By Carla Booth
Additional reporting: John Baron
Stuart Andrew, MP for Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, has resigned from his position as Minister for Housing in Boris Johnson’s government.
Mr Andrew’s resignation this lunchtime is the 18th to hit the Prime Minister following his handling of the situation with former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. Former health secretary Sajid Javid and former chancellor Rishsi Sunak resigned yesterday.
Mr Andrew said in his letter:
“Loyalty and Unity are traits that I have always endeavoured to provide for our great party. However, I fear I have let these override my judgement recently. There comes a time when you have to look at your own personal integrity and that time is now. Therefore, given recent events I have no other choice than to resign.”
Mr Andrew’s letter in full reads:
“Dear Prime Minister,
It is with real sadness that I write to tender my resignation from HM Government.
I have been honoured to serve in a number of roles within government over the past few years, most recently as the Minister for Housing. This is a role, although having only been in post for six months, I have enjoyed immensely and I’m grateful to have been supported by a superb team, both in my private office and the wider civil service, within the department. It is good that housing is now so high on the political agenda and I wish my successor well and offer my apologies to the sector who will have to get to know yet another housing minister, but I should commend all of them – and those in local government – who are doing so much to address the housing needs of our country.
There is so much you have achieved which I admire. Brexit led to a complete stalemate in Parliament and your leadership in resolving that was no mean feat but you managed it following a hugely successful general election. The pandemic followed, and the swift financial response provided to so many households gave the reassurance they needed at an incredibly worrying time and the rollout of the vaccine enabled our country to get back to work with confidence. Now we face a proud independent country being threatened by an aggressive neighbour and, again. your response to the situation has been excellent.
Loyalty and Unity are traits that I have always endeavoured to provide for our great party. However, I fear I have let these override my judgement recently. There comes a time when you have to look at your own personal integrity and that time is now. Therefore, given recent events I have no other choice than to resign.
Our party, particularly our members and more importantly our great country, deserve better. Having a marginal seat I have seen the huge sacrifice our members make in volunteering considerable hours to campaign on our behalf and I cannot, in all good conscience, tolerate them having to defend the indefensible.
I pledge to do all I can to serve my constituents in Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough from the backbenches.”
Mr Andrew added on social media: “It is with sadness that I am resigning as Housing Minister. I pay tribute to all my ministerial colleagues, officials, and civil servants in the Department and the wider sector. I look forward to continuing to serve my constituents in Pudsey, Horsforth, and Aireborough.”
Yorkshire Party leader Bob Buxton, who lives in Mr Andrew’s Pudsey constituency, has claimed that Stuart Andrew’s resignation has ‘come too late to be meaningful’. He said:“While I respect his decision to resign from Government, it should have come seven months ago. If Mr Andrew had resigned in December, others might well have followed, and the UK would not have endured the farce of the last seven months – and we might have had better leadership to help with the cost-of-living crisis.
“Mr Andrew accepted the rewards of loyalty to a perpetually dishonest Prime Minister – promotion to Minister. He’s only resigned after it’s become obvious that Boris Johnson cannot survive as Prime Minister.”
Reaction to My Andrew’s resignation on social media has been mixed. One person Tweeted: “Never expected this from you but fair play. Way too late but at least you got there in the end… no doubt having a “marginal seat” had a significant role in there too.”
Another added: “If you cared about this country you would stay and fix it from within.” While another said: “It should be Boris resigning, not all the MPs.”
Mr Andrew served as Government Deputy Chief Whip from 2020 to 2022 and Minister of State for Housing from February to July 2022. He has been Member of Parliament for Pudsey since 2010.
