Former British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she will stand down as an MP at the next general election, Ednews informs via BBC.

May, who led the country from 2016 to 2019 in the wake of the vote for Brexit, has represented Maidenhead in Berkshire for 27 years.

She said the "difficult decision" to leave the seat would enable her to spend more time on "causes close to my heart".

She is one of 64 MPs elected as Conservatives set to quit Parliament.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who got his first government job as a junior minister during her tenure in Downing Street, called her a "relentless campaigner" who had been "fiercely loyal" to Maidenhead.

He added that she "defines what it means to be a public servant".

Her predecessor Lord Cameron called her "a brilliant public servant" who could "hold her head high", and said she had done much to "modernise the Conservative Party and promote women in public life".

May, 67, has represented the safe Tory seat of Maidenhead since 1997, and was re-elected at the last election with a 18,846 majority.

As a shadow minister, she pushed for the Conservatives to field more women in winnable seats, and courted controversy by warning party activists that some people saw them as "the nasty party".

She entered government after the 2010 election, when Lord Cameron made her home secretary in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.