Benk Korthals is to step down in May 2014 from his position as party chairman of the ruling liberal VVD.

Korthals announced his decision in a letter to the party’s management, the AD reports. He will have served just one term in the post and says it was never his intention to serve two terms.

Korthals was much concerned with the integrity within the VVD and stated earlier this year that all politians should have to sign a ‘statement of integrity’.

The 68-year-old entered parliament 1982 and served as justice minister for prime minister Wim Kok and as defence minister for Jan Peter Balkende.

He resigned from the defence job in 2002 following a parliamentary inquiry into fraud in the construction sector. Korthals had been a member of an earlier inquiry into fraud at the RSV shipyard and the 2002 inquiry said he had ‘misled’ parliament.