Theresa May to stay as Conservative MP after quitting No 10

Theresa May has said she will remain in Parliament as MP for Maidenhead after stepping down as prime minister.

Mrs May told the Commons she would sit on the backbenches after she leaves office at the end of July.

Her predecessor, David Cameron, stood down as an MP within months of leaving No 10, while Tony Blair triggered a by-election on the same day as quitting.

But other prime ministers, most notably Ted Heath, have remained in Parliament for decades after giving up power.

Mr Heath hung around in the Commons for 26 years after quitting as Tory leader in 1975, enjoying a famously tense and terse relationship with his successor, Margaret Thatcher.

• What other ex-PMs did after resigning

Both Sir John Major and Gordon Brown served full parliamentary terms as backbench MPs after their election defeats in 1997 and 2010 respectively.

And another former prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home, returned to high office as foreign secretary six years after leaving Downing Street.

'Don't cut and run'

Mrs May was asked about her future intentions by veteran Labour MP Barry Sheerman during Prime Minister's Questions.

Praising her sense of duty, Mr Sheerman urged her not to "cut and run" but instead to stick around in Parliament in order to "give some of the people who will take over after her a bit of the medicine they have given her".

To cheers from the Conservative benches, Mrs May replied: "I will indeed be staying in the chamber of the House of Commons because I will continue as the member of Parliament for my constituency."

She has represented the Berkshire seat of Maidenhead since 1997.

When he gave up his Witney seat in 2016, Mr Cameron said he did not want to get in the way of his successor or be a focal point for arguments over Brexit.

Once upon a time, prime ministers historically accepted peerages after their retirement and saw out the remainder of their political lives in relative obscurity in the House of Lords.

However, this has become far less common in recent decades, with ex-prime ministers remaining more active in public life, combining charitable activities with earning money on the lecture circuit and making increasingly frequent political interventions.