Conservative Former Minister Sir Bob Neill to Stand Down at Next Election

Conservative candidate Bob Neill (R) after winning the Bromley and Chislehurst in South East London, on June 30, 2006. Chris Young/PA Wire

Conservative former minister Sir Bob Neill KC will stand down at the next general election to support his wife who has been recovering from a stroke, he announced on Friday.

The 71-year-old MP was a junior minister in the coalition government under David Cameron until September 2012, and has chaired the Commons Justice Committee for nine years.

He has represented Bromley and Chislehurst since the constituency was created in 2010, and an old constituency of the same name since winning a by-election in 2006.

The area has always been a Conservative stronghold. In 2019, Sir Bob won 52.6 percent of the vote, compared to 28.7 percent for Labour’s Angela Wilkins, who came second.

Bromley and Chislehurst will be split three ways in the next election following a new boundary change.

Sir Bob announced his exit from politics on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday.

In a letter to local Conservative Association chair Neeti Gupta dated Thursday, the MP said the decision to prioritise his family was made “after a great deal of thought.”

“As you know, Ann-Louise has been fighting bravely to recover from the stroke that she suffered a while ago,” he wrote.

“It is a tough road for her, but we are very positive about it. Even so, I have concluded that it is right for me to spend more time supporting her.

“She has always been there to support me, and I want to do the same for her and our family,” he said.

Sir Bob said it has been an “enormous privilege to serve the people of Bromley” as councillor and MP, and he’s honoured to have served as a minister, a Conservative Party vice chairman, and chair of the Justice Committee.

The MP paid tribute to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying he was “giving the country the honest, diligent, and pragmatic leadership that our country deserves and which is in the best traditions of our party.”

He said he will “continue to work as actively as ever” until this Parliament is dissolved, and that he’s “confident” the party will win the new Bromley and Biggin Hill when the election comes.

In the next general election, which is likely to be in the second half of this year, just over half of Bromley and Chislehurst (55.1 percent) will belong Bromley and Biggin Hill, while the rest will go to Eltham and Chislehurst (27.7 percent) and Orpington (17.2 percent).

Sir Bob was born and educated in Hornchurch in east London, had a career as a barrister specialising in criminal law, was made Conservative Party vice-chairman for local government in 2012, has chaired the justice committee for nine years, was knighted just after the last general election, and is an avid fan of West Ham United.

He joins a series of MPs who have announced their intention not to contest the next election for various reasons.

Most recently, justice minister Mike Freer said he’s leaving politics following “several serious threats” to his personal safety by radical Islamists and more so-called low level incidents throughout his political career.

The MP for Finchley and Golders Green, who is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, said he has been targeted by Muslim Against Crusades, and terrorist Ali Harbi Ali who staked out his office before ultimately murdering Sir David Amess while posing as a prospective constituent who was planning to move to the constituency.

Mr. Freer told Sky News in December that he, and some of his other colleagues, had had to wear stab vests in public events.

He told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that a recent arson attack on his constituency office in December, which was followed by an email stating he was “the kind of person who deserved to be set alight,” was “the final straw.”

Mr. Freer won his Finchley and Golders Green seat in north London by around 6,600 votes at the last contest in 2019 and has been an MP since 2010.

PA Media contributed to this report.