Cabinet appointment Stephen Byers

1 cabinet appointment

1.1 mg rover
1.2 railtrack
1.3 exit cabinet

cabinet appointment

he joined cabinet in july 1998, chief secretary treasury , became member of privy council. after sudden resignation of peter mandelson, byers appointed secretary of state trade , industry in december 1998. after 2001 general election, made secretary of state transport, local government & regions.

mg rover

byers heavily criticised part in collapse of mg rover group. byers, secretary of state trade , industry, advocated 2000 deal phoenix consortium instead of bid alchemy partners, successful turnaround private equity investor have slimmed down business. although deal prolonged existence of group 5 years, collapsed @ extensive cost british tax payers while giving large profits dowry given seller bmw phoenix consortium. byers responded criticism in submission trade , industry committee, stating actions had largely been in line government policy , long slow collapse of mg rover group had been preferable short sudden collapse.

railtrack

the first source of controversy in railtrack incident decision, taken @ short notice disregard regulator tom winsor, , implemented on weekend, ask high court put privatised railway infrastructure company railtrack railway administration, on 7 october 2001. led creation of network rail, renationalised britain s railway infrastructure company. british office national statistics insisted placement of network rail in private sector correct. byers later admitted had not been truthful.

byers decision angered private investors had lost money, , under pressure city, government had offer compensation. action led largest class legal action ever seen in british courts.

exit cabinet

in late 2001, revealed byers political adviser, jo moore, had sent email on 11 september 2001, suggesting september 11, 2001 attacks made day out want bury . moore , byers survived resulting outrage, but, in february 2002, public uproar broke out again. leaked email department transport, local government , regions s head of news, martin sixsmith, former bbc news reporter, seemed warn moore not bury more bad news on day of princess margaret s funeral, implying attempting so. on 15 february, resignations of both moore , sixsmith announced. later on, however, sixsmith stated had not agreed go, rather byers had insisted on head of news departure price pay losing moore. in may confirmed department byers had announced sixsmith s resignation prematurely, though government said due misunderstanding, , had done nothing wrong.

byers troubles continued on following months. labour-dominated house of commons transport select committee criticised party s transport strategy, , long-running row on byers decision trade secretary allow pornographic-magazine publisher richard desmond buy daily express newspaper returned limelight. pressure on byers much, , resigned on 28 may 2002 replaced alastair darling. bbc announced change comment s bye-bye byers, hello darling .