Norman Baker quits as a minister in dispute with Tories

The Independent has the story:

Norman Baker, the crime prevention minister, is stepping down after a year of internal battles within the Home Office with his Conservative boss.

In a scathing verdict on Ms May’s leadership, Mr Baker warned that support for “rational evidence-based policy” was in short supply at the top of her department.

The Lib Dem has publicly clashed with Ms May on issues including drugs policy and immigration.

He told The Independent yesterday that the experience of working at the Home Office had been like “walking through mud” as he found his plans thwarted by the Home Secretary and her advisers…

In his resignation letter to the party leader Nick Clegg, Mr Baker said: “I regret that in the Home Office, the goodwill to work collegiately to take forward rational evidence-based policy has been in somewhat short supply.”

Mr Clegg, who tried to persuade him to change his mind, paid tribute in reply to a “brilliant” minister who has always been “determined to deliver a more liberal agenda for Britain”.

I find it hard to see what Norman Baker‘s resignation will achieve for this issues which he was championing.

He has attacked Theresa May’s attitude towards the Lib Dems in government, but him going isn’t going to change that attitude – and indeed these events are likely to raise Theresa May’s popularity with Tory MPs, making her even less congenial to the next Lib Dem minister in her department. Nor is Norman Baker arguing that the Liberal Democrats should not be in government.

Indeed, the coincidence in timing of his resignation and controversial comments about our civil liberties from the head of GCHQ makes for an odd contrast, for it is issues just like our privacy in the online world which have shown time and time again the value of having a Liberal Democrat minister involved in day by day work of a government department rather than simply relying for influence on relatively rare debates and votes in Parliament on that departmental business.

So whilst Norman Bake is undoubtedly right about the obstructive forces in the Home Office, how will his resignation help them be overcome? How will, for example, the review of RIPA, and the protection of our democratic rights and a liberal society, be better served by him not being in the department?

However, in his comments Norman Baker himself gives a more personal focus to his resignation:

Mr Baker said he would now spend time in his constituency, where he is defending a majority of 7,647, and with his family who have “paid a price” for his punishing workload.

He added: “I just need a break to get some perspective and recharge myself.”

Here’s his resignation letter in full and note the nod towards a Lib Dem reshuffle being due next week:

From what I hear, there will indeed be a reshuffle and it won’t change the Lib Dem record of only male Cabinet members but, as I told the BBC in an interview tonight, it would be a real shame if Nick Clegg didn’t make use of this opportunity to improve the gender balance among the rest of the Liberal Democrat ministerial team.