ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Fraser Kemp, 50, joins growing list of Labour retirees

We can add Fraser Kemp to our 'Chicken Watch' list of Labour MPs deciding to quit.  At the age of just fifty he offers another proof of the disillusionment within the parliamentary Labour Party.

The Conservatives have already selected Robert Oliver for the seat of Houghton and Sunderland South; a projected Labour majority of more than 17,000.

Hat-tip to Iain Dale.

8.30pm: Another MP we'd missed from ChickenWatch is Neil Gerrard. Stella Creasy (Facebook) was selected to replace him as the party's candidate for Walthamstow. She was selected from an all-women's shortlist.

Labour's John Austin MP will quit at next election

John Austin is standing down from Erith & Thamesmead at the next General Election.  It's supposedly a relatively safe seat but is anything safe for Labour now?

The seat is one of eleven south London seats for which the Conservative Party will select as a group - as noted last week.

This statement from Mr Austin appears on ePolitix:

"It is unlikely that there will be a General Election before late next year or 2010; in either case I will then be over 65, and 70 by the end of the next Parliament.  At present I feel fit and well and I had thought of delaying a decision until I reach 65, but that would have been unfair on the Party and risk the possibility of being so close to an election that there might not be time for a full selection process if I chose to stand down then.  Erith & Thamesmead is one of the most challenging constituencies with one of the highest levels of casework and whilst I feel fit, active and enthusiastic now, I am not sure that I will want to be working a 7 day, 70 hour week when I am 70."

Another Labour MP gives up the fight (ChickenWatch II)

Tory candidate for Finchley and Golders Green Mike Freer has welcomed the news that Rudi Vis MPwon't be standing again.  In a statement to the Ham & High, Cllr Freer said:

"This is the most marginal seat in the country - it needs just a 0.2 per cent swing to go to the Conservatives.   I would have been confident of a change in party whatever happened, but Rudi would have been a worthy opponent.  Labour now has no chance of winning Finchley and Golders Green. I am a local candidate and we also have a deeply unpopular government and a deeply flawed Prime Minister.  Glenda Jackson ought to retire gracefully now too."

ConservativeHome's ChickenWatch also hears that Chris Pincher's opponent in Tamworth - Brian Jenkins - will be stepping down soon, too.  Please contact us if hear of other resignations.

> ChickenWatch I

Another Labour MP quits

On Saturday we noted that Chris Mullins was quitting the Sunderland Central seat.

We learn today that another Labour MP - David Taylor is also quitting.

These are both signs that Labour MPs - forbidden by Labour rules from 'chicken running' to safer seats - are, perhaps, fearful of losing their seats when opinion polls are putting the Conservatives so far ahead.

In any case it's good news for Lee Martin in Sunderland and Andrew Bridgen in Leicestershire NW.  Both will find it easier to unseat a Labour candidate without any incumbency advantage.

Do email us if you hear of other MPs 'standing down'.