Former home secretary Amber Rudd has announced she will not stand again to be an MP in the upcoming general election.
The Hastings and Rye MP sensationally quit the cabinet and resigned the Conservative whip in parliament last month in an attack on Boris Johnson's decision to expel 21 colleagues who tried to avoid a no-deal Brexit.
In a parting message posted on Twitter the day after a snap poll on Thursday 12 December was announced, she wrote: Moving on. Good luck to colleagues in forthcoming GE.
Ms Rudd told the Evening Standard I'm not finished with politics, I'm just not standing at this election.
She revealed she will be meeting the Tory chief whip later today to ask to be allowed to represent the party in parliament for the remaining few days before it officially dissolves.
I will be leaving the House of Commons on perfectly good terms with the prime minister and I want him to succeed, she added.
As the former holder of two other cabinet briefs - work and pensions, and energy and climate change - Ms Rudd told the Evening Standard it was difficult to step down from her role last month.
I thought about it very hard, she said.
I felt I wanted to do it out of solidarity with colleagues I had been in cabinet with, people whose values as Conservatives I shared and respected.
I could not stand by while they were apparently being expelled from the Conservative Party.
I'm just very pleased the party appears to be reasserting itself, although it's disappointing it does not include a few of them.
I feel a sense of relief that they have been welcomed back and the party can be what it should be, representing different views on Europe as well as on everything else.
Ten of the 21 Tory rebels were given the whip back yesterday, a Conservative Party spokesperson announced.
Ms Rudd is the latest in a string of senior MPs who have announced they will not stand at the next election.
Speaker John Bercow, the longest-serving male MP Ken Clarke, former Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable, the grandson of Winston Churchill Sir Nicholas Soames and Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey are all not running.
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[embed]http://ooyala.news.sky.com/Bva25uaTE6JA5P9Qyr4pVs3HdXB8Sat4/DOcJ-FxaFrRg4gtDEwOjM3NjowODE7Tz[/embed] (c) Sky News 2019: General election: Amber Rudd confirms she won't stand again as MP
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