Why Tristram Hunt won't be the last to leave Corbyn's Labour Party
MPs close to Tristram Hunt say he faced a "perfect storm" and add "others will be chatting to contacts and dusting off their CVs".
Friday 13 January 2017 17:12, UK
In a recent chat with a former shadow minister, they mentioned to me that they had been offered a big job outside politics.
Tempting though it was, the MP turned it down as they have a safe seat and hope the Labour Party can, in time, recover.
But they thought other colleagues in less secure constituencies would have gone for such an opportunity.
Now Tristram Hunt, another former shadow minister, has become a seat in Jeremy Corbyn's party and seek a life outside Parliament.
In some ways he was the most obvious candidate to do so - ambitious and with a successful career before politics, yet vulnerable in his constituency and clearly despondent about the prospects of his party.
But still Labour colleagues are shocked by his departure.
"It's depressing that people like Tristram no longer see their future in our party, we can't afford to lose talent like that. He's one of our biggest brains," a colleague said.
"It's infuriating in a way because we (the moderates) want to be fighters not quitters, but who can blame him for taking a job like that?"
The historian and former education spokesman was seen as one of the stars of the 2010 intake and at one time tipped as a successor to Ed Miliband.
He held on to his seat with a majority of 5,179 in 2015 but with UKIP on the march and the Conservatives a close third, both will fancy their chances in a difficult by-election for Labour.
It is a seat which voted by 69.4% to leave the EU against the entreaties of their MPs.
Hunt, the privately educated academic from London and one of the party's leading Blairites, was never a natural fit for his constituency, but he threw himself into the revival of the Potteries and into researching how Labour should tackle its dilemma on immigration.
Like , his seat was due to be abolished in proposed boundary changes and he faced a fight with his colleague Ruth Smeeth - another energetic moderate MP - to stay in Parliament.
MPs say that will have factored into his thinking, as will the fact that Mr Hunt was targeted and threatened with deselection by activists from the Corbyn-supporting group Momentum, having publicly called on the Labour leader to stand down to prevent a wipeout at the next election.
I'm told the boundary changes would take out a safe area of his seat, strengthening their hand.
MPs close to Mr Hunt say it was a "perfect storm", but that he won't be the last to leave the fold.
Some Labour MPs who lost seats in 2005 and 2010 have struggled to find jobs, and as one MP put it: "If you get a great offer now, you can't blame someone for taking it - they fear they'll just be joining a long queue for jobs in 2020."
The MP added: "This is a sign of the malaise under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership - people think they'll be out or languishing on the back benches for a very long time to come.
"Other colleagues will be chatting to contacts and dusting off their CVs."