Glenda Jackson MP to step down

As expected Glenda Jackson will be stepping down as Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn – confirming what she told the local press least year, when she said “If this government stays until 2015, they may not of course, but if they do, I will be almost 80 and by then it will be time for someone else to have a turn”. She will tell her GC meeting tonight that she’ll be vacating the seat in 2015 – which will trigger a selection for the hyper marginal seat (it has a majority of just 42).

Jackson has been a Labour MP for over 20 years, and before entering Parliament she was a double Oscar winning actress (and of course, a popular Morecambe and Wise guest star). As an MP, she served as a junior transport minister and ran unsuccessfully for the Labour nomination for Mayor of London in 2000.