FOR the past eight years, I have made the choice to serve my community, as the Cornwall councillor for Lostwithiel and Lanreath; as the leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Cornwall Council; and as a parliamentary candidate for South East Cornwall.

I have enjoyed every part of these roles; talking to people on the doorstep; helping with individual pieces of casework; standing up for my community and campaigning for changes to national policies. I am proud of what I have achieved, from helping disabled residents to get their fair share of financial support, to blocking inappropriate planning applications; to driving bolder action on climate change; to delivering new rules to control the spread of holiday homes and create more affordable housing for local people.

But these achievements have had a cost. A thousand individual choices to attend a meeting or spend time campaigning have meant sacrificing time with my family. And when my wife was offered a job as a headteacher of a special school in Nottinghamshire, we had to live apart for two years so I could keep working for the community here in Cornwall.

On May 22, Rishi Sunak made two very questionable choices: First he walked outside without an umbrella; then he decided to call the election which led to a landslide Labour victory.

On that very same day, my wife was offered a job running a special school back in Cornwall. Had I won the election, we would soon have been living apart again, but that was a price we were still willing to pay in order for me to serve South East Cornwall in Parliament.

But the voters made a different choice. They chose to give their backing to a Labour candidate who promised “change”. Four months later, it is clear that whenever she has been asked to choose between doing what’s right for Cornwall, or following Labour party orders, she has put her party first.

Now my wife has been offered a more senior role in education. She will be based in London, and this time I have made the choice to put family first and move there with her.

Clearly this means I won’t be eligible to stand for re-election next May as the Cornwall councillor for Lostwithiel and Lanreath, and I will shortly be standing down as the leader of the Lib Dems on Cornwall Council.

I respect the choices that others have made, even though I could see the hurt that they would cause to the community I love. I offer my sincere apologies to those who will feel I am letting them down now, but I hope they will understand and respect my choice too.

Colin Martin

Liberal Democrat Cornwall councillor for Lanreath and Lostwithiel