous closing clause in his notification of resignation letter to his local party chairman, observing that, whilst 33336 people voted for him in 2019, 28292 people did not. Presumably now polishing his CV....:rolleyes:

Jack

Ninthace,

Given his military career I very much doubt he feels the need to prove to anyone on here his willingness or ability to fight.

He chose not to fight his seat, however, Part of good soldiery is to know when to fight and when not to.

Our local MP has also decided to seek alternative employment. It hasn't left much time to select and present a replacement to the electorate.
Or is this another example of 'go before being pushed' and showing contempt for those who voted them in in the first place?

Not huge support for Cons in Somerset these days after betrayal of farmers and influx of blow ins from London and SE . Often a Lib Dem stronghold in the past the SW may return to something like that state .

He like his former boss seemed a more old school conservative, although still youngish' and not one of the class of Boris with all the sleaze and dishonesty he brought to the party.

I heard him speak at a private event 6 months ago, and the gist of his speech was "Everything in in the garden is rosy; the men & women in our armed forces do a wonderful job,etc".
When I tackled him afterwards on certain issues behind his unwarranted optimism, he lied to me outright (or he did not know basic facts, which I doubt).

Nice chap on the surface though.

Yes there are 62 conservative MPs not seeking re-election, but as usual, the devil is in the detail.

I'm sure some (many?) of them don't think they can win, but there are also boundary changes, and no doubt other factors - a very brief search found that one of those not seeking re-election is 83, another is 76!

There are also 17 Labour MPs not seeking re-election, who presumably don't see retaining their seat as an issue given current poling figures. Which just goes to show there can be many reasons behind such as decision.

Churn of personnel is part of the natural process.

Personally I don't think any MP should be able to seek re-election past the age of 70.

Kindly note - this post was not written in defence of the Conservative party, who won't be getting my vote.

to quote Percy French, in Slattery's Mounted Foot: "[he] preferred the soldier's maxim, when desisting from the strife; best be a coward for five minutes, than a dead man all your life."

Following that thought, I wonder if there will be many constituencies that will be unable to a Conservative candidate?

There will be no shortage of Conservative candidates at the next election.

Both main parties (used to?) run a sort of unofficial apprenticeship scheme for wannabe MPs. Start off life as an intern while you learn the ropes. Stand as the candidate in one or two constituencies you have no hope of winning (hence no shortage of candidates in the forthcoming general election), maybe a bi-election. Then, if you've stayed the course, shown commitment and your face fits, you get put forward as the candidate in the next available "safe" seat. You're now in!

The geography of where you were born, live, work has no bearing on the constituency you end up in - and the feelings of the local constituency party are usually overruled.

A long winded way of saying there will be plenty of candidates at the general election.