Tory minister reacts to record exodus of MPs before election: ‘It’s reasonable’

Tory minister reacts to record exodus of MPs before election: 'It's reasonable'Source: Sky News

Transcript

00:00 What should people read into the fact that the number of Tory MPs who've chosen to step down

00:06 now exceeds the number that did before Tony Blair's big win in 1997, including the housing minister

00:14 now Michael Gove, a long-serving cabinet minister, probably the most high-profile Conservative MP to

00:21 quit so far? I think that what people should take away from it is that there have been many Conservative

00:27 MPs who in their late 50s or 60s who've served for 20 to 30 years. John Redwood has served for

00:33 well over 30 years I think in Parliament for example. Michael Gove served for 20 years. You

00:38 know people, it's reasonable after people spending time doing a job for 20-30 years

00:43 getting near retirement that they choose to do something else. I think that's quite fine, that's

00:46 fine and I think we've got the right blend of experience. People like Jeremy Hunt who've been

00:50 in Parliament for a very long time, very experienced man as Chancellor and people like me you know a

00:55 bit younger, a bit newer. I think that that blend of experience... But 78 going is an awful lot though

01:00 isn't it? Well actually in percentage terms it's lower than 1997 because obviously...

01:07 We had way fewer MPs then than we have now so of course if you had such a big win in 2019 obviously

01:17 it feels like a bigger number but look I'm not going to go on about that. All I think is the

01:21 vast majority of Conservative MPs are standing again. We're confident that once people are

01:26 presented with a real choice we're going to do well and surpass the polls.