Leading Midlands MP quits constituency to become museum director
A SENIOR Midlands MP is to quit his constituency to take up a new role as a director of one the UK’s best known museums.
Tristram Hunt’s decision to quit as Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central to become director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will trigger a by-election in what is a very sensitive constituency for the Opposition party.
Although Mr Hunt, a former Shadow Education Secretary, held the seat at the 2015 General Election, his majority was just 5,100 in what was previously a safe seat for Labour.
The constituency, which is one of those due to disappear as part of the latest review of Parliamentary boundaries, was one of the strongest opponents of staying in the EU in last year’s referendum.
The by-election will be a test of Labour’s stance on Brexit as well as on the Government’s handling of the UK’s departure from the EU.
Mr Hunt, who at one time was viewed as a serious candidate to replace former Labour leader Ed Milliband, denied in his resignation letter to his local party that his decision was intended to ‘rock the boat’.
He said: “As I enter a new role as a public servant, I will be leaving partisan politics behind me and will work impartially as a museum director. I am sorry to put you, the party and the people of Stoke-on-Trent through a by-election. I have no desire to rock the boat now and anyone who interprets my decision to leave in that way is just plain wrong.”
He also speaks of his frustration about how an inability to tackle issues such as poverty and inequality.
Mr Hunt is the son of Julian, Baron Hunt of Chesterton, a meteorologist and a former leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City Council.
A specialist in urban history, Mr Hunt has made many appearances on television, presenting programmes on the English Civil War, the theories of Sir Isaac Newton and the rise of the middle class. He has also made regular appearances on BBC Radio 4.
He also wrote a book, Building Jerusalem, in which he scrutinised leading social reformers of the Victorian era, including Birmingham’s own Joseph Chamberlain.
