British Defense Minister Ben Wallace announced on Saturday that he will not be running for reelection in 2024.
Wallace has served as the Defense Minister since 2019 as well as a member of parliament of Wyre and Preston North since 2005.
At one point, Wallace was considered as the front-runner to then-Prime Minister Liz Truss after she resigned last October, but he declined to jump into the race for the Prime Minister's position due to family reasons.
Wallace is an Army veteran and is was a strong advocate of NATO and believed that the more European countries that were a part of NATO, the safer the continent would be.
Now NATO is threatening to drag the entire continent into war with Russia, so perhaps Wallace stepping away is good news for the U.K.
The United Kingdom has an uncertain path forward as it continues to work out its relationship with the rest of Europe following Brexit.
With Wallace heading into retirement, much of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet is filtering out of politics signalling a new era for British politics.
Wallace was the longest continuously serving minister in the British government and incredibly popular with the Conservative Party.
He was originally the security minister under Theresa May before being promoted to defense secretary by Johnson and then remained in that position over Johnson's short lived successors.
So Wallace's departure doesn't just raise question about the United Kingdom's future, but it also raises questions about the future of the Conservative Party.
The British Conservative Party has been on the back foot for months and local election results ahead of the general election suggest that Labour is going to take control.
Britain has been under 13 years of Conservative rule and both the scandal ridden Johnson and Truss administrations seem to have sealed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's fate.
There is a strong desire for substantial change in the United Kingdom as many of the same issues plaguing the United States can be felt there as well.
A combination of declining wages, substandard public services, and increased quality of life has undermined the people's faith in the current government. Knowing all this, Wallace's retirement makes sense.
