Keir Starmer announces he is standing down as an MP

Former Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer has announced that he is standing down as a Labour MP, saying it is the “right time” for him to leave the Commons.

Following his decision to resign as Labour Party leader, there had been much speculation about Sir Keir’s future, and he has told his constituency’s local newspaper, the Camden New Journal, that it was the ‘right time’ to leave the House of Commons and concentrate on new work on international affairs.

The MP for Holborn and St Pancras told the New Journal that he was ready to “pass the baton to a successor”, adding: “It has been a huge honour and privilege to represent the best constituency in the country and to have taken over from Frank Dobson, who was such a great constituency MP and a member of the last Labour government. I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world.

“I will also continue, as I have done for a long time now with others, work on combating violence against women and girls; that is an issue that matters to me hugely. It’s work I started before I became an MP and it’s work I’m keen to continue after I’m an MP. So international affairs on the one hand, and continuing my work on violence against women and girls on the other.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward