David Cameron has lost two MPs in the space of 24-hours. Dudley South MP Chris Kelly and Banbury MP Sir Tony Baldry have both announced they intend to quit the Commons at the next election.
Kelly's decision is perhaps more worrying for the prime minister than Baldry's, as he was only elected in 2010. He is now the ninth Tory MP who has decided to leave the Commons after serving just one term. The eurosceptic MP won Dudley South from Labour in 2010 with a majority of 3,856. In a statement on his website he said he was "proud to have served the good people of Dudley South for the past five years" but did not give a reason for his decision.
Baldry, by contrast, is a veteran parliamentarian who was first elected in 1983. In a statement on his website, published early on Monday morning, the 64-year-old said it did not think he could serve another full five-year term effectively.
"One of the consequences of now having five year fixed term Parliaments is that if I succeed in being re-elected at the forthcoming general election, given my age, most people will assume that Parliament will be my last," he said.
“I think this creates a danger that I may be unable to be as effective as I would wish to be; and that the constituency will be distracted from more important issues by the need to choose my successor.
The announcements come just days after Cameron lost Clacton MP Douglas Carswell to Ukip.