June 28, 2019 at 04:04AM
Tory veteran and pro-Remain cheerleader Ken Clarke has told Sky News he is "minded" to retire from the Commons after nearly 50 years.
"You've got to hold yourself out as being able to do five more years and do the job properly," he told Sky News duing a typically candid Q&A with political journalists.
"I'm currently minded to step down and I've told my people in Nottingham that I'm not standing again."
The 78-year-old Father of the House, first elected in 1970, was speaking after a speech at Westminster in which he described the current state of politics as a "tragic farce".
Mr Clarke said it would be a "great pity" in the middle of such an "historic crisis" to leave the Commons, admitting the temptation was there to "carry on".
But he added: "I'm minded to give it in, to pack it in, because I just think in every walk of life - not particularly politics - of course it's extraordinary for me to have a full time job at the age I have reached... but you've got to decide to pack it up before people start dropping hints, telling you to pack it up because you can't do it anymore."
And then he added, with a grin: "You may gather that I've therefore firmly decided to retire and I hedge it every time I'm asked."
In a damning verdict on Brexit and the Tory party, Mr Clarke was scathing about the leadership campaign being fought out between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
"They are pitching themselves at the electorate they are doomed to have to appeal to," he said. "I don't think either candidate believes leaving with no-deal makes the slightest sense at all.
"Jeremy hedges it, Boris does his usual thing of changing the way he expresses it day-by-day.
"He'll make his mind up what he'll actually do regardless of what he has said if he actually finds himself prime minister.
"And I'm sure Jeremy will start getting back common sense if he finds himself prime minister.
"Neither of them thinks we're going to leave with no-deal on October 31 - it is in all practical terms utterly impossible."
Defending the prime minister, he called her "poor Theresa" and said she had produced a "perfectly reasonable compromise" on Brexit, yet had been "thrown on the scrapheap".
He also praised the current chancellor, Philip Hammond, describing him as "the one who has kept his head while all around him are losing theirs".
And asked who he would like to see as the next chancellor, he suggested it should be a woman. Later, when I put it to him that he meant Amber Rudd, he smiled and nodded.
In his speech, at a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch, Mr Clarke said Britain found itself in the "maddest situation in my political life".
"Anybody who believes they know where we'll be in Britain in two weeks' time is utterly deceiving himself or herself," he said.
On Tory leadership elections, of which he fought three, he said: "When the Conservative Party can't think of anything else to do in a crisis it always has a leadership election. And I've taken part in several of them.
"The party has long been a dictatorship punctuated, I'm glad to say, by frequent assassinations."
And attacking the current one-member-one-vote leadership elections, he said: "Both parties were doomed, in hindsight, when we followed the 1990s fashion of making our parties democratic.
"They're not ready for it. The best way of choosing a prime minister is through the parliamentary party.
"Now, we have a membership which is in both parties' cases is totally unrepresentative of the vote of both respective parties, which now chooses the party leader.
"And that's why we're faced with ending up with Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, who are two of the people most unrepresentative of public opinion at large that you could probably imagine."
Mr Clarke said the deadlock in parliament on Brexit reflected the deadlock and anger in the country at large.
"At the moment we are at a very dire time and not making much progress at getting out of it," he said. "The underlying problem is the arithmetic, which is remorseless.
"About a third of the population are angry Leavers, who are feeling betrayed because bloody politicians for their own conniving reasons are not delivering what the public voted for.
"About a third of the population are angry Remainers, who think this is all a farce, the public were all deceived, this is all a mistake, should now be reversed and we should remain.
"And the other third are fed up with the lot of them: 'All these bloody politicians, why don't they sort it out? I'm bored stiff with all this. Why don't we get some sensible people who will move us on?'
"That's roughly represented in the House of Commons in the representative nature of parliamentary democracy."
He said any smooth Brexit was being blocked by MPs in his own party whom he called "Spartans" and by "hard left Corbynistas".
He said Jeremy Corbyn, who Mr Clarke said he had known for 30 years, "doesn't modify his views, he just has more formidable and more dangerous followers".
Mr Clarke added: "Jeremy and Jacob [Rees-Mogg] agree with each other for dramatically different reasons."
He said the other bloc in the way of a smooth Brexit was the die-hard Remainers blocking anything other than a second referendum.
A clearly relaxed Mr Clarke said he was speaking out because it was a luxury he could indulge in as a veteran not seeking to stand again.
"I don't want the new leader to make me parliamentary under-secretary for nuts and bolts," he said.
But taking aim at his audience, he said he "couldn't care less" about Mr Johnson's relationship with Carrie Symonds, nor why he "came to spill red wine on the sofa".
Tory veteran and pro-Remain cheerleader Ken Clarke has told Sky News he is "minded" to retire from the Commons after nearly 50 years.
"You've got to hold yourself out as being able to do five more years and do the job properly," he told Sky News duing a typically candid Q&A with political journalists.
"I'm currently minded to step down and I've told my people in Nottingham that I'm not standing again."
The 78-year-old Father of the House, first elected in 1970, was speaking after a speech at Westminster in which he described the current state of politics as a "tragic farce".
Mr Clarke said it would be a "great pity" in the middle of such an "historic crisis" to leave the Commons, admitting the temptation was there to "carry on".
But he added: "I'm minded to give it in, to pack it in, because I just think in every walk of life - not particularly politics - of course it's extraordinary for me to have a full time job at the age I have reached... but you've got to decide to pack it up before people start dropping hints, telling you to pack it up because you can't do it anymore."
And then he added, with a grin: "You may gather that I've therefore firmly decided to retire and I hedge it every time I'm asked."
In a damning verdict on Brexit and the Tory party, Mr Clarke was scathing about the leadership campaign being fought out between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
"They are pitching themselves at the electorate they are doomed to have to appeal to," he said. "I don't think either candidate believes leaving with no-deal makes the slightest sense at all.
"Jeremy hedges it, Boris does his usual thing of changing the way he expresses it day-by-day.
"He'll make his mind up what he'll actually do regardless of what he has said if he actually finds himself prime minister.
"And I'm sure Jeremy will start getting back common sense if he finds himself prime minister.
"Neither of them thinks we're going to leave with no-deal on October 31 - it is in all practical terms utterly impossible."
Defending the prime minister, he called her "poor Theresa" and said she had produced a "perfectly reasonable compromise" on Brexit, yet had been "thrown on the scrapheap".
He also praised the current chancellor, Philip Hammond, describing him as "the one who has kept his head while all around him are losing theirs".
And asked who he would like to see as the next chancellor, he suggested it should be a woman. Later, when I put it to him that he meant Amber Rudd, he smiled and nodded.
In his speech, at a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch, Mr Clarke said Britain found itself in the "maddest situation in my political life".
"Anybody who believes they know where we'll be in Britain in two weeks' time is utterly deceiving himself or herself," he said.
On Tory leadership elections, of which he fought three, he said: "When the Conservative Party can't think of anything else to do in a crisis it always has a leadership election. And I've taken part in several of them.
"The party has long been a dictatorship punctuated, I'm glad to say, by frequent assassinations."
And attacking the current one-member-one-vote leadership elections, he said: "Both parties were doomed, in hindsight, when we followed the 1990s fashion of making our parties democratic.
"They're not ready for it. The best way of choosing a prime minister is through the parliamentary party.
"Now, we have a membership which is in both parties' cases is totally unrepresentative of the vote of both respective parties, which now chooses the party leader.
"And that's why we're faced with ending up with Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, who are two of the people most unrepresentative of public opinion at large that you could probably imagine."
Mr Clarke said the deadlock in parliament on Brexit reflected the deadlock and anger in the country at large.
"At the moment we are at a very dire time and not making much progress at getting out of it," he said. "The underlying problem is the arithmetic, which is remorseless.
"About a third of the population are angry Leavers, who are feeling betrayed because bloody politicians for their own conniving reasons are not delivering what the public voted for.
"About a third of the population are angry Remainers, who think this is all a farce, the public were all deceived, this is all a mistake, should now be reversed and we should remain.
"And the other third are fed up with the lot of them: 'All these bloody politicians, why don't they sort it out? I'm bored stiff with all this. Why don't we get some sensible people who will move us on?'
"That's roughly represented in the House of Commons in the representative nature of parliamentary democracy."
He said any smooth Brexit was being blocked by MPs in his own party whom he called "Spartans" and by "hard left Corbynistas".
He said Jeremy Corbyn, who Mr Clarke said he had known for 30 years, "doesn't modify his views, he just has more formidable and more dangerous followers".
Mr Clarke added: "Jeremy and Jacob [Rees-Mogg] agree with each other for dramatically different reasons."
He said the other bloc in the way of a smooth Brexit was the die-hard Remainers blocking anything other than a second referendum.
A clearly relaxed Mr Clarke said he was speaking out because it was a luxury he could indulge in as a veteran not seeking to stand again.
"I don't want the new leader to make me parliamentary under-secretary for nuts and bolts," he said.
But taking aim at his audience, he said he "couldn't care less" about Mr Johnson's relationship with Carrie Symonds, nor why he "came to spill red wine on the sofa".