With 21 years in the job under his belt, it perhaps should have come as no shock when the Dagenham and Rainham MP Jon Cruddas announced he will be stepping down at the next general election.
The long-serving Labour MP told the Recorder he felt, with the Tories in “crisis” and Labour “in a strong place”, it was a good time to pass on the mantle.
Now, almost a fortnight on and with some space from the decision, how does he feel about it all?
“It was really mixed emotions to be honest, because I’ve absolutely loved the job," he said. "It’s been an incredible privilege - I never thought I’d be an MP."
Since he was first elected to what was then the safe Labour seat of Dagenham in 2001, Mr Cruddas has overseen drastic demographic shifts thanks in large, he believes, to a growth of the private rented sector.
The local job market has also changed, with the relocation of various markets into Dagenham and the new film studios in Dagenham East in particular, and a 2010 boundary relocation which saw Rainham absorbed into the constituency.
Politically, it has gone from a Labour stronghold into what is now one of the most marginal seats in the country, with Mr Cruddas only beating the 2019 Conservative candidate Damian White, ex-leader of Havering Council, by 293 votes.
Having decided against stepping down then due to concerns Labour would lose, he told this newspaper he is now confident that the mood is swinging back in Labour’s favour, making it a good time to hand over to someone new.
“To my mind, the Tories have made a massive mistake getting rid of Boris Johnson, because he has reach amongst the electorate in ways that Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss will never do. Especially in constituencies like mine,” he said.
That does not mean he is blind to issues affecting his own party though.
While reiterating his belief that nationally the party is strong, he is open about the ongoing conflict between leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs joining picket lines, and his own position on the saga.
“My view is fairly simple. If my constituents have had to endure a decade of austerity, of cuts to services and wages flatlining, we now have inflation running at 12/13 per cent, and say the railway workers are offered a 2pc pay increase, I’m going to defend their right to defend their living standards, and support them.”
Mr Cruddas is also clear that things will not be easy for a new candidate, with numerous legacy issues continuing to plague his constituents. A primary one is house-building, he said.
“I am concerned,” he said. “You can’t get a hospital appointment, or a school place, or the police are being cut. What’s the consequences of that when you build thousands more housing units? And I don’t think we’ve got the commitments yet in terms of public services to go along with that.”
With the next Labour candidate due to be decided by party members, Mr Cruddas said he is hoping for someone local who understands the area and its nuances, in particular the challenge of straddling both boroughs - Barking and Dagenham, and Havering.
Regarding advice he would give to the next candidate, Mr Cruddas said the trick “is not to get your head turned by the Westminster game".
“Just focus in on the basic needs of the community. Focus in on the constituency, the constituent’s needs, and don’t just play the Westminster game. Because that gives politics a bad name, because people think they’re just in it for themselves, and it means you take your eye off of the real job, which is to help people.”
With plans to do some university teaching, pick up voluntary work and push ahead with a couple of book projects - one of a history of the Labour party, another a history of Dagenham - Mr Cruddas’s schedule post-MP is already starting to look fairly full.
Still, he emphasises that does not mean he is planning on stepping away completely, as he intends to keep banging the drum for his party locally, and supporting his replacement at the next election.
Importantly, he adds, he wants "to be associated as a normal bloke, who tried to do a good job when people needed a hand”.
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