Paul Goodman MP, former editor of The Telegraph's comment pages and currently a frontbencher within the local government and communities team, is to stand down at the next General Election. Mr Goodman entered the Commons in 2001 and now sits on a projected Conservative majority of 7,012 in Wycombe.
He sets out his reasons in an article for his local newspaper and you can read the full text on ConservativeHome.
Cynics will think there is something suspicious in Paul Goodman's decision, perhaps related to expenses. I don't think so. He first talked to me two years ago about stepping down and confirmed his inclination a few weeks ago.
Paul Goodman uses his resignation article to explain that he is
concerned about the drift of politics. He is worried that the quality
of Parliament is in decline. He sees power flowing from backbenchers to the executive. From politicians to the media. From Westminster to the European Union. His particular new worry is the effect of expenses-gate on the quality of MPs:
"In an act of class revenge, Gordon Brown pushed through Parliament a
measure compelling the remaining MPs who work outside the Commons to
declare how often they do so. The result will be a further
injection of state power and patronage – the medicine that’s sickening
the patient. The spirit of the age is against citizen MPs, and few
working business people, lawyers, doctors or (dare I say) journalists
will long be able to fend off local rivals who pledge to be in the
Commons for every hour of the working day. Parliamentary elections
threaten to become dutch auctions of self-abasement. In the
short term, a few older MPs with knowledge of the outside world will
hang on. But some of their younger colleagues will quietly leave,
telling friends that the loss of earnings is the last straw that broke
the camel’s back – on top of vanished privacy and declining status.
And, in the medium term, much future talent will avoid the Commons
altogether. Most of the rest will get in quick, scramble to the
top, and get out quicker. The Commons’ institutional memory will
weaken. With a number of exceptions, MPs will become cowed and toiling
drudges. Fringe eccentrics and exhibitionists will provide the
necessary colour, coming and going like celebrity TV contestants –
briefly exalted and just as swiftly toppled. Forceful Ministers and effective Select Committee Chairmen are likely to be scarce in such a shallow pool."
I wish Paul had stayed to fight to reverse the trends he sees but I understand his decision. The Conservative Parliamentary Party will lose a very good man. I enjoy Paul Goodman's company a great deal. He was a great encourager to me personally in the early stages of the social justice agenda. By all accounts he is a good constituency MP. I'm particularly disappointed that he won't become the minister for community cohesion. Paul is one of the party's leading thinkers on Muslim affairs and he'll leave a big hole in our capacity to get on top of issues of integration and extremism. I wish Paul and his wife Fiona, and their young son, every success in what comes next in their life. I'm very sad at his decision.
Tim Montgomerie
> Before Paul Goodman's decision there were already ten Tory-held seats seeking a new candidate.
> 6/6 update: Iain Dale talks to Paul Goodman MP about his resignation.
