Alan Simpson standing down

Alan Simpson will stand down as an MP at the next election.
His reasons :

In a letter to his constituency party members, the MP said a Gordon Brown-led premiership would be even worse.

Mr Simpson, 58 and first elected for Nottingham South in 1992 said there were "not enough" good Labour MPs.

He said he would be more effective campaigning for radical environmental change outside parliament, rather than remaining on the back benches.

Mr Simpson said in a letter to party members: "There are good people in the Parliamentary Labour Party but not enough of them. At times, I feel that colleagues would vote for the slaughter of the first born if asked to."

He added that another factor behind his decision is the birth last year of a baby daughter from his third marriage.


Interesting to see what impact this has on the his support for Meacher to stand for Labour leader, thus splitting a left vote for McDonnell.
Not exactly a resounding vote of confidence for a Meacher campaign.

It also follows on from the announcement by Lynne Jones that she will stand down next election.

Given the limited number of left MPs this is not good news.