Blair to defend reshuffle
Tony Blair will face MP’s today over concerns about his latest cabinet reshuffle, which have been criticised for being a ‘shambles’.
The changes included the usual process of appointing new ministers in place of those moved on or dropped, as well as filling positions that have been vacant due to resignations over the war in Iraq.
But much of the criticism has been of the constitutional reform, and the lack of presentation of the changes. This led to the Speaker of the House, Michael Martin, asking the Prime Minister to explain the reshuffle to MP’s in the Commons.
The big changes to the way government works include the shifting of the Welsh and Scottish Offices into the new Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the abolition of the role of the Lord Chancellor in favour in order to separate the executive from the judiciary.
The Conservative Party took the opportunity to seek to embarrass the Government by challenging the new leader of the Commons and government spokesman on Wales , Peter Hain, during a debate in which he was criticised for being part time.
Mr Hain used the debate to defend the changes to the constitution by claiming that they are sensible and popular, and also reminded the Conservatives they had proposed similar changes to the Welsh and Scottish Office’s before the general election.
But the situation has left the Labour Government in an unusual position. Home Secretary David Blunkett has conceded that although he felt the changes were right, the presentation of them had been poor.
Tony Blair is refusing to apologise for the changes to the constitution, which make up a part of his new drive to reclaim the radical ground, which he pressed home in a speech yesterday afternoon comparing his Government, and criticism of it, to Clement Attlee’s post war administration.
