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| Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Eccles, to stand down | Hazel Blears, MP for Salford and Eccles, to stand down |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Labour MP for Salford and Eccles, Hazel Blears, is to step down at the next general election, it has been confirmed. | Labour MP for Salford and Eccles, Hazel Blears, is to step down at the next general election, it has been confirmed. |
| The 57-year-old MP, who was elected in 1997, informed her constituency at a meeting earlier. | The 57-year-old MP, who was elected in 1997, informed her constituency at a meeting earlier. |
| Ms Blears said she had taken the decision with a "heavy heart". | Ms Blears said she had taken the decision with a "heavy heart". |
| She added she wanted to "spend more time with her family", including her mother Dorothy, who is suffering from dementia. | She added she wanted to "spend more time with her family", including her mother Dorothy, who is suffering from dementia. |
| In a statement, Ms Blears said: "It is a huge privilege to represent the place where I was born, brought up and have lived all my life, so I have taken this decision with a heavy heart." | |
| Ms Blears, a former Labour Party chairman, entered Parliament as MP for Salford in 1997. | |
| She served within Gordon Brown's cabinet as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2007 to 2009. | |
| Ms Blears resigned from the government on the eve of European and local elections and later went on to win the Salford and Eccles seat in 2010 after boundaries were redrawn. | |
| In 2009 she decided to repay £13,332 after it emerged she had not paid capital gains tax on the sale of a property. | |
| Expenses claims leaked to the Daily Telegraph showed the MP had declared her south London as her primary residence for tax purposes but the Commons authorities were told it was her second home, allowing her to claim hundreds in parliamentary expenses. | |
| Although her actions had been within the expenses rules for MPs, they were described as "totally unacceptable" by the then-Prime Minister. |