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Rebel MP Stephen Hammond wants to stand for the Tories despite being sacked by BoJo

Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond still hopes to run as the Conservative candidate at the next election despite being sacked from the Tories by Boris Johnson.

Mr Hammond, 57, lost his whip earlier this month after he voted for a bill to ban a no deal Brexit.

The bill forces Boris Johnson to request a further extension beyond the current Halloween deadline.

Mr Hammond said: “I have represented the Wimbledon community for the last 14 and a half years.

“I’ve done it to the best of my ability and I have been returned four times.

“I hope that local people think I do a good job for them and there are always things that you get wrong.

“And so I want to continue doing that job.”

He said he was deeply saddened by the situation and it was something he never envisaged happening.

The Chief Whip confirmed the consequences an hour before the vote took place.

Mr Hammond, pictured above in his Westminster office, told SWLondoner: “We had conversations with the Prime Minister.

“We explained that it didn’t restrain his negotiating position.

“He has sought to portray it in that light.”

He added: “I think it is more sensible to accept colleagues have big philosophic differences than suspend them from the party.”

If the UK left the EU without a deal, Mr Hammond said it would be a disadvantageous situation.

He added: “It will affect the livelihoods, the jobs, the quality of life and the security of my constituents.

“So I’d be deeply depressed.”

He called for constituents to be under no illusion about a no deal Brexit as it would not be a clean break.

It would lead to a period of economic turmoil and security unrest.

He added they would then have to negotiate a future deal but it would start with many issues we are contemplating having to face now.

He recognised a second referendum was possible but said it would not be decisive.

He said: “I do recognise that we are three and a quarter years from the previous referendum and the longer we take to sort this out, the less validity that result has.”

He added: “Since that referendum, we have had a general election, we’ve had three and a half years, we’ve failed to agree a deal and a solution to it.

“The whole essence of democracy is that people can change their minds.

“If we had a general election in 2015 and 2017, people clearly changed their minds between 2015 and 2017.

“Between 2016 and 2019, people may have changed their minds.

“I would prefer us to have enacted a solution to that referendum prior to now.”

He added: “I am not suggesting that the referendum itself is invalid, I am suggesting that the validity of it, the longer it goes away, obviously comes under some scrutiny.”

He found out about his suspension sat at his desk with friends in his parliamentary office after making the vote.

Other MPs who lost their whip include Phillip Hammond, the former chancellor, and Sir Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill’s grandson.

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