[Tubby Isaacs]

She going to survive?

Brodie Clark used to head the Category A prisons so I'd be surprised if he was cavalier about security. And don't people say civil servants never do anything on their initiative?

Interesting. Though I've just been traumatised by the sight of Charles Clarke (not entirely unconvincingly) claiming some moral high ground.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Christ, Paxo. How difficult was it to understand that Clark had left the Home Office but that wasn't legally "resigning" because he was claiming unfair dismissal?

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Telegraph are getting stuck in, aren't they?

They must want a UKIP government. Or, more likely, some hard man Home Secretary. Perhaps "man" is the operative word.

[satnav]

She will probably survive because Cameron can't afford to lose another minister so soon after Fox. The other factor in her favour is that there really isn't an obvious candidate to replace her. The home office has now become a political graveyard and there are not many Tories keen to throw their hats in the ring.

[Abernathy]

Give Sarah Teather the job.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Clark winning a constructive dismissal claim would be quite serious, wouldn't it?

[Abernathy]

Clark winning a constructive dismissal claim would be quite serious, wouldn't it?

Yes. It will be interesting to see if it reaches a tribunal. Although constructive dismissal is notoriously difficult to succeed with at employment tribunals, most employers are desperate to avoid the publicity of a case reaching a tribunal hearing and will settle before it reaches that stage. The government is probably no different in this respect, except that I imagine it will find it very difficult to engineer and implement the usual confidentiality agreement with Mr Clark.

[Timbo]

Her days were always numbered. She has that charming Tory habit of being a reactionary gobshite. For people like Gove it's easier to get away with; but when you are Home Secretary you need to worry about those pesky 'facts' before you play to the gallery.

[Tubby Isaacs]

If anyone would win constructive dismissal (assuming there's a case) a top civil servant, backed up by the FDA, would have a good chance. As with Tom Crone at News International accusing James Murdoch, it's hard to imagine someone like Brodie Clark saying something he can't back up.

A big pay off to Clark would get FOIA'd, and look very suspicious, wouldn't it?

May is either 100% sure of her position,or she really fucked up by briefing against Clark over the weekend. Seems to have pushed him into "resigning".

[bluebellnutter]

Again, as we've seen with several Ministers, not least Cameron with the EU debate, they've been shown as handling crises very badly.

[sanityattack]

“David Cameron has publicly given the Home Secretary his full support, which means she will probably be out of a job by Friday.”

[smod]

In a 2004 exchange which is set to haunt embattled Theresa May, the present home secretary told a Labour minister to resign over an immigration scandal, saying that she was “sick and tired” of ministers blaming other people “when things go wrong”.

The minister in question was Beverley Hughes, and the issue was a scandal over immigrants, erm, being admitted into the UK without background checks! Confronting Huhges on BBC Question Time, May told the minister:

“I do think Beverley should resign as minister on this particular issue and I find it absolutely extraordinary that she’s… blamed officials in her department for this decision to be taken”

The home secretary, who is currently blaming everyone else for a poor grasp on her portfolio, continued:

“I’m sick and tired of government ministers in this Labour government who simply blame other people when things go wrong.”

In a simply uncanny occurence of political deja vu, a number of immigrants were admitted to the UK without background checks in 2004. At the time, Hughes blamed officials in Sheffield for the backlog of applications which led to the blunder. That issue was highlighted by a civil service whistle blower who leaked the waiving of checks.

Beverley Huhges resigned 21 days later.

Time for Theresa May to take her own advice.

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/11/t ... on-quotes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Delicious.

[Fozzy]

She will probably survive because Cameron can't afford to lose another minister so soon after Fox. The other factor in her favour is that there really isn't an obvious candidate to replace her. The home office has now become a political graveyard and there are not many Tories keen to throw their hats in the ring.

Oh, I don't know, I suspect Gove would bite his hand off if it was offered to him. God help us, I'd rather stick with May.

[Big Arnold]

I can see Adam Werrity starting an Immigration Consultancy just in case.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ha, ha.

I got the impression from the Daily Politics that another civil servant has backed Theresa May's version of events. I'd still be surprised if Clark didn't have something up his sleeve though.