MP won’t say yet if he’ll stand again

JOHN HOWELL has refused to confirm whether he will stand at the next general election amid speculation that his predecessor could make a return to the constituency.

The Henley MP said he would make a decision at a “later date” after reports that former prime minister Boris Johnson has been house-hunting in the area and looking at schools.

It has been claimed that Mr Johnson, who served as Henley MP from 2001 to 2008, could return as he wants a “safe” seat at the election, which is expected to be held next year.

At the last election in 2019, Mr Johnson won the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat with a majority of 7,210 while in the Henley constituency Mr Howell was 14,053 votes ahead of his nearest rival. Mr Howell is understood to have told local Conservative party members privately that he is yet to make up his mind on whether to run again.

“I am not commenting at the moment,” he said. “It will be a decision that I make at a later date.”

Asked whether Mr Johnson could come back if he did stand down, he said: “I sincerely hope not.”

Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said that he had already confirmed that he would be standing in Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the election.

Meanwhile, Mr Howell criticised environmental campaigners who have unveiled mock blue plaques to “honour” MPs who voted against proposed tougher laws on the dumping of raw sewage in Britain’s waterways.

A spoof plaque with his name on has appeared on the bridge between Goring and Streatley with the note: “Voted to block a law requiring water companies to dump less raw sewage in our rivers and seas. 20th Oct 2021.”

Mr Howell said: “I think, first of all, how ignorant they are as it fails to recognise that we are the only government to have held water companies to account on sewage discharges.

“This is not something that has started in the past year or so, it has been going on since before privatisation.

“The amount of money needed to get rid of that problem would be astronomical so there needs to be a process in place to tackle it.

“I think people need to look carefully at the situation and to issue an apology.”

Last week, Mr Howell had a paper endorsed by the Council of Europe which aims to create a new instrument to prevent environmental damage during armed conflicts.

He said: “I was in Strasbourg when I was amazingly successful in getting my paper to introduce a new crime of ecocide unanimously approved. It came about as I was the rapporteur on this particular topic and it looks at the situation right across Europe, not just in places like Ukraine, but elsewhere where someone could launch a nuclear strike.

“It will be an international treaty but there is a long way to go to finalise the terms.

“What it will do is to make it an offence so we can have a go at someone who launches an attack on particular ground with chemical weapons and take them to international court.

“It is a very good way of ensuring you can get accountability of protecting the environment, the same way you can get accountability for targeting individuals. I have been working on it for about a year, with the help of some of my civil servants, and this is the result.

“It has now been picked up by the Icelandic prime minister to be put forward to a summit in May.”