Conservative MP Trudy Harrison will not stand at general election

Conservative MP Trudy Harrison has announced she will not stand for re-election.

Mrs Harrison has represented Copeland, in Cumbria, since 2017.

Boundary changes mean the seat will become Whitehaven and Workington at the next general election.

The mother of four told BBC Radio Cumbria her decision was not a response to fears her party would suffer heavy losses at the election, which will be held in the next 18 months.

Describing herself as a "community activist at heart", she said she had helped shape national policies but wanted to spend more time in her native Cumbria.

"It was a difficult decision, a few months in the making," she said. "I'm not a career politician or parliamentarian.

"I stood in February 2017 to tackle some pretty knotty issues facing my community like maternity services that were under threat [and problems at] Whitehaven Academy and Millom swimming pool.

"Flooding was also looming large over areas like Keswick and Egremont, but the big one was nuclear. We had no nuclear policy."

Her victory in a February 2017 by-election, following the resignation of Labour's Jamie Reed, was the first time a Conservative had taken the Copeland seat since the early 1930s.

She was re-elected at the 2019 general election and became parliamentary private secretary to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Later appointed minister of state for transport, she is currently a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

She added: "Perhaps naively, when I stood I thought I would be able to tackle the national injustices and get national policies that work for our area.

"But because I spent so much time in London making legislation, voting and being in meetings I don't have the ability to get involved in projects locally."

More than 40 Tory MPs have now announced they will stand down at the next election, including Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and former ministers Dominic Raab, George Eustice and Sajid Javid.

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