Peter Ainsworth has announced that he will be stepping down as MP for Surrey East at the general election.
According to his local paper, he gave "very careful thought" to his decision over Christmas and New Year and advised his association chairman of his decision over the weekend.
His decision to delay his announcement until this week - unlike John Gummer who announced his retirement on December 30th - means that the Surrey East Conservatives will have a shortlist of three imposed upon them by CCHQ.
I have put in a call to him to discover if there was any reason why he couldn't have announced this decision five days previously, in order to allow his local party to retain the right to choose a shortlist. He was one of those MPs who failed to respond to my inquiries in the autumn as to whether he intended standing again or not. I will report back with what he says if and when he returns my call. His response was:
"I made the decision the on New Year's Day. There's never a good time to walk away, but I'm confident that East Surrey Conservatives will succeed in finding a brilliant new candidate."
The departure of he and John Gummer deprives the Commons of two its greenest Conservatives. The greenest remaining Tory MP is arguably Tim Yeo - another who refused to confirm his intentions when I contacted him in the autumn and who is rumoured to be intending standing down.
In the mean time, Mr Ainsworth has released the following statement:
"It has been an enormous privilege and a genuine pleasure to have served my constituents for the past 18 years. I have done my best to help the most vulnerable people in our community and to protect our local environment. For much of my time in Parliament, I have been lucky enough to serve on the Front Bench, and I particularly enjoyed my time as Shadow Culture Secretary. Being in Opposition can be frustrating, but I believe that in my roles as Chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee and as Shadow Environment Secretary, I played a part in shifting political attitudes towards green issues. It was especially satisfying to pilot the Green Energy Act onto the Statute Book last year.
"My abiding interests have been, and remain, the promotion of cultural values and the arts, and reconciling economic growth with the limits set by nature. I look forward to pursuing these issues in the future. Meanwhile, David Cameron has my wholehearted support and I will continue to work for a Conservative victory at the next General Election in order to secure the changes that our country so urgently needs."
His successor as Conservative candidate will inherit his 15,921 majority, which makes it (in percentage terms) the 6th safest Conservative seat in the country.
Jonathan Isaby