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Former Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will stand down as an MP at the next general election, BBC News reports.

She said it had been a "difficult decision" to vacate the Maidenhead seat in Berkshire after 27 years.

Mrs May, Conservative prime minister from 2016 to 2019, said causes such as tackling modern slavery were taking an "increasing amount" of her time.

She is one of 64 MPs elected as Conservatives who are quitting at the next Westminster election.

They include former ministers Matt Hancock, Dominic Raab, Chris Grayling, Ben Wallace, Sajid Javid and Kwasi Kwarteng.

In the statement to her local paper the Maidenhead Advertiser, she said she had "always done her best" to respond to the needs of local people.

Mrs May, 67, became prime minister in July 2016 after the resignation of David Cameron following the Brexit referendum. She had been home secretary for six years and was a chief architect of the so-called "hostile environment" for immigrants, which led to "go home" vans being sent into areas with large migrant communities.

Her three years in Downing Street were dogged by the Brexit aftermath. Mrs May, who backed remaining in the European Union, came up against strong opposition within the Tory party over her attempts to secure a deal with Brussels.

A snap election in 2017 saw the Conservatives lose their majority in the House of Commons, which some blamed on her manifesto pledge to raise billions of pounds for social care - dubbed a "dementia tax" by critics. She remained in No 10 after striking a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.

At the Conservative Party conference months later, Mrs May's speech suffered several setbacks: she struggled with a coughing fit, was presented with a P45 by a protester, while letters fell off the wall behind her as she spoke.

Her leadership style was often described by critics as "robotic" - something she answered with a dance to Abba's Dancing Queenbefore her speech at the party conference in 2018, which became known as the "Maybot".