A YORK area MP is to stand down at the next General Election.

Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty, will leave parliament after more than a decade in parliament.

Nigel is 55 and was born in Goole and raised in Selby, with a business background, to which he is expected to return to.

Colleagues describe the MP, who was educated at Camblesford Primary School and Selby Grammar School (later Selby High School) as an ‘entrepreneur.’

His MP’s website highlights a background that is not typical ‘old school Tory.’

His parents arrived in the area in the 1950s from South Yorkshire mining villages, with his late mum working as a school cleaner and home help, and his dad being the caretaker at Read School, Drax.

Nigel left school in 1984 aged 17 and did not attend university. After being made redundant, he launched his own business aged 26. In 1994, he co-founded Advanced Digital Telecom with a £20 a week Enterprise Allowance Grant. Five years later, he sold it to Leeds-based JWE Telecom for £3.1 million.

Political ambitions followed, with him contesting Rossendale and Darwen in 2005 and then winning Selby & Ainsty in 2010.

Since then, he has progressed to holding various ministerial roles and jobs in the whip’s office.

He has close links to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, playing a key role in the PM’s first unsuccessful leadership bid in 2016, which was eventually won by Theresa May.

He also backed Leave in the 2016 European Union Referendum and reflecting the industry of the town where his constituency office is based, Tadcaster, is Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.

Since last year, Nigel has been Minister of State without Portfolio at the Cabinet Office.

It means for variety, with recent government trips including visiting IT firms in Switzerland and the Newcastle headquarters of Greggs, the bakers, who he described as “an iconic British Company.”

A spokesman for Mr Adams said the MP had been open about his intentions to stand down.

The MP also told the Press: “A year ago, I informed the Selby and Ainsty Conservative Party AGM that I would be standing down as a Member of Parliament at the next election which is expected in 2024.

“By then I will have served 14 years as an MP which I think is a decent innings in public life.

“It is highly likely that following proposed boundary changes that the Selby and Ainsty seat will disappear in 2024 so that seems an ideal time to move on to different pastures.”

He added: “In the meantime, I look forward to continuing to serve the constituency where I grew up, was educated and have lived for most of my life.”

Nigel lives near York with his wife, Claire, his four children and their two dogs.

He is a keen sportsman and played cricket locally in the York Senior and West Riding Cricket leagues.