Former UK chancellor Philip Hammond quits parliament after BoJo bans him from representing Tories

Philip Hammond, the former British chancellor who had the Tory Party whip removed by PM Boris Johnson after rebelling against his government on a key vote to delay Brexit, is to stand down from parliament.

Hammond took to social media on Tuesday to reveal his decision to not seek re-election as an independent MP in his constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge. He was one of 21 Conservative lawmakers who had the whip removed in September for supporting the so-called Benn Act, which helped secure a Brexit extension with Brussels.

Hammond said that he was “saddened” that he had to take this decision but he had been left with no alternative as fighting the election as an independent would have meant him being thrown out of the Tory Party.

He notably took what was ostensibly a pop at the Johnson’s leadership and the perceived lurch to ‘the right’ insisting that he would be working “to ensure that the Conservative party of the future is a broad-based, forward-looking, pro-business and pro-markets centre-right party.”

In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program he accused Downing Street of being taken over by ‘Vote Leave’ campaign activists who wanted to change the shape of the party and take it in a more hardline Brexit direction.

Hammond served in former PM Theresa May’s cabinet from 2016 to July 2019. He’s the latest Conservative to quit parliament following a string of resignations from the ‘center’ of the party, the majority of which have been strong opponents of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.

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