Ken Clarke to step down at next General Election

Ken Clarke, the longstanding Conservative MP for Rushcliffe, has announced he will call time on Westminster career at the next General Election.

According to reports, Clarke will retire from Westminster politics in 2020 by which time he will have been in Parliament for over 50 years.

Clarke is quoted as saying: “I have told the officers of my constituency association that once we have finished the boundary changes they had better start choosing my successor. I will not stand again. This is my last Parliament.”

Clarke, who is 75, is currently writing his memoirs, which are due to be published later this year.

He was first elected as MP for Rushcliffe in 1970, and rose to prominence under the Thatcher and Major governments in the 1980s and 90s first as Employment Minister
then Trade and Industry Minister, Health Secretary, Secretary of State for Education, Home Secretary and then Chancellor.