It has taken me a while to notice the news, but London MEP Robert Evans is the latest to announce that he will not be standing at the next election. More can be found at Mary Honeyball’s blog.

I’m sad to see Robert leave the EP – he has always been decent, hardworking and diligent whenever I have come across him, and from 2009 someone else will have to coordinate the European Parliament’s cricket team.

In electoral terms things would have been tricky for Robert in any case – he was in third place on the London list, and it’s far from certain whether Labour would manage to get 3 MEPs in London next time. I suspect he will be replaced by Kelvin McGrath, currently 5th on the list, although after the confusion surrounding the list after Eluned Morgan’s decision not to continue in the EP I cannot be certain. As for Kelvin McGrath – Google cannot find anything about him…