Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, who sits on parliament’s transport committee, has been at Westminster for 25 years.

He said: “It is with considerable sadness that I have decided not to stand again at the next general election.

“There is never a perfect time to step down in politics and the exact timing is dictated by the electoral cycle. I will be 62 this year. If I fought the next election and won, I could be pushing 70 by the end of the next parliament.”

Bradshaw was one of the MPs who attended this summer’s Day of Action outside parliament. He told TTG then that the industry and its customers “have been completely abandoned” by the government’s “totally non-evidence approach to travel”.

“While Europe is opening and Europeans are free to travel, and America has opened up and Americans are free to travel, we are still incarcerated in Boris Johnson’s prison island,” he said.

Following Bradshaw’s announcement that he would stand down, Miles Morgan, of Miles Morgan Travel, whose agencies are in the West Country, tweeted: “Thank you for your support of the travel industry, especially over the past two years, Ben. Enjoy the rest and that lovely Devon air.”