Tessa Jowell is stepping down as an MP – here’s the message she sent to her CLP

Dame Tessa Jowell – who served as a minister throughout Labour’s thirteen years in government – is stepping down as an MP in 2015. Perhaps best known in recent years for her work around the Olympics, she was also responsible for creating Sure Start – one the Labour’s proudest achievements. The rumours have already begun that Jowell will be standing for London Mayor in 2016 – but for now she’s off to teach at both Harvard and LSE.

Last night Jowell emailed members of her local party in Dulwich and West Norwood to tell them that she was standing down – and thank them for their support. Here it is:

Dear [X],

I am writing to let you know that I have informed our constituency Chair, and the General Committee, of my intention to stand down as your Member of Parliament at the next General Election in 2015.

This is, I think, the hardest decision I have ever taken. As you all know, since the day of my selection in 1990, I have felt the strongest bond with, and commitment to, our constituency. I have loved every day that I have served as your Member of Parliament. Every day I have felt the sense of awe, honour and responsibility at representing 80,000 electors.

My decision was made easier only by the fact that I have been awarded a senior teaching fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health for four months in the autumn of 2015, where I will be teaching the next generation of health leaders. I will be able to continue my work with finance and health ministers from across Africa, helping them to deliver the benefits, for their communities, of lower maternal mortality and greater numbers of surviving healthy children. I will also have a position at the London School of Economics teaching Urban Policy and Practice to the emerging leaders of cities in developing countries.

While I think that nostalgia is generally indulgent, I do feel proud of what we have achieved together to improve the lives of local people over the past twenty years. Together, through our community campaigns, we saw King’s College Hospital overhauled and mostly rebuilt; we saw more primary school places and we have seen four new secondary schools. The development of neighbourhood policing was key in bringing down crime, and the recent successful campaign to save Gipsy Hill Police Station will be crucial in maintaining confidence in local policing. A new health centre will be opening in West Norwood early next year. The big outstanding challenge is to see this matched with a new community health centre on the Dulwich Hospital site with, I hope, a primary school for local children and desperately needed affordable homes.

I had the extraordinary privilege to serve in Government throughout the whole of Labour’s period in office. I led the creation of Sure Start, introduced new maternity rights and maternity pay with particular financial support for disadvantaged mothers. Through the New Deal for young people, we extended employment opportunities for the most disadvantaged. As Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, I led the campaign in Government to bid for the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 and then oversaw every aspect of their development and successful staging. It is very rare in public life to be able to see a major area of Government policy through from start to finish.

I know that you share with me a belief in the extraordinary responsibility of representation, the power of politics, the decency of politics and its capacity to make known, and put to use, the best of human nature. We also accept that the job is never done, but I feel that the time is now right, for the constituency definitely and for me probably, to give somebody else the chance to take the next steps forward. It goes without saying that whoever is selected will have my full and whole hearted support. We must all continue to campaign for improvements in local services for local people and be fully engaged in campaigning for great success in the local and European elections in May 2014 and the General Election in 2015.

I want to thank our leader Ed Miliband, who I told personally of my decision last week, for his generosity and kindness. He will be a great Prime Minister and the responsibility of each and every one of us is to make sure that, from 2015, he leads a reforming Labour Government that our constituents so desperately need.

There will be plenty of opportunities for me to thank you individually but, as my Constituency Labour Party, I thank you for all we have achieved together, and thank you for your friendship and support.

With all best wishes,

Tessa Jowell MP