Caroline Lucas, the first and only Green Party MP in the British Parliament, announced on Thursday that she would not stand for re-election in the next general election expected in 2024.
The Green Party leader was elected in 2010 in the Brighton Pavilion constituency in the south of England, becoming her party's first candidate to enter Parliament.
In a letter sent to her constituents, Caroline Lucas, 62, explained that her mandate had "prevented her from devoting as much time as she would have liked" to defending the environment and the climate crisis.
"As the threats to our precious planet become more urgent", she says she is "looking forward to having the time to explore ever more creative and imaginative ways to help build a liveable future."
Lucas, who led the Green Party between 2008 and 2012, joins a long list of tenors of British politics to have announced that they will not seek re-election in next year's general election, including Ian Blackford, former leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party.
Most notably, however, the list includes a number of Conservative Party members, such as former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who resigned in April after bullying allegations, and Sajid Javid, who has held several ministerial posts in recent years. The Conservatives have been in power for the last 13 years but are now struggling in the polls.
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Labour's Margaret Beckett, the UK's first female Foreign Secretary between 2006 and 2007 and elected since 1974, has also announced that she will not stand for re-election.
In total, more than 50 of the 650 MPs in the House of Commons have already announced that they will not be standing for re-election, amid British mistrust of their elected representatives, particularly the Conservatives.
The Green Party recorded an electoral breakthrough at the last local poll in May in England, including winning a local council for the first time in its history.
