TOP Tories have abandoned the party’s floundering cause as the stampede towards the exits reached flood proportions this weekend.

Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove is among the latest Tory MPs who have announced that he will not fight his Surrey Heath constituency again.

Mr Gove has probably been the most influential neoconservative in British politics since Tony Blair quit to make his millions.

His final intervention was a venomous speech last week attacking the Palestine solidarity movement, setting the stage for a potential crackdown had Prime Minister Rishi Sunak not gambled on heading to the polls.

Surrey Heath has emerged as a Liberal Democrat target in the election, which may have influenced his decision. 

Only 56 years old, it would be optimistic to believe that politics has heard the last from Mr Gove.

Also on the way out is Andrea Leadsom, who briefly challenged former PM Theresa May for the Tory leadership in 2016 but quit after trying to make political capital out of Ms May’s childlessness.

She also sought the post and lost in 2019 and has since served as Business Secretary among other posts. 

She bequeaths a vast majority in South Northamptonshire to her successor.

They join nearly 80 other Tory MPs who are quitting the Commons, a post-war record. 

When they are added to those Tories who have resigned, usually in disgrace, over the course of the parliament then nearly a quarter of the Conservatives elected in 2019 have departed the scene even before the electorate has its say.