A personal letter from Andrew Tyrie
I attach a statement that has just been sent out announcing my decision to stand down as Member of Parliament for Chichester.
What the statement does not begin to express is my gratitude to all those Conservative members in the constituency who have given me such unswerving support through thick and thin.
We started off in 1997 with a 46 per cent share of the vote. At the last election, it was 58 per cent. That is almost twice the increase achieved by the party nationally. In 1997, a number of apparently very safe Conservative seats were falling all around us. More were lost in 2001. We saw off the threats. In 2001, Chichester came 87th nationally in terms of the Conservative share of the vote; now, it is 39th.
Though large in terms of membership, the Association was nothing like as strong as it is today. It now has the ninth highest membership income in the country. And several of those eight are federations covering a much bigger area.
The strength of the Association has enabled us to take full advantage of national swings, giving us the very strong District and County Council Conservative representation in the area that we now enjoy. We have done all this by sticking together. When we have disagreed, we have respected each other’s views.
The leadership, from a succession of first-rate chairmen, and also branch chairmen, has been outstanding. The staff support, led for a long time by the late Leila Moore, and now by Julia Hixson, has been everything that an Association and an MP could hope for, and more.
So I have had tremendous support from the Association. I hope that I have made some use of it by contributing at Westminster. I have certainly tried.
The most difficult aspect of this decision, and it has been the most difficult of my life, has been the friendships that I have built up and the roots that I have put down in the area. This is particularly true of many of those reading this letter. I will continue to live locally, and I very much hope that those friendships will endure.
In a few weeks’ time, this constituency will have a new, and – I’m very confident – Conservative MP. He or she will have my full support, and, knowing you as I do, I am sure that you will rally round for the new MP just as you did for me.
With very best wishes
Yours ever
Andrew