By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982
Following Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s resignation from the cabinet yesterday, Hazel Blears will also resign her position as Communities Secretary and it’s rumoured that two more ministers will step down by the end of the day, although not, as earlier rumoured, Europe Minister Caroline Flint.
Smith and Blears had both been tainted by the expenses scandal, but Hazel Blears’ departure will add to the belief that cabinet ministers are taking Gordon Brown’s authority into their own hands by voluntarily standing down on mass before the PM is allowed to impose a reshuffle.
Blears is likely to remain the MP for Salford, where she is a popular figure and where she has been been a highly regarded constituency MP since her election in 1997. She had previously served as Minister without Portfolio until she assumed the Communities brief under Gordon Brown in June 2007.
Hazel Blears’ resignation statement:
“Today I have told the prime minister that I am resigning from the Government.
“My politics has always been rooted in the belief that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, given the right support and encouragement.
“The role of a progressive Government should be to pass power to the people. I’ve never sought high office for the sake of it, or for what I can gain, but for what I can achieve for the people I represent and serve.
“In this next phase of my political life I am redoubling my efforts to speak up for the people of Salford as their Member of Parliament. I am returning to the grassroots (where I began), to political activism, to the cut and thrust of political debate.
“Most of all I want to help the Labour Party to reconnect with the British people, to remind them that our values are their values, that their hopes and dreams are ours too.
“I am glad to be going home to the people who matter the most to me: the people of Salford.
“Finally, there’s an important set of elections tomorrow. My message is simple: get out and vote Labour.”
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