The MP for Wolverhampton South-West has announced on Twitter that he “will not seek re-election for Wolverhampton South West”.
He says that “it has been the greatest honour of my life to be the Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West. While I will continue to represent my constituents with pride, I have made the decision not to seek renomination for personal family reasons.”
Birmingham Live reports that “the dad-of-five has spoken out about death threats he has suffered during his time in the role, while there have also been a number of attacks on his Chapel Ash office. Alica Kearns tweets that “”his family & he have faced the most egregious and unforgivable threats, abuse & criminality”.
Anderson’s statement points out that he served as an Assistant Whip under three different Prime Ministers since elected for the first time in 2019. I know no more about Anderson’s decision than he has made public, and wouldn’t seek to deter anyone from seeking election to Parliament, but downsides of the kind quoted above are worth mulling.
Wolverhampton South-West has become a swing seat, going Labour in 1997, back to Conservative in 2010, Labour again in 2015 and Conservative again four years ago.
A direct quote from Anderson’s statement is below –
