Carshalton and Wallington MP Tom Brake has ruled himself out of the running to be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats, but endorsed long standing member Norman Lamb.
Tom Brake told the Sutton Guardian he was not surprised that Nick Clegg stepped aside as leader of the Liberal Democrats and endorsed Norfolk North MP Norman Lamb after ruling himself out of the race.
He said: "I suppose it was inevitable.
"Nick was most closely associated with our role in Government and he, perhaps unfairly, took the fall for our choice to go into coalition with the Conservatives.
"Now I hope there will be a contest to see who the next leader will be so we can see where we are as a party and what policies we should move forward with.
"But I won't be entering the race.
"Being leader would be a huge commitment and I would have to be available night and day, which I am not ready for at the moment.
"I was elected with a reduced majority and I need to get back to the day to day business of dealing with people's concerns like the future of the Accident and Emergency department at St Helier Hospital.
"The two I expect to announce that they are running are Tim Farron and Norman Lamb, but I will be supporting Norman for the leadership.
"I think he will be a good leader and will be able to begin restructuring the party."
Mr Brake was elected to serve as Carshalton and Wallington's MP for a fifth time in the early hours of Friday where he won with 16,603 votes, a majority of 1,510 over his closest rival the Conservative candidate, Matthew Maxwell Scott.
The incumbent MP added he has concerns about the Conservatives manifesto pledges to scrap the Human Rights Act and said it would send out the wrong message to other countries that we could leave out some of our human rights.
He said: "By scrapping the Human Rights Act it would send a signal that we can pick and choose our rights.
"We've seen what has happened in Russia when the rights of people have been taken away bit by bit.
"We need to show that we are a world leader in human rights."
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