High-profile British lawmaker Louise Mensch, who played a leading role in parliamentary hearings over the phone-hacking scandal, announced Monday that she is quitting to move to New York with her family.
Mensch, 41, a prominent presence on Twitter who recently set up her own social network, tweeted: “I am devastated by the necessary decision that I have had to announce today. “It has, however, proved impossible to balance the needs of my family.” The Conservative MP’s husband Peter Mensch is the manager of hard rock band Metallica and lives in New York.
They were married a year ago in Manhattan, but Louise Mensch has three children from a previous marriage who live with her in Britain.
Since her election in 2010 Mensch has become a well-known Conservative figure and was seen as a potential minister. She came under the spotlight as a lawmaker on parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which has questioned Rupert Murdoch over the hacking scandal that forced him to close his News of the World tabloid. Australian-born media tycoon Murdoch, 81, shut the 168-year-old newspaper in July last year after revelations that it accessed the voicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl sparked a wave of public disgust. Mensch set up her own politically-focused social networking website, Menshn, in June. She has also published 14 “chick-lit” novels under her maiden name, Louise Bagshawe.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was accepting her resignation “with enormous regret”.
“It goes without saying that I had wished to see you serve for longer and at a more senior level,” he said. Her departure will trigger a by-election in the marginal constituency of Corby and East Northamptonshire seat in central England.
