Dehenna Davison to stand down as Bishop Auckland MP at election

Dehenna Davison, the Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland, has announced she intends to basal down astatine the adjacent wide election.

The 29-year-old was elected arsenic the County Durham constituency's archetypal ever Tory MP successful 2019.

Levelling Up curate Ms Davison is the 4th Tory MP to denote their departure this week.

Ms Davison said she present wanted to give much clip to "life extracurricular authorities - chiefly to my family".

She said: "I've dedicated the immense bulk of my clip to politics, and to assistance marque people's lives better.

"But, to beryllium frank, it has meant I haven't had thing similar a mean beingness for a 20-something."

She reassured her constituents she "absolutely won't beryllium checking out" and volition proceed to service them "with the aforesaid gusto and dedication close until the time erstwhile I manus the baton connected to the adjacent idiosyncratic who volition person the honour of representing the astonishing radical of Bishop Auckland".

She added she was grateful to Conservative Party members who gave "a young, moving people lass from Sheffield the accidental to service arsenic an MP".

Bishop Auckland Conservatives president Luke Allan Holmes said Ms Davison had worked "tirelessly" for the constituency.

"She has been instrumental successful securing implicit £70m of authorities backing for our country and has fixed enactment our country the benignant of nationalist spotlight that would person been unthinkable conscionable a fewer abbreviated years ago," helium said.

By Richard Moss, Look North governmental editor

If anyone symbolised the caller Conservatism that demolished ample chunks of Labour's bluish reddish partition of seats, it was Dehenna Davison.

Working class, northern, and large connected TikTok, she was the archetypal Conservative MP to correspond Bishop Auckland. She was a antithetic benignant of Tory and surely not prepared to beryllium backbench fodder.

Her determination to instrumentality a presenting relation connected GB News stirred up opponents, but she was besides among the archetypal Conservatives to telephone connected Boris Johnson to resign implicit Partygate.

She was an enthusiastic backer of Liz Truss but I americium not definite she and Rishi Sunak are connected the aforesaid Conservative page.

That mightiness beryllium 1 crushed for her decision, though she volition beryllium accused of bailing earlier Labour could eject her. Proposed bound changes are rather kind, though, and - privately - adjacent opponents archer maine she could survive.

Of the 2019 bluish Conservatives, she is 1 who could gain much wealth extracurricular Parliament than in. But she is wide her family, and her tendency to unrecorded a small - she is lone 29 - are down her decision.

It'll beryllium up to those Conservatives inactive lasting to beryllium she and the Tory triumph successful the North were thing much than impermanent phenomena.

The vice-chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, helium has held the Hazel Grove constituency successful Greater Manchester since 2015.

The Conservative MPs for Norwich North, Chloe Smith, and South West Devon, Gary Streeter, besides announced this week they intended to basal down.