Local transport minister Karen Buck has resigned her post after 10 months in the job. Announcing her decision at the weekend, the London MP said that the portfolio, which includes local transport, street works and aviation, was unsuited to her interests.
Buck insisted that her resignation did not indicate any disillusionment with Government policy, but campaigners against airport noise and expansion claimed otherwise. ‘There have been rumours for some time she was uncomfortable with her aviation brief,’ said John Stewart, chair of HACAN ClearSkies. She had been due to make controversial announcements on night flights and runway alternation at Heathrow with the next few weeks, he said.
A former Labour Party worker in its campaigns office and council officer for disabled people at Hackney, Buck wants to work on the recently-launched London Poverty Commission. Poverty and housing issues were her passion, she told The Guardian. ‘I have also found that after 10 months as a junior transport minister it is not for me.’
Her transport responsibilities included street works, London and green issues. Last year she delighted utility companies by agreeing to defer national powers for councils to permit streetworks pending pilots in 2007 and re-convening consultations on other contentious provisions of the Traffic Management Act (Surveyor, 15 September 2005). But officials at the Department for Transport have recently reaffirmed ministers’ commitment to enacting its tougher street works powers.
The Prime Minister’s office was unable to say whether a replacement would be announced this week or made as part of a wider ministerial reshuffle expected after the Commons votes on the Education Bill next month.