In a sort of reverse of this headline, Transport secretary resigns following media storm over spent conviction over a decade old as the Westminster media bubble goes into an orgasmic overdrive over ‘further information emerging’.
On the face of it, this was a big and unexpected blow – and not just for Labour but for pro-public transport campaigners as the now former Transport Secretary resigned within 24 hours of the news breaking. I posted on social media at the time that unless there was further information forthcoming – not least on anything that broke either the Ministerial Code or the Nolan Principles on Standards in Public Life during her time in ministerial office (or even in the Shadow Cabinet), then such calls for her resignation were ludicrous.
“Further questions will be asked…”
No they won’t. You’ve won. She’s resigned. Her replacement is now in place (Heidi Alexander MP – until recently the Mayor of London’s transport chief), and so nominally anything else is ultimately an issue for her constituents – give or take any action on the ‘further information’ that could come from any Parliamentary authorities. (At the time of typing, I’ve not seen anything to warrant the latter’s intervention).
“What will this mean for trams and things?”
Hopefully no major changes in terms of the already-announced policy directions. But inevitably there will be changes because a different person with different life experiences is in charge. During my civil service days I experienced several changes of secretaries of state, and each one had a noticeably different way of doing things – from how they wanted information presented to them (Some people liked extended paragraphs of text, others preferred bullet points, others wanted the data, others wanted diagrams and pictures). Furthermore as we saw in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Ms Haigh made it her business to be out and about visibly supporting her party’s combined authority mayors. Nik Johnson, pictured with the former Transport Secretary earlier this week, I’m sure will be gutted at the news as Ms Haigh’s presence in Peterborough to launch the ‘bus revolution’ so soon after a general election was very much a pre-mayoral-election vote of confidence – followed recently by the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall in Peterborough (pictured here next to Nik Johnson and with Labour’s Peterborough MP Andrew Pakes in the background)
Big day on Monday?
With Housing and Local Government Ministers due in front of MPs in the House of Commons for their monthly departmental questions on Monday afternoon, it would be more than convenient for all involved for the ministerial team to stick around and follow it up with the launch of the long-awaited Devolution White Paper. Normally this is in the form of an oral statement to the Commons where MPs can put questions to ministers straight after publication. I can’t help but think it would be better for the publications to be published the evening before so that people can take more time to go through it, and then ask more informed questions in Parliament the following day. That said, we’ve seen how tempting it is for ministers to go to the press first, rather than going to Parliament. In the current environment I can’t see this changing.
In the meantime from Cambridge City Council’s Full Council meeting…
On potential changes to the structure of local government in the county, the councillors…”
- “Agreed that the Leader discuss the findings with the Leaders of other relevant authorities and other public services such as health, including the potential scope for more effective place based and joint working and that officers follow-up on opportunities;
- Agreed that the Leader and officers engage Ministers and civil servants in relation to the findings of the public engagement, and, develop insights into the potential costs-benefits and models of provision for adults and children’s social care; and,
- Agreed that following those discussions and early evidence gathering, the Leader reports to the relevant committee about appropriate next steps in summer 2025, or earlier depending on proposals in the English Devolution White Paper.“
Above from item 11 – Decision Sheet by Cambridge City Council 28 Nov 2024
It’s going to be a long weekend for local government watchers!
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
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Rail Future East has their Cambridge Meeting coming up on 7th December at 2:30pm at The Clayton Hotel on Station Road – ***Note the change of venue!***
And for those of you following all things Cambridge-Haverhill, have a read of Peter Wakefield’s article here from p16 – and note that Rail Future East intend to challenge the application to the Transport Secretary for a ‘halfway-house road-for-buses’ option [i.e. CSET] that both Mr Wakefield and I tabled a number of public questions to the GCP in recent months.
The Cambridge Town Owl 