A government a minister has compared himself to Gandalf in a surprising resignation announcement, shortly after another Tory MP also decided to leave his role.
The two resignations in quick succession have sparked speculation that a quick election might be on the way.
Robert Halfon, a skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister, and James Heappey, the armed forces minister, both said they would be stepping down today.
Mr Halfon said in a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that he would be leaving Parliament ‘at the forthcoming General Election’.
In a separate letter to the chair of his local Conservative Association, he says he turns to the author JRR Tolkien ‘both as a source of comfort, but also for some good advice’ at significant moments in his political life.
The message continues: ‘As I move towards stepping down at the General Election, I am reminded of what Gandalf said to Frodo Baggins after the defeat of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings:
‘”I am with you at the present… but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire… my time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help… among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.”‘
However, unlike the hobbits in the much-loved trilogy, the Tories may indeed be in need of some help ahead of the upcoming General Election.
Current polling shows Labour leading the party by more than 20 points – a lead that has barely shifted since Mr Sunak took over as prime minister in 2022.
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Today is the last day the PM could call a snap election to take place in May, as Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for.
Earlier this month, he explicitly ruled out a vote on May 2, the day of local elections in England and Wales.
That decision would also suggest any other election is unlikely to be held in the rest of that month, due to the challenge of holding two large-scale votes within weeks of each other.
Mr Halfon concludes his letter by saying: ‘Although I often feel more like the character Bilbo Baggins than Gandalf, I believe these words have great resonance, and perfectly capture my feelings as I move onto my next journey in life.’
The MP for Harlow previously described himself as a ‘huge admirer of JRR Tolkien’ in a speech at the Times Education Summit.
In that address, he went on to describe in detail the plot of an obscure Tolkien novella called Smith of Wootton Major.
Armed forces minister James Heappey posted a decidedly less eccentric resignation message on his X account, in which he described the ‘amazing privilege’ of serving in the role.
He said: ‘My sincerest thanks to all who serve so brilliantly in our nation’s armed forces & to the families that stand behind them.
‘We’re asking a lot of them at the moment – rightly so, the geo-political situation demands it – and we should never forget their sacrifice.'
The member of parliament for Wells, who was in the Rifles for 10 years before entering politics, was said to be close to resigning after privately expressing dissatisfaction with the amount of money being spent on defense.
He was thought to be a potential defense secretary after Ben Wallace resigned last year, but Mr Sunak chose to make Grant Shapps the defense secretary instead, even though he doesn't have any military background.
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