How many Labour MPs are standing down at the next election?

On Sky News’ Breakfast show this morning, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Gareth Davies claimed that “nearly 50 Labour MPs” have said they will stand down at the next election. 

While discussing former Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement that she will not be standing for re-election as the MP for Maidenhead, Sky News presenter Anna Jones said to Mr Davies: “I think that makes it close to 60 Tory MPs, that’s around a sixth of the party, choosing to stand down at the next election. It sounds like there are a lot of Tory MPs that have made their minds up about the party’s prospects in the next election.”

Mr Davies replied: “I think there’s nearly 50 Labour MPs as well, just to be completely balanced about this”. 

This appears to be incorrect. Mr Davies hasn’t given any evidence to support his “nearly 50” figure, and it doesn’t appear to match the number of Labour MPs who have publicly announced they will not be standing at the next election. 

The House of Commons Library has a list of the MPs who have said they will not be standing for Parliament at the next election. 

As of earlier today, when the list was most recently updated, 17 Labour MPs had said they won't stand (the House of Commons Library notes this list is compiled from media reporting and “cannot be guaranteed to be definitive”). 

The figure of 17 is matched in a list compiled by the Institute for Government, also updated today. It also closely matches a “rolling list” compiled by Labour List, which contains the names of 16 Labour MPs. (This latter list doesn’t include Christina Rees, who was readmitted to the Labour Party last month, but who has said she won’t be standing for Parliament again at the next election.) 

The list compiled by the House of Commons Library also shows 60 Conservative MPs have said they will be standing down, as does the list published by the Institute for Government. 

These lists also show that the Green Party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, has said she will not be standing for re-election, as have nine SNP MPs, two Sinn Feinn MPs, one Plaid Cymru MP and six independent MPs. 

Of the six independent MPs who will not contest the next election, Crispin Blunt, Matt Hancock, Julian Knight and Bob Stewart were previously Conservative MPs, while Conor McGinn and Nick Brown were formerly Labour MPs. 

At the end of the interview, Ms Jones returned to this topic and said to Mr Davies: “I’m just going to pick you up on something you said earlier. I’m being told that the number of Labour MPs who are standing down at the next election is something like 17 rather than close to 50, but we’ll go away and have a look at that.” 

Mr Davies said: “OK, maybe have a look.” 

We’ve written to Mr Davies to ask him for a source for his claim, and we will update this article if he responds. 

Ministers must provide evidence for what they say. If an MP makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.

Image courtesy of Chris McAndrew.