Lucy Allan: Why isn't Telford's former MP standing - and why isn't she a Conservative anymore?

Mrs Allan, decided not to stand this summer for the seat - but the end of her nine-year stint as an MP was more eventful than most goodbyes in British politics, as she turned her back on the Tories and ended her time in Westminster as an independent after being suspended from the party.

So why did the woman who turned Telford blue then successfully defended it for the Tories twice decide to walk away from the town and the party, and what happened next?

Sensational wins

Former financial worker Ms Allan, 59, will always be able to say she was the first Conservative to represent the Telford constituency in Parliament.

It had been a Labour seat from its inception in 1997 right through to 2015, when she sensationally beat Labour's David Wright by just 730 votes. He had been the MP since 2001 and had won three elections for Labour.

Ms Allan just about held onto the seat in 2017, beating Labour's Kuldip Sahota by 720 votes - then got to enjoy a far more decisive victory in 2019, winning 10,941 votes more than Katrina Gilman.

But three and a half years after the night of her biggest triumph, she had made her mind up - her most successful election campaign yet would be her last.

Out of the blue

In a shock statement on her website in June of 2023, Ms Allan revealed that she would stand down at the next General Election.

She thanked Telford's residents for their "kindness and decency" to her and said representing the town had been "the best thing [she] had ever done".

The statement said: “It’s been an immense privilege to serve such an incredible town, particularly during a period when, against the odds, and despite many local and national challenges, Telford has flourished. I am honoured that so many of my constituents have trusted me to help them with some of the most sensitive and painful events in their lives.

“Over the last 10 years Telford has grown in optimism and confidence, realising its true potential as the West Midlands’ economic power house. It is a wonderful place to live and work. The air is clean, the light is beautiful, the housing is good value and our green spaces are second to none.

"We have created new skilled jobs and fantastic opportunities for the next generation. I am so proud of what we have achieved together, despite obstacles along the way, to secure Telford’s future, which was always my goal from day one.

"I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to play a small part in Telford’s extraordinary and inspirational story. It’s the best thing I have ever done.

“I look forward to seeing Telford continue to go from strength to strength and I wish every resident all the very best for the future. It has been a genuine pleasure to serve. Thank you for the kindness and decency you have shown me.”

The sudden announcement caught many in Telford by surprise, but didn't shed much light on why Ms Allan had decided to call it a day.

She was far more forthcoming in an extensive interview with the Shropshire Star's chief reporter Dominic Robertson later that month.

'Without the backing of the party, it wasn't a price I was willing to pay'

She reflected on her time in office, re-iterating her pride to have stood up for residents fighting institutional denial - in the Post Office, the police or the NHS - and pushing for change on assisted dying laws and the early prison release of violent sex offenders.

She also candidly answered questions about the reasons behind her shock decision not to stand again - laying a not insignificant amount of blame at the door of 10 Downing Street for what she said was a lack of support fighting an expected Labour push in Telford.

“Telford was not on the list to receive financial backing. It is doable without, but I think they were not that bothered if I stood or not and I thought that is a mistake - because if you want to win Telford, you pick me."

She was not shy in saying she could have held the seat even while the national Conservative Party floundered - but she wasn't willing to go through the wringer once more without more support from the central party.

“Winning a tough, critical marginal means fighting a brutal election campaign. We could have won, despite the odds, but at huge personal cost to my family, my team and to me – it’s a psychological war of attrition. As much as I love being Telford’s MP, the politics means you have people on all sides firing at you with both barrels. Without the backing of the party, it wasn’t a price I was willing to pay.”

She also spoke about the "relentless" strains of the job – and the increasing level of anger towards politicians.

“It is something relentless. It has been my whole life for 10 years – not just a job, and that is quite a tiring proposition saying ‘I am going to do that for another five years’. It is not just walking around cutting ribbons, being nice to people, it is being on the end of a lot of animosity for a lot of reasons – people not liking Boris [Johnson], people not liking Rishi [Sunak].

“It is being the focus for a lot of anger and I think that has got worse for all MPs – but especially in a seat that is split between Labour and Conservative.

“It is hard and I think you can only do that for so long.”

She spoke of a "post-Brexit breakdown of civility on all sides" and she feared the political climate was only getting worse.

And on the subject of the Conservatives' prospects, her choice of words seems all the more revealing in retrospect.

Asked if the Tories could win she said: “No. I don’t think they think they can – or rather, we don’t think we can. It is looking pretty tough everywhere.”

She said the party was facing problems in its heartland ‘blue wall’ seats, and that the lack of support for her campaign in Telford was evidence of ‘giving up’.

She said: “The thing I feel saddest about is in 2019 there were people who voted Conservative for the first time ever and they put their trust in the Conservative Party because they believed we would do it differently. Now of course there was Covid, there was the cost of living crisis, Ukraine - but we had an enormous, huge opportunity and we squandered it.

“We squandered the opportunity of a lifetime and it won’t be repeated.”

As it happened, Rishi Sunak called the General Election less than a year after Ms Allan's announcement - his rainy day speech outside Downing Street on May 22 marked the beginning of the end for her time as Telford MP.

So did Ms Allan spend her last days as an MP keeping her head down, quietly preparing to empty her desk and slip out of politics through the back door? Not quite.

Revolt and Reform

Five days after Rishi Sunak called his snap election, Ms Allan dropped a bombshell of her own.

In posts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) on the evening of May 27, she announced seemingly out of the blue that she would not be endorsing the candidate her own party had chosen as her would-be successor - Hannah Campbell of the Conservatives - but would instead throw her weight behind Reform's candidate, Alan Adams.

She told the Shropshire Star: "Parliament is no longer sitting, so I am free to express my own views. I genuinely want the best for Telford. The Conservative Party in Telford had no chance of winning but Alan Adams [has a] realistic chance.

“Telford people deserve a choice at the ballot box and Alan is someone who can take the fight to [Labour candidate] Shaun Davies.”

Cue a social media circus – her announcement has been viewed on X more than two million times – and, presumably, some very angry phone calls around Conservative Campaign HQ.

Despite her disaffected musings last June, Ms Allan had kept her cards close to her chest: the surprise announcement she would be turning her own guns on the Tories caught everyone off-guard. Yet the party mechanisms soon mobilised against her, and within minutes a terse statement from a spokesman confirmed she had been suspended from the Conservative Party.

The rumour mill quickly got to work and national newspapers reported that Ms Allan could actually stand for Reform herself in the Wrekin, right next door to Telford. The woman herself soon scotched that idea, and said that while she would devote her efforts to supporting Mr Adams in his campaign, that would be the extent of her involvement in this election.

It marks a bizarre end to a political career that has been making headlines for more than nine years - or does it?

In the weeks since Parliament was dissolved, Ms Allan has often reshared posts promoting Reform's Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, or attacking the Conservatives and Labour.

And one post of her own on June 19 hinted a little at how deep her disillusionment with her former party goes.

"I served as a Conservative Party elected representative since 2006. It took a lot to make me say 'vote Reform UK'.

"Socially conservative people deserve a voice in Parliament."

Whatever brave new world Telford - and the UK - faces up to this Friday, it seems hard to believe Lucy Allan won't have plenty to say about it.