Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced his retirement from the House of Commons.
He will step down as Conservative MP for Henley which he has held since succeeding former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine in 2001.
The move, which was announced at his first news conference as mayor held at City Hall this morning, was one of Johnson’s pre-election pledges.
“It will be a huge wrench for me to leave Henley, which is of course full of the nicest, kindest and most wonderful people in the world outside London, but I do so, of course, because this job here in City Hall is simply too big and it is growing all the time,” he said.
The move will spark a by-election in the Oxfordshire seat – one of the safest in the country – with the most likely date for the by-election thought to be 26 June.
Johnson was re-elected in 2005 with an improved majority of 12,793 and a 53% share of the vote.
