Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison resigns as levelling up minister

Dehenna Davison, the MP for Bishop Auckland, has resigned as levelling up minister. Credit: ITV News

Levelling up minister Dehenna Davison has resigned after revealing she has been dealing with “chronic migraine”.

The MP for Bishop Auckland, who previously announced she not planning to stand for re-election, said the condition had meant it was difficult to keep up with the demands of ministerial life.

In her resignation letter, Ms Davison said: “I write to ask to leave my role as Levelling Up Minister and to step back fully from Government.

“Unfortunately for some time now I have been battling with chronic migraine, which has had a great impact on my ability to carry out the role.

“Some days I’m fine, but on others it is difficult, if not impossible to keep up with the demands of ministerial life – and the timing of such days is never predictable."

She added: “At such a critical time for levelling up, I believe the people of communities like mine, and across the country, deserve a minister who can give the job the energy it needs.”

Last November, Ms Davison, who was first elected in 2019, announced she was not planning to seek re-election as she wanted to devote more attention to her life outside politics.

Seen as a rising star of the Conservative party, she was appointed as a parliamentary undersecretary for levelling up in September 2022.

She used her resignation letter to praise the Government for making progress on devolution, delivering new freeports, and allocating billions of pounds to regeneration projects across the UK.

She said she will use her remaining time in Parliament to focus on “doing all I can to deliver on the pledges I made in Bishop Auckland” and championing the cause of “better justice and support for one punch assault victims and their families”.

The issue has been of great personal importance to Ms Davison, whose father was killed by a single punch during an attack in a pub in Sheffield when she was just 13.

She has been replaced by Redcar MP Jacob Young, who had been an assistant whip.

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