Blears 'regrets' resignation
Friday, 12 June 2009 4:34 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
Hazel Blears "enormously" regrets the timing of her resignation last week, she has admitted.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the former communities secretary, who resigned just before the local and European election vote and hours before PMQs, said she misjudged the situation.
She thought that because of the ministerial resignations which had preceded hers she would be able to drop out below the radar, but instead created a political firestorm.
"In the end, that judgment was wrong," she told the newspaper.
She also made an effort to explain the 'rocking the boat' broach which angered so many Labour activists on the day.
"At that point I just had enough, it was a stupid thing to do in retrospect but it was just putting a brave face on, not going out as a coward on the basis of expenses claims which genuinely are not true," she said.
On her 'YouTube if you want to' Observer article, which appeared to criticise the prime minister's YouTube appearance, she had this to say: "It was thoughtless and it was hurtful and I apologised straightaway."
Of the major resignations which dominated last week's headlines, only Caroline Flint and James Purnell launched attacks on the prime minister. Ms Blears did not, but the spectacularly destabilising timing of her announcement led to a universal assumption she had specifically timed it to inflict the most damage.
Ms Blears is currently odds on to retain her place as an MP at the next general election. Bookmakers William Hill made her 1/7 to hold on to her Salford seat at the next election, with the Lib Dems at 6/1 and the Tories at 10/1.
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