Blackburn MP Jack Straw is to step down from frontbench politics after 30 years, he has announced.
Mr Straw, who served as Justice Secretary, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Leader of the Commons, said he believed Labour needed a "fresh start".
"I was first appointed to the Labour frontbench in 1980, and then elected to the Shadow Cabinet in 1987," he said. "But now I want the freedom to range more widely over foreign and economic policy."
He added: "I'll be spending more time on my constituency, and I will be writing a memoir in time."
Mr Straw said he would leave in early October when a fresh shadow Cabinet had been appointed under a new Labour leader.
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