‘I’m leaving that gothic shouting chamber’: Ex-Tory leadership hopeful Rory Stewart quits Westminster to run for London mayor

Rory Stewart, who stood as the ‘One Nation’ candidate in the Tory leadership race this summer, has resigned from the party and the UK Parliament to run as an independent against Sadiq Khan for mayor of London in 2020.

Stewart, who was the Tory leadership rank outsider who gained high praise for trying to connect with people outside of the ‘Westminster bubble’ with a series of public addresses, made his announcement on Friday via a video message on social media.

I’m leaving that gothic shouting chamber. I’m getting away from a politics which makes me feel sometimes as though Trump has never left London.

Making his mayoral pitch to Londoners, the Hong Kong born, 46-year-old Etonian insisted that he was determined to bring about change, not “through division but through love.”

It sets up an intriguing battle for London mayor between Khan, the incumbent, as well as the Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey, which is set to take place in May next year.

Stewart was one of 21 Tory rebels who had the whip withdrawn by leader Boris Johnson in September after voting for the ‘Benn Act;’ a piece of legislation that compels the UK PM to seek a delay to Brexit if a deal cannot be agreed with the EU by October 19.

Announcing his resignation from the Conservative Party and Westminster politics earlier on Twitter, the MP for Penrith and the Border said that it was with “sadness” that he would be standing down at the next general election.

After the row over drugs among Tory leadership candidates erupted in June, Stewart admitted that he had smoked opium at a wedding in Iran, before entering frontline politics. He served in a number of ministerial roles for former PM Theresa May, including as secretary of state for international development in 2019.

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