Ministerial merry-go-round swings
Following immigration minister Beverley Hughes’ resignation, a series of ministerial changes has occurred.
Minister for work, Des Browne, has moved into Ms Hughes’ old job; Jane Kennedy has slipped into his seat, from her position as a Northern Ireland minister; and Barry Gardiner, Ms Hughes’ parliamentary private secretary, has taken over her role in Belfast; Ian Pearson has inherited Ms Kennedy’s security portfolio.
Ms Hughes stood down after she discovered, on reviewing documents, that she had mislead the House with some of her comments. She discovered that she had received a letter concerning a suspected Eastern Europe visa scam a year ago.
Mr Browne, commented: “I am honoured to take up this job in one of the great ministries of state.
“However, my first thoughts are with Beverley Hughes who has done an excellent job and helped to ensure we have a strong platform to build on.
“As the home secretary has made clear, we will continue the reform agenda to ensure the system both has integrity and is seen to have integrity.
“Immigration has been good for this country – but we must ensure that our reputation for being an open, tolerant and liberal nation is not undermined by fraud and malpractice.”
Paul Murphy, Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, welcomed Mr Gardiner to the Northern Ireland Office ministerial team.
“I welcome Barry to the Ministerial team and look forward to working with him. He brings with him experience from many varied areas of interest and I know he will make an effective contribution to the work of the Northern Ireland Office”.
This re-shuffle could just be the pre-curser of a far higher profile one as Conservatives and Liberal Democrat MPs are calling for an inquiry into Home Secretary David Blunkett’s role in the forged documents scandal.
