Christian MP Alistair Burt to stand down at next election

Mr Burt was first elected MP for Bury North in 1983 and again in 1987 and 1992. He lost in 1997, when Tony Blair got a landslide victory for the Labour party, but regained his say in the House of Commons in 2001 when he won in North East Bedfordshire 

Mr Burt, a Jeremy Hunt supporter in the Conservative leadership race earlier this year, told Premier in July that he still wished for Johnson to succeed as Conservative leader: “There’s lots of colleagues of whom I’m aware both of their strengths and weaknesses, as they’re of mine – and I preferred Jeremy – but Boris Johnson is now the Prime Minister and do I want him to succeed? Absolutely.

“I know the sorts of things I want him and his government to avoid and I hope to provide advice in relation to that but I want to see a Boris Johnson who will succeed.”

However, on Tuesday Alistair Burt announced that he had “fundamental and unresolvable disagreements” with Boris Johnson’s government, before he voted against the leadership over taking control of the parliamentary agenda. 

The Prime Minister had already threatened MPs who were thinking of voting with the opposition that they would have the party whip withdrawn and effectively expelled from the party and not allowed to stand as Conservatives at the next election. 

Speaking back in July about his desire to avoid a no deal, which is currently our default option…