Maria Miller quits Banker takes over as Media Secretary
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Sajid Javid is a rising star in the Conservative party who has been tipped as a future Prime Minister.
One of five sons of a Pakistani bus driver, he went to Downend comprehensive in Bristol and Exeter University before embarking on a banking career that took him to the boardroom at Deutsche Bank. Before that, he had been Chase Manhattan's youngest vice-president - aged 24 - and a partner at JP Morgan Partners. He quit banking when he was 40, having reportedly made £20m. He was elected MP for Bromsgrove at the last election and given his |
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first taste of government within six months. He has served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury and was until today George Osborne's number three as Financial Secretary. He is regarded within the party as an Osborne man.
Javid, 44, is married with four children. He has been involved in various projects to help children in Britain and abroad, but his CV shows no ties with the arts, sport or the media - a fact noted by the writer Michael Rosen, who posted an open letter on his blog suggesting that Javid was not qualified for his new post.
Javid, 44, is married with four children. He has been involved in various projects to help children in Britain and abroad, but his CV shows no ties with the arts, sport or the media - a fact noted by the writer Michael Rosen, who posted an open letter on his blog suggesting that Javid was not qualified for his new post.
"The public were right to judge her on how she responded, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - and the media… I don't think you can blame this on Leveson or the media or something. The media are a cornerstone of our democracy, their freedom is very important and if they want to investigate wrongdoing by politicians or any other public official they should do that and nothing should stop them from doing that. Miller accepted she did wrong and handed back the money, like many other MPs did, but I think the public again were rightly still outraged. There is still very raw anger"
- Sajid Javid on the Miller uproar on BBC's Question Time
"I have witnessed feeding frenzies on erring MPs in the past. The unanimity of opinion across the political spectrum is unusual and arguably unprecedented. Miller will surely have to go"
- Roy Greenslade, the Guardian, on the public and press view of the Culture Secretary
The resignation letters in full
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Dear Prime Minister,
It is with great regret that I have decided that I should tender my resignation as a member of the cabinet. I am very grateful to you for your personal support but it has become clear to me that the present situation has become a distraction from the vital work this government is doing to turn our country around. I have been a member of the Conservative Party for more than 30 years. As a working mother, educated at a South Wales comprehensive school, I know that it is our party that understands the importance of giving everyone the opportunity to succeed regardless of where they come from. I am immensely proud of what my team have been able to achieve during my time in government: ensuring that our arts and cultural institutions receive the rightful recognition that they deserve in making Britain great; putting women front and centre of every aspect of DCMS's (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) work; putting in place the legislation to enable all couples to have the opportunity to marry regardless of their sexuality. |
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Of course, implementing the recommendations made by Lord Justice Leveson on the future of media regulation, following the phone hacking scandals, would always be controversial for the press. Working together with you, I believe we struck the right balance between protecting the freedom of the press and ensuring fairness, particularly for victims of press intrusion to have a clear right of redress.
I will continue to support you and the work of the government as you move forward. Ensuring the best future for the people of Basingstoke has been my priority throughout the last nine years. Whether on the front or back benches of the House of Commons I will continue this work.
The only reason I was able to become an MP and indeed a government minister and cabinet minister is because of the unstinting support of my husband, my mother, my father and my three children. I owe them all a great deal.
Maria Miller
I will continue to support you and the work of the government as you move forward. Ensuring the best future for the people of Basingstoke has been my priority throughout the last nine years. Whether on the front or back benches of the House of Commons I will continue this work.
The only reason I was able to become an MP and indeed a government minister and cabinet minister is because of the unstinting support of my husband, my mother, my father and my three children. I owe them all a great deal.
Maria Miller
You Bastard,
Your minions have made it plain I have to fall on this sword...If I don't go now I'll bring everyone else down with me...
You Cow,
I was very sorry to have to twist your arm so hard...I think it important people know I had nothing to do with this...
Read Fleet Street Fox's translation of the exchange of letters here
Your minions have made it plain I have to fall on this sword...If I don't go now I'll bring everyone else down with me...
You Cow,
I was very sorry to have to twist your arm so hard...I think it important people know I had nothing to do with this...
Read Fleet Street Fox's translation of the exchange of letters here
Dear Maria,
Thank you for your letter. I was very sorry to receive it.
I think it is important to be clear that the Committee on Standards cleared you of the unfounded allegations made against you, a point which has been lost in much of the comment in recent days.
You can be extremely proud of your work in government - as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, as minister for women and as minister for disabled people.
You have been responsible for successfully handling two of the most controversial issues with which this government has dealt. As culture secretary, you have played a critical role in advancing Britain's proud record of
Thank you for your letter. I was very sorry to receive it.
I think it is important to be clear that the Committee on Standards cleared you of the unfounded allegations made against you, a point which has been lost in much of the comment in recent days.
You can be extremely proud of your work in government - as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, as minister for women and as minister for disabled people.
You have been responsible for successfully handling two of the most controversial issues with which this government has dealt. As culture secretary, you have played a critical role in advancing Britain's proud record of
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respect and equality in piloting the Equal Marriage Act through parliament and onto the statute book. There are many people in our country today, and there will be many in the future, who will always be grateful for this very important change, which you did so much to bring about. You have also handled the sensitive subject of press regulation with skill and dedication.
You can be very proud as well that you have led one of the most important infrastructure projects: many more premises are now able to access super-fast broadband . You have also ensured a lasting legacy for the Olympic Games. As you leave the government, you should be proud of your service on the frontbench and in opposition. I am personally very grateful for the support you have always given me, and which I am sure that you will continue to give. I hope that you will be able to return to serving the government on the frontbench in due course, and am only sad that you are leaving the government in these circumstances. David Cameron |
The reaction
Raymond Snoddy, MediaTel
In her resignation letter - and earlier via her aides - she had the effrontery to suggest that she had been brought down by a press witch-hunt over Leveson and her Gay Marriage bill. She was brought down by her own behaviour over expenses, her arrogance, and her lack of genuine contrition....Mrs Miller must accept a lot of the responsibility for the botched attempt to steamroller the Press into accepting a Royal Charter. Not a single newspaper has signed up for such a regime and it is unlikely that any ever will. A Royal Charter with no signatories going nowhere should stand as her political epitaph
In her resignation letter - and earlier via her aides - she had the effrontery to suggest that she had been brought down by a press witch-hunt over Leveson and her Gay Marriage bill. She was brought down by her own behaviour over expenses, her arrogance, and her lack of genuine contrition....Mrs Miller must accept a lot of the responsibility for the botched attempt to steamroller the Press into accepting a Royal Charter. Not a single newspaper has signed up for such a regime and it is unlikely that any ever will. A Royal Charter with no signatories going nowhere should stand as her political epitaph
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James Kirkup, Telegraph
The expenses issue remains toxic, and it's toxic because we just don't trust our politicians. Any suggestion that they are in the take plays into public suspicion, fuelling anger and resentment...Mrs Miller and her few friends will talk about newspapers and witch hunts, but even they know the truth of this: it was the public that decided her fate...they make up their own minds and reach their own judgments. They are the masters now. John Rentoul, Independent She got off lightly, continued to behave gracelessly and now has had to pay a far heavier price...She has misjudged the public mood on MPs’ expenses all along. It is utterly unreasoning and unforgiving. She knows that now. |
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Fleet Street Fox, Mirror
Let’s get the likes of Maria Miller – whatever party they represent – the people who think they can use taxpayer cash to renovate a home, the people who think they don’t need to say the word ‘sorry’, the people who take no responsibility for their own actions, the scroungers, the grabbers, the ones who turn millions of people off voting purely out of disgust for the creatures it creates – out of Parliament. And if you have not registered to vote, do it now. Fraser Nelson, Spectator The Maria Miller episode is entirely consistent with a party that is so gauche, so addicted to self-harm that it can make Ed Miliband seem positively presidential by comparison. |
Michael White, Guardian
This is a victory for public revulsion against her conduct and the wider privileges perceived to be enjoyed by the political class.
But do not cheer too loudly. This is also a hypocritical victory for Ukip, which felt able to denounce Miller despite having an expenses record at the European parliament which makes hers look like Mother Teresa's. It is a victory for those who took issue at her promotion of the same-sex marriage bill ... It's a victory for Norman Tebbit.
But most important, it is another victory for the power of Britain's over-mighty oligarchs (media branch). Miller the Innocent, who promoted the Cameron-Miliband-Clegg deal to regulate the Press through a hands-off royal charter device, has fallen victim to a combination of her own poor character and a vengeful media pack.
This is a victory for public revulsion against her conduct and the wider privileges perceived to be enjoyed by the political class.
But do not cheer too loudly. This is also a hypocritical victory for Ukip, which felt able to denounce Miller despite having an expenses record at the European parliament which makes hers look like Mother Teresa's. It is a victory for those who took issue at her promotion of the same-sex marriage bill ... It's a victory for Norman Tebbit.
But most important, it is another victory for the power of Britain's over-mighty oligarchs (media branch). Miller the Innocent, who promoted the Cameron-Miliband-Clegg deal to regulate the Press through a hands-off royal charter device, has fallen victim to a combination of her own poor character and a vengeful media pack.
The apology (in full)
With permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal statement in relation to today's report. The report resulted from an allegation made by the member for Bassetlaw. The committee has dismissed his allegation. The committee has recommended that I apologise to the House for my attitude to the commissioner's inquiries and I of course unreservedly apologise. I fully accept the recommendations of the committee and thank them for bringing this matter to an end. |
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The phone call
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The Telegraph released this recording and a transcript of a telephone call between its reporter Holly Watts and Miller's special adviser Joanna Hindley. Watts wanted to ask Miller about her expenses claims. During the conversation, in December 2012, Hindley said that she wanted to "flag up" Miller's role in the future of press regulation.
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The investigation and IPSA judgment
"The main thrust of the original complaint, namely that Mrs Miller was providing an immediate benefit from public funds to her parents, has not been upheld. The Commissioner accepts, and the Committee agrees, that the designation of the main home was finely balanced. As we have set out, most of Mrs Miller’s mortgage claims were justified. If the Commissioner had been able swiftly to establish the facts relating to Mrs Miller’s mortgages... this might have been a relatively minor matter. As we have set out, Mrs Miller has also breached the current Code of Conduct by her attitude to this inquiry. That is more serious."
Read the full report here
The chorus of disapproval
On the most charitable assumptions, these modern non-apology apologies have an element of sincerity. They indicate that the person making them genuinely does not believe he or she has done anything wrong
- Dominic Lawson, Mail
David Cameron wants us to see his support for defiant Maria Miller as a leader’s steadfast loyalty to an embattled colleague. In fact, it is a disastrous and perhaps fatal error
- Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
The expense scandal has displayed a sort of bubble-think from the outset, with politicians assuming that their behaviour must have been reasonable because other politicians didn't say it wasn't
- Hugo Rifkind, The Times
- Dominic Lawson, Mail
David Cameron wants us to see his support for defiant Maria Miller as a leader’s steadfast loyalty to an embattled colleague. In fact, it is a disastrous and perhaps fatal error
- Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun
The expense scandal has displayed a sort of bubble-think from the outset, with politicians assuming that their behaviour must have been reasonable because other politicians didn't say it wasn't
- Hugo Rifkind, The Times
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It’s not that MPs have to live in two different places, or employ staff, or eat breakfast, which bothers people. It’s not even the fact they could manage with one house and a B&B, and don’t realise these are state benefits same as the pension, disability allowances or child tax credits. It’s the fact that they seriously expect to make laws for other people which they have no intention of following themselves; that they genuinely cannot see a fiddle on their second homes puts them in the same category as a housing benefits cheat - Fleet Street Fox, Mirror
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The Miller affair is further evidence that our so-called democracy is rotten to the core, a game played by a professional political class which appears to have learned nothing from the expenses scandal
- Richard Littlejohn, Mail
It seems as if she and those who work in Downing Street are almost the only people in the country who do not recognise that it is time for her to go. In both cases, obstinacy is getting in the way of good judgment
- The Times leader
The wait for a terminal ministerial career to end becomes soporific soon enough, and the craving for euthanasia intensifies. If anything will persuade David Cameron to finally do the humane thing and put Miller out of our misery, it may be that change petition calling for her resignation
- Matthew Norman, Independent
What this affair reveals above all is the Government’s sheer incompetence at handling public relations...Before this spectacular own goal, Mr Cameron was in a commanding position...the fate of an individual minister is almost irrelevant now, in an affair that has become much more a question of the Prime Minister’s standing in his party
- Daily Mail leader
The fault is institutional, lying with all those MPs who never really thought that what Mrs Miller did was wrong because many of them did it too. We do not need a new system of regulation to sort this out; it just requires MPs - whom we trust to make our laws - to behave with integrity
- Telegraph leader
MPs have spent the past few years making a song and dance about newspapers not being able to police themselves but what does this say about the political will to make sure their own number are behaving properly? Maria Miller is a national embarrassment and a disgrace to her office
- Sunday Express leader
- Richard Littlejohn, Mail
It seems as if she and those who work in Downing Street are almost the only people in the country who do not recognise that it is time for her to go. In both cases, obstinacy is getting in the way of good judgment
- The Times leader
The wait for a terminal ministerial career to end becomes soporific soon enough, and the craving for euthanasia intensifies. If anything will persuade David Cameron to finally do the humane thing and put Miller out of our misery, it may be that change petition calling for her resignation
- Matthew Norman, Independent
What this affair reveals above all is the Government’s sheer incompetence at handling public relations...Before this spectacular own goal, Mr Cameron was in a commanding position...the fate of an individual minister is almost irrelevant now, in an affair that has become much more a question of the Prime Minister’s standing in his party
- Daily Mail leader
The fault is institutional, lying with all those MPs who never really thought that what Mrs Miller did was wrong because many of them did it too. We do not need a new system of regulation to sort this out; it just requires MPs - whom we trust to make our laws - to behave with integrity
- Telegraph leader
MPs have spent the past few years making a song and dance about newspapers not being able to police themselves but what does this say about the political will to make sure their own number are behaving properly? Maria Miller is a national embarrassment and a disgrace to her office
- Sunday Express leader
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