Former Tory MP Stewart running for Mayor of London

Rory Stewart, one of more than 20 exiled Conservative lawmakers, who also recently vied to become Britain's prime minister, announced on Friday his intention to step down from as an MP in order to run in London's mayoral election next year. He said that he would leave the Tories entirely — having already been removed from the party in the House of Commons — and run as an independent.

"I'm getting away from that gothic shouting chamber of Westminster, I'm getting away from politics which makes me feel sometimes as though [U.S. President Donald] Trump has never left London," Stewart said in a video message posted to social media.

Stewart, who came in fifth during the Conservative Party contest to succeed former PM Theresa May, said he wanted to provide a more moderate stance to what he perceives as the increasingly extreme political rhetoric in Britain brought about by Brexit.

"This is a city that is now in real danger, danger from Brexit, from technological change, but I think above all from what has happened in British politics, to the kind of extremism that is taking over our country," the 46-year-old said.

Current Mayor Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party won by a comfortable margin in 2016, but his administration has garnered criticism over an increase in knife crime and delays in infrastructure and transport projects.

'A bright light extinguished'

Khan will also be facing off against Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey, who has attacked the mayor over a planned high-frequency, high-capacity rail link across the city called Crossrail, which has faced major issues including going over budget and having the opening date pushed back from December 2018 to early 2021.

Stewart is a former UK diplomat to Indonesia and Montenegro, and served as under secretary of state for the environment under Prime Minister David Cameron and as minister of state for international development under his successor, Theresa May. He's the MP for a rural northern constituency on the border with Scotland that's particularly reliant on livestock farming, one of the industries most at risk in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

He's been a vocal campaigner for a so-called soft Brexit, and was one of the most senior Tories to be ejected by Boris Johnson's government for supporting legislation designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit at the end of October. A former soldier and diplomat with a particular interest in international affairs, who has served in various capacities in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, Stewart consistently polled as the most popular Conservative among young and non-Tory voters as a result of his bid for the party leadership.

Sir Nicholas Soames, another of the purged Conservatives, and Winston Churchill's grandson, responded to Stewart's announcement with one of his trademark never-ending hashtags on Twitter, saying: "So very sorry a bright light extinguished in our baleful lowering political life and discourse, disaster for the Tory party." 

es/msh (Reuters, dpa)