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Chris Huhne The Third Senior Coalition Minister To Lose His Job

Huhne Resignation Fox Laws

The Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 3/02/2012 10:54 Updated: 3/02/2012 12:41

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Chris Huhne's resignation is the third of David Cameron's Cabinet since the election of May 2010. Two have these have been Liberal Democrats and all three have involved matters of personal judgement, rather than ministerial incompetence.

The first scalp came within a month of the coalition being formed, when then Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws was forced to stand down after he was found to have wrongly declared MPs expenses. He'd wrongly claimed around £40,000 in rent for a flat owned by his partner. The tragedy for Laws was that he'd done this to avoid being outed as gay, and a parliamentary inquiry subsequently found that while Laws had clearly acted improperly, he hadn't done so for financial gains. David Laws's resignation caused a mini-reshuffle less than a month into the life of the government. Nick Clegg has been open about his desire to get Laws back into the Cabinet at some point.

Liam Fox was the second casualty, this time over improper access by his close friend Adam Werritty to ministerial offices and meetings. The drip-drip of revelations began with the claim that Werritty had House of Commons business cards despite not being an official staff-member in Parliament. The allegations continued, including Werritty's attendance on ministerial trips, Whitehall meetings and dinners with other lobbyists. Fox's resignation finally came after it emerged that right-wing zionists had been bankrolling Werritty.

Chris Huhne's resignation comes ahead of his appearance in court on February the 16th. He'll stand in the dock alongside his estranged wife Vicky Pryce. She is accused of accepting speeding penalty points on her husband's behalf in 2003. Both are charged with perverting the course of justice, a serious offence which can carry a jail sentence.


FULL COVERAGE OF HUHNE'S RESIGNATION

The resignation story in full

Huhne's Resignation letter and David Cameron's reply

Could Huhne accept a large payoff on resignation?

Keir Starmer's statement in full

Who is Ed Davey?


Apart from the three Cabinet members to lose their jobs, three very junior ministers have left the government. Tory MP Aidan Burley lost his job a ministerial aide after helping to organise a Nazi-themed stag party, and Adam Holloway and Stewart Jackson both left the government after they rebelled on a Commons vote calling for a referendum on the EU.

But not every minister to find themselves in difficulty has resigned, as the photos below reveal, there have been some canny survivors:

David Laws
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Lib Dem Treasury Minister, David Laws, was one of the first coalition casualties after it was revealed that he claimed up to £950 a month of taxpayer's cash to pay rent to his lover.

Mr Laws admitted that because his role involved slashing Britain's deficit he should resign saying, "At this important time the Chancellor needs, in my own view a Chief Secretary who is not distracted by personal troubles."

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Chris Huhne's resignation is the third of David Cameron's Cabinet since the election of May 2010. Two have these have been Liberal Democrats and all three have involved matters of personal judgement,...
Chris Huhne's resignation is the third of David Cameron's Cabinet since the election of May 2010. Two have these have been Liberal Democrats and all three have involved matters of personal judgement,...
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GearoidOD
29 Fans
22:53 on 04/02/2012
I'm afraid I have never been able to understand why Law HAD to claim expenses he wasn't entitled to or he would have been outed as being Gay ! Would somebody in the MPs expenses office have shouted " Law must be gay he hasn't claimed expenses " ? Please, please, can somebody explain this to me ?
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rod the brit
2 Fans
21:36 on 03/02/2012
anybody tell me where all this new breed of dedicated honest hard working politicians have emerged
from. Any party, There must be a factory somewhere and the genes have got contaminated.
Us common lot are always told back to values but if the barrel is rotten on top it will work down
If I thieve I am a thief but never honourable
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Boll X
8 Fans
21:24 on 03/02/2012
Its a good job the expenses cheats in the last government didn't resign, there wouldn't have been hardly anyone left to ruin the economy
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HisScaliness
24 Fans
19:07 on 03/02/2012
Yet again, Cameron's judgement is shown to be accident prone.
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BigOldBilly
15 Fans
15:40 on 03/02/2012
why do the government think the public are so nieve and gullible 6to believe everything thay say ?. so Huhne "has done the honourable thing and resigned" so in their eyes he is some sort of a hero. He went because he had to. but he has only gone from the "position" he had. He has not been sacked, he is still an MP, but now has to sit at the back, still gettintg MP`s pay and perks, and obscene expenses. So that after a few months he will be back on the front line again. Remember the comeback kid, Mandleson, the mortgage fraudster ? he wore the bleedin carpet out the times he came and went Huhne should have been SACKED and thrown out of the door completely like Joe Bloggs would have been. and how many have not yet been prosecuted for the expenses fiasco ? JUST SELF SERVING CROOKS, THE LOT OF THEM
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mrangry
22 Fans
13:26 on 03/02/2012
No doubt it all came about as " A woman spurned " getting her revenge, why else has it taken so long (offence was committed in 2003) to it to come to court. In fact nothing was known about it until he left his wife, and she reported it to the Police. I have no doubt whatsoever, that he did commit the offence, he is also a typical MP who thinks that these kind of offences are for us lesser mortals to be charged with, and his sort can get away with it. He commits this offence, he campaigns for family values and then dumps his wife, he contested the liberal party leadership running against Clegg, and when his own office publishs an article entitled "Calamity Clegg" he promptly denies all knowledge of it when confronted with a print out of it during a television interview with Nick Clegg. All in all is he someone who could be trusted as an MP?....well he certainly wouldn't get my support.
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HisScaliness
24 Fans
19:07 on 03/02/2012
There is a bit more to it than that, actually. It seems that Mr. Huhne was overheard in a conversation, and only then (after the original allegation was dropped) was it re-opened.
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garethl
28 Fans
13:25 on 03/02/2012
Another one bites the dust... who's next? Danny Alexander? David Willets?
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k9scotty
0 Fans
13:21 on 03/02/2012
If this had been "Jimmy Bloggs" from an inner city housing scheme the enquiry would have been done and dusted months ago. I know DPP explained why it took so long but cynical me still "wonders"
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philphirlwell
1 Fans
13:13 on 03/02/2012
yeah now all we need to do ,is get rid of pinnickio
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abelum
3 Fans
13:08 on 03/02/2012
It takes two to tango. There are more sacrificial lambs where that comes from .

The question that i asked yesterday was ; Is the investigation about whether he has committed an offence or whether having committed an offence he should be prosecuted.
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BigOldBilly
15 Fans
13:12 on 03/02/2012
its obvious whats happened, its taken so long because all "avenues" had to be explored to use as an an excuse for him not to be prosecuted, but there were none, as he was BANG TO RIGHTS
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BigOldBilly
15 Fans
12:58 on 03/02/2012
another one that our not in the real world PM had "the fullest of confidence in", I wonder, do they really understand the level of contempt the general public hold them in ?
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paulie boy
7 Fans
12:57 on 03/02/2012
A dishonest MP ...Never!!! who would have thought that.
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law abiding
0 Fans
12:35 on 03/02/2012
Wonderful government a real example to lesser mortals. Isthere a law abiding citizen amongst them or are they all as i suspect there to feather their own and supporters nests? We should all follow our betters by lying stealing and cheating everyone we can.
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