Conservative MP and former minister Paul Scully has announced he is stepping down at the next general election. He issued the following statement on X/Twitter:
I have told my local association that I won’t be contesting the next General Election. Over the last nine years it’s been a privilege to represent in Parliament, the area which I called home for 35 years.
I was never going to retire as a politician. It was never a long-held ambition to cling to, but a way to effect change and add value, which I hope I have been able to do in a small way, even though politics is a long thankless process.
My amazing team and I have worked on issues raised by constituents including reuniting mothers with their children in difficult circumstances and getting positive results for many who came to me as a last resort. Of course, there have been many who I’ve not been able to help.
I’ve helped campaigners for Cystic Fibrosis sufferers like [the Cystic Fibrosis Trust] secure life-changing drugs on the NHS; change the narrative from the negative “Save St Helier” to securing healthcare in our borough through the £500m government investment and spending time with Sutton’s growing Tamil, Indian, Ahmadiyya, Hongkonger, Nepalese, Turkish, and Bangladeshi diaspora as well as more established communities like the Polish community who have called Sutton home for decades.
I’ve worked with the LibDem run council constructively whenever possible including our successful bids for £11m Future High Streets funding & £14m to improve rail connection between Sutton & Belmont, as well as championing the proposed London Cancer Hub.
But as with much of the work I’ve done in Whitehall as [a] minister …, plenty is left unfinished and I hope that my Conservative successor will be able to pick these up.
Fuelled by division, the party has lost its way and needs to get a clear focus which I hope the budget can start to provide. It needs a vision beyond crisis management which can appeal to a wider section of the electorate including younger people.
If we just focus on core vote, eventually that core shrinks to nothing. Talk more about housing; renting first because home ownership has drifted too far from so many. Show a real connection and empathy with other generations.
Otherwise we risk pushing ourselves into an ideological cul-de-sac. The standard deviation model is true in politics. Most people are in the middle. We can work with the bell curve or become the bell-ends. We need to make that decision. I fear the electorate already is!
It sometimes felt lonely as Minister for London. When London works, the UK works but for that to happen, you have to give it attention, love and care. We should not be disrespectful to Londoners, but treat the mayoral role seriously.
Last week’s no-go-gate frenzy about my poor choice of words in a wider 12 minute interview condemning the very behaviour I was accused of shows you can’t do community relations in a few minutes and that people will take the easy option to report division than to understand.
Social media feeds this with shrinking attention spans and confirmation bias. It’ll get worse over the next few years before it gets better. I’d already started to let people know that I was stepping down. It didn’t make my mind up but confirmed I’d made the right choice.
The last 9 years have been an incredible roller coaster. I’ve achieved so much with the Post Office, hospitality, tech, gambling, my local hospital, my work in Myanmar & beyond. But I’ve also lost my marriage and seen two colleagues murdered. So time to pass on the baton.
I’ll continue to represent Sutton, Cheam and Worcester Park proudly and digilently in the months to come. My words above are speaking truth to power, not a sign that I believe we should have anything else but a Conservative government.
There are plenty of colleagues in the parliamentary party and new MPs to come who will respond to the challenge in positive fashion. Do that for the hard-working councillors and activists. But mainly do it for the people across the country whose voice we are. /END
I have told my local association that I won't be contesting the next General Election. Over the last nine years it's been a privilege to represent in Parliament, the area which I called home for 35 years (1/16 [sorry!])…
— Paul Scully MP (@scullyp) March 4, 2024