News / Politics

Former Tory minister drops out of London mayoral race

Wednesday, 06 May 2020 3:46 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 06 May 2020 3:46 PM ]

Rory Stewart has long been suspected of establishing the first post-Yugoslavia MI6 station in Montenegro

Prominent former Tory, Rory Stewart, has quit London’s mayoral race supposedly because of the disruption brought about by the coronavirus crisis.

The former cabinet minister said abandoning the race was an “agonizing decision”.

It is with sadness that I have decided not to run in the postponed London Mayoral election next year. Thank you to all who supported me, engaged with the campaign and shared my vision of all London can achieve. pic.twitter.com/yF4loR2nvL
— Rory Stewart (@RoryStewartUK) May 6, 2020

Stewart, who served as International Development secretary in Theresa May’s cabinet, claimed the “considerable challenges” of running as an “independent candidate” had become “forbidding” in an extended mayoral contest.

Local and mayoral elections in England had been due to take place on 7 May but they have been postponed for 12 months because of the coronavirus crisis.

A former British diplomat, Stewart has played a number of important roles in British foreign policy.

Some even suspect he is a former officer in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the UK’s foreign spying organization.

According to unverified reports Stewart helped establish the first MI6 station in post-Yugoslavia Montenegro, a strategic country situated on the Balkan coast abutting the Adriatic Sea. Stewart was appointed as the British representative to Montenegro immediately after the Nato-Yugoslavia War of 1999, when he was only 26 years old.

After the 2003 Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq, Stewart was appointed to the neo-colonial roles of deputy provincial coordinator for Maysan province and deputy provincial coordinator for Dhi Qar province, both situated in southern Iraq.

Whilst by most accounts Stewart was a relatively successful diplomat and spy, he has been markedly less successful in politics.

Stewart contested the 2019 Conservative party leadership election but was eliminated before the final rounds.

After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in late July 2019, Stewart was one of 21 Tory MPs expelled from the party for rebelling over Brexit.

The former MP for the Penrith and The Border constituency resigned from the Conservative party last October and failed to contest the December 2019 general election as an independent candidate.

Even if Stewart had decided to contest next year’s London mayoral race it seems unlikley he would have performed well.

Indeed, the most recent opinion poll from Queen Mary University of London put him in third place on 13 percent, behind current mayor Sadiq Khan and Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.

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