‘Red wall’ MP Dehenna Davison joins list of Tories standing down at next election

Dehenna Davison, a young Conservative MP who was considered a rising star, has announced she will not stand at the next election, as the party gears up to select its parliamentary candidates.

The MP for Bishop Auckland, already a junior minister at 29, had been thought of as a bright prospect in the party since her election in 2019. The veteran Tory MP Sir Gary Streeter has also announced he will not stand, with recent opinion polls predicting the Conservatives could lose more than 200 seats.

Davison’s departure may surprise many, as she had just been appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and represents one of the hard-won “red wall” constituencies. She became Bishop Auckland’s first Conservative MP with a majority of about 8,000.

“For my whole adult life, I’ve dedicated the vast majority of my time to politics, and to help make people’s lives better,” she said in a statement. “But, to be frank, it has meant I haven’t had anything like a normal life for a twentysomething.

“I will always be humbled to have had the opportunity to serve as a member of parliament. But now the time feels right for me to devote more of my attention to life outside politics, mainly to my family and helping support them as they’ve helped support me. That’s why I won’t be standing in the next general election.”

Streeter, a former shadow international development secretary, voted for remain in the 2016 EU referendum before later backing Theresa May’s Brexit deal. The 67-year-old MP for South West Devon, who has held the seat since 1997 and has a majority of more than 21,000, told his constituents he had “great confidence” in Rishi Sunak’s leadership as he announced he would not stand again.

Earlier this week the former work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith and the influential backbencher William Wragg both announced they would be stepping down at the next election.

The Conservative party is braced for a growing exodus of MPs as polls show it facing a huge challenge to recover popularity.

MPs have been asked to indicate if they wish to stand in the next election by 5 December, which also marks the closing of the final consultation on the boundary review, the Guardian understands.