Rory Stewart Contemplating Political Comeback – But Warns Some MPs He Knows Contemplated Suicide

Former Tory MP Rory Stewart has said he is mulling over standing in future elections in Scotland, yet has revealed that some of his former colleagues contemplated suicide due to the stress of the being in the public eye. 

Rory Stewart, former International development secretary, told newspaper Scotland on Sunday that standing in an election north of the border was “something to think about in the long run”.

Stewart ran to succeed Theresa May as PM and Tory leader in 2019 yet resigned from the Conservative Party in 2019 after losing the whip from eventual leader Boris Johnson.

Rory Stewart then stood down as MP for Penrith and the Border later that year.

Stewart told Scotland on Sunday that he believed Scottish conservatism had “more in common” with his own political views, but was “struggling” about whether he wanted to return to politics.

“I think for somebody like me who is about the liberal centre, and obviously it would be a liberal Unionist centre in Scotland, I can see a real point to that, yes,” he said. “And maybe that is something to think about in the long run.

“I’m still struggling about whether I want to go back into politics at all. But I think if I did go back into politics, I think that’s a very attractive, interesting thing.

“I care deeply about Scotland.

“I think Scottish Conservatism has more in common with the way that I view the world.”

Rory Stewart previously attempted to become Britain’s Prime Minister.

In another interview this week, Stewart warned about the toll that being a politician can take on their mental health.

Speaking to GB News, he said that some fellow MPs came close to committing suicide when he was in the Commons, and that the life of a politician placed an “almost unsustainable” strain on people.

He also said that some MPs had “total breakdowns in public”.

Speaking before the publication of his new memoir, Stewart said: “I don’t want to talk about the specifics because this is deeply personal to people but, yes, colleagues tried to kill themselves.

“These are people I knew. And in very serious ways – I mean they almost killed themselves. It’s a miracle they aren’t dead. There were other colleagues who had total breakdowns in the most humiliating, personal, embarrassing fashion possible, in public.”

“I think it is because the gap between the way that MPs are encouraged to present themselves to the public and who they really are is almost unsustainable.

“It’s mad, because you’re pretending to be all-knowing, perfect, dynamic, confident. You are pretending that you’ve got the answers to everything, and that I know where we’re going. The truth is, this is a country of 70 million people, and politicians don’t really know what’s going on. And yet we pretend to the public that we do.”