Another North MP joins the exodus
Jul 6 2009 The Journal
ANOTHER of the region's longest serving MPs has joined the rush to quit the Commons at the next general election. Labour former chief whip Hilary Armstrong announced on Saturday that she would stand down.
The news came as Newcastle North MP Doug Henderson confirmed that he too would be stepping down, as forecast in The Journal on Saturday.
North West Durham MP Ms Armstrong, who was a key ally of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, emerged almost unscathed from the Westminster expenses scandal.
The former social worker has represented the constituency since 1987 when she succeeded her father Ernest. Father and daughter have between them served for 45 years in the Commons.
Ms Armstrong’s five-year spell as chief whip came to an abrupt end in May 2006 after the Labour administration suffered a series of embarrassing Commons defeats.
Most notorious among them was a reverse on religious hatred legislation by one vote after she had personally sent the then Prime Minister home.
She was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and minister for social exclusion but returned to the backbenches when Gordon Brown succeeded Mr Blair in 2007.
“I will be 65 at the end of 2010, and feel that it is now the right time to let someone else take up the role,” she said after notifying local activists of her decision.
Ms Armstrong was among the first MPs to say they would pay back expenses, saying that while £5,500-worth of food had been within the rules, it “weighed on my conscience”.
