FARNHAM and Haslemere will have a new MP after the next general election following the announcement from Virginia Bottomley that she will be standing down when the country next goes to the polls.

Mrs Bottomley (54), who has been SW Surrey's MP since 1984, will not fight a sixth election battle - which could be any time up to 2006 - but will instead spend more time working as a public sector head hunter.

Speaking to The Herald this week, Mrs Bottomley predicted she will in time, work full time for Odgers Ray and Berndtson, the recruitment company she joined on a part-time basis two years ago.

Mrs Bottomley had previously expressed her wish to become the "Mother of the House", an honour bestowed on the longest serving MP in any parliament, just as Ted Heath held the Father of the House title.

She admitted disappointment this week that she will not claim that title but laughed that her husband Peter, MP for Worthing West, might well become Father of the House.

"I've enjoyed being an MP but I've decided that if I move on now I can have a serious career as a headhunter and I can enable the local (Conservative) association to chose a new, dynamic younger person," she said.

"When I became MP I was 36. All the other Surrey MPs who were MPs when I was elected have moved on. There's a whole generation out there with fresh ideas."

Mrs Bottomley has seen her parliamentary majority shrink from nearly 15,000 in 1992 to 2,694 in 1997 to just 861 last year.

Some commentators might suspect that life on the opposition backbenches may have proved too much of an anti-climax for the former health and national heritage secretary, but Mrs Bottomley said she has no wish to be back in government.

"I found being in the cabinet exhilarating but I found the eye of the media relentless and not to my liking. I'm an insider not an outsider.

"The tough times were when the Prime Minister John Major was under fire and I was under pressure but I feel lucky never having been sacked."

Asked what her highlights have been she replied: "My fondest memories are of constituency events like opening the Lion and Lamb Yard, events at the castle and the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, but Peter and I will continue to live in Milford, so we're not going anywhere."

Simon Cordon, Mrs Bottomley's Liberal Democrat opponent at the last election, who forced a 3 am recount when he came within 861 votes of taking her seat, said he plans to fight the next election, providing he is selected by his local party.

Asked if he thought his or any other Lib Dem's chances are likely to be better now they are not fighting against an established figure with the kudos of being ex-government, Mr Cordon said: "The real point is that last time we were

told it was going to be impossible but we ended up giving them a real shock.

"It doesn't matter who the Tory candidate is. The Liberal Democrats are determined to win the seat for the Liberal Democrats not to beat the Tories."

Asked what he thought of Mrs Bottomley, Mr Cordon referred to her declining to join him in a cross-party Herald campaign to keep the once closure-threatened Farnham hospital open.

"She was aloof. Polite in company but aloof. The one occasion I look back at particularly was with the hospital. There was a real opportunity there to put party politics aside. I do think that was a shame."

At the time, Mrs Bottomley did not think the hospital was a party political issue.

Another of her Liberal Democrat opponents, Neil Sherlock, who fought her in the 1992 and 1997 elections, said he was surprised by her decision.

"I know that she was the only Conservative who could have held her seat in both 1997 and 2001.

"I wish her well. I'm full of admiration for how she has carried out her role as MP and I'm even more confident now that just as in Guildford after the next election we will have a Liberal Democrat MP locally."

Chairman of the South West Surrey Conservative Association Warren Lister said: "In last year's election, Virginia saw off the most vitriolic and unsavoury attack from the Lib Dems with her customary courage and equanimity.

Virginia's announcement at this time shows her confidence that the Conservatives will win again in SW Surrey and will reclaim Guildford too, at the next general election."