QUINTON MP Gisela Stuart has announced she is standing down after representing the Edgbaston constituency since 1997.

Mrs Stuart wrote to members of her local Labour party she is standing down after 20 years in the House of Commons.

She said: "After 22 years of campaigning and 20 years of having had the privilege of being the MP for this diverse, forever surprising and wonderful marginal seat I know when it is time to stand down and pass on the baton.

"The news of the early General Election has come as a shock to all of us. It means that we have to take decisions now which none of us thought we'd have to take 48 hours ago.

"I wanted you to hear from me that I have decided not to contest the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency at the general election in June."

She added: "Together we have done amazing things; things we never expected when I became the first 'Labour gain' of the Labour 1997 landslide as well as the first ever Labour MP for Bartley Green, Edgbaston, Harborne and Quinton.

"We won local battles, brought people together, challenged established assumptions about voters (and sometimes our own) and won elections against Tories that we didn't think were possible. But together we did it . We are Labour and our values are Labour.

"Whomever is selected as the Labour candidate will have my full backing. I will be with them and you not just in spirit but on the campaign trail. We will fight, as we always do, for every Labour vote."

The MP caused controversy in her own party by being an architect of Brexit and by telling Radio 4 she thought Labour would lose the General Election.