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Thursday, 30 May, 2002, 10:43 GMT 11:43 UK
Was Stephen Byers right to quit?
Beleaguered Transport Secretary Stephen Byers resigned on Tuesday.
He told a press conference in Downing Street that he was leaving the cabinet as by remaining in office he was "damaging the government".
Stephen Byers had faced calls for his resignation from both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats over his handling of the Martin Sixsmith resignation.
He has also come under heavy criticism for his role as transport secretary as the public lost confidence in the UK's railways.
Was Stephen Byers right to quit? What does this mean for the government?
This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
Yes he was right to resign but he should have been accompanied by Tony Blair - now THAT would do nicely!
'People who really know me know that I'm not a liar' - Roy Keane on Monday.
'People who really know me know that I'm not a liar' - Steven Byers on Tuesday.
They must have the same spin doctor....
Simon Davey, UK
Railtrack was and is an utterly disastrous creation..
Byers clearly decided to be rid of it at all
costs and has paid for his decision with his
job. I wish him well for his 6-8 months on
the backbenches. Then lets get him back to
do a hatchet job on another Tory disaster.
I welcomed Byers' attempts to sort out Railtrack, and the other improvements he was trying to make. You cannot improve the railways in 11 months! It is actually impossible. The media just focuses on irrelevances such as Sixsmith and Moore. Do you think the trains will run on time today just because he has gone?
He survived the BMW/Rover debacle, Jo Moore's email, the 'resignation' of martin Sixsmith and the renationalisation of Railtrack. Then he happens to remark that the function of transport policy should not be to persecute the motorist, and is gone in 48 hours.
Ian Shelmerdine, Cheshire
If Tony Blair had any real authority he would have sacked him after the Jo Moore fiasco. Allowing him to resign is the coward's way out. If there has to be criticism of the whole situation it has to be of Blair. When are senior politicians going to have the courage to act in the face of deceit?
Yes, thank the Lord he's gone. Just like most other Labour ministers, he's full of arrogance and to have stayed this long in the face of minimal public respect demonstrates that. Let's hope they do the same with arrogant Blunkett and arrogant Two Jags Clarke.
He had to resign because once the British media get their knives into you they will never let go.
A great shame that he has gone. He was the only transport minister I can remember who had the first clue about the issues in transport.
Railtrack, the press, Sixsmith have all got their way. Democracy and the travelling public are the losers.
I notice that he now says that he did make mistakes. Strange, I don't recall him issuing anything other than denials of making any mistakes during his period in power.
So, the malicious, vengeful, venomous and sanctimonious with their continuous backbiting, gossip and malevolent criticism have finally got rid of Stephen Byers. I wonder who will be their next victim.
The media and opposition have finally got their way, Pity the opposition could not get it right in eighteen years of government.
Hurrah, that's the best news all year...!!!
Judging by many of the above comments, our pathetic populous doesn't deserve a Parliament that debates the real issues of national importance. Let's bring on the next bout of pointless scandal and distraction. After all it keeps them entertained more than fixing the country's problems ever would.
The only thing that could possibly be worse than Stephen Byers is the fact that Peter Mandelson could get his old job! Heaven help if that happens!
Peter Mandelson's paid his price, been exonerated from the Hinduja allegations, and by all accounts was a highly able and competent minister - plus he has the trust and ear of the prime minister, and would be perfectly placed within the cabinet to help in the campaign for a Yes vote in any euro referendum.
I have no idea why Byers has resigned now. Considering how long he's been an embarrassment to the government, it seems bizarre that he has only now realised the damage he has been doing.
Is there something that has gone unreported in the wake of Roy Keane that explains this?
Alex Banks, UK
Best thing he's ever done... I hope it starts a trend. For once he's on the right track!!
His resignation speech said it all, he only did so because it was the right thing for the Labour government and the Labour Party. No hint of doing it for the good of the country or the transport users he has so badly served. He will no doubt soon be given a job in the Labour party back rooms to help keep this self-serving party in power.
Wouldn't it be nice if they all resigned?
But he still hasn't explained how it took from February until this month to discover that Martin Sixsmith had not resigned. As for those who back his handling of RailTrack, you might not be so happy if you had been a shareholder or if part of your pension emanates from this source.
Many railway staff were among those who held shares - now they will be out of pocket in more ways than one.
No one can tell me exactly what qualifications Byers had for his job (a point that applies to other ministers including Health's Alan Milburn and, of course, John Prescott in any capacity).
He was never as bad as the media made him out to be. He wasn't the slickest of operators but at least he had courage to do the right thing and put Railtrack under administration. But who'll replace him now? My money is on Mandelson.
Stephen Byers you are the weakest link... goodbye.
It makes no real difference whether he resigns or not. He is not the only minister who is of no substance, none of them are. His sacking, because that's exactly what it is, will only make way for the return of Mandelson.
With his record on announcing resignations, who knows, it might be retracted in a few days time! I'll bet that there is a very interesting and damaging news story safely buried deep in the papers tomorrow though as with complete control over the timing of this announcement there must be something that they want to shroud from our attention.
I'm not surprised that political apathy is such a major problem at the moment, when we are all too ready to focus on issues rather than personalities. The media and the opposition regularly demand ministerial resignations and pursue personal vendettas. That does more damage to public perception of politics and politicians than it does to the short-term prospects of the government. Railtrack, insensitive personnel, and the doubts surrounding the ten year plan would still have been issues under different ministerial leadership. More people in this country would be able to paint a personality profile of Mr Byers than would be able to give a basic overview of the ten year plan for transport.
This must either mean that he hasn't actually resigned or (horror!) he's telling the truth.
It is a shame that Byers had to resign through media pressure. I don't think he did anything wrong by not sacking Moore who was a civil servant, who answered to her managerial bosses. Also bringing the ailing rail industry into receivership was the best thing he could have done under the circumstances. Politicians are elected to make decisions not the media.
Pushed, jumped? Who cares?! Perhaps this will give the government the chance to have a proper sustainable transport policy that has consideration for public transport - one that the public can actually feel safe using.
I sincerely hope we never see him again in serious political office. He was abroad while there were two major rail strikes going on. Enough said.
Paul Baker, Birmingham, UK
How someone from Brum can say he should go I don't know, given his help in sorting out a future for Longbridge in 2000. Can any of your correspondents who say he should go explain what he could do about a railway system the government doesn't own? To criticise him for being on holiday when there was a rail strike is to ask for PR stunts. He has no role. One of his achivements was to get Railtrack on the road to non-profit making trust status, and for a small amount fo money. That's about the only positive thing to happen to the railways since the Tories privatised them.
He shouldn't have been able to resign, because he should have been sacked ages ago!
This is a shame for the anti-hunting lobby. Without Byers there will be less need to reopen the debate to distract attention from Labour.
Surely it is more than merely coincidental that his resignation comes only hours after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Home Secretary does not have the power to overturn a decision of the parole board - a severe blow for the government's policy on law and order.
Sanjay Pancholi, Leicester, UK
This is great news for everyone that uses public transport. I might even have a drink to celebrate.
I think that Stephen Byers has made the right decision in resigning. He has been the figurehead of an ailing transport system for too long now, a system which is incredibly sub-standard. The government's job now is not just to appoint a replacement purely out of necessity, but to think long and hard about the future of public transport in this county, and how to bring it up to the standard which every other developed country in the West already enjoys, and what the people expect.
The only question is why it has taken so long for this to happen, and why he has been supported for so long by his superior.
He most definitely has made the right decision for everybody concerned. My hope now is that people forget about him and the decisions he has made and start with a clean slate and tackle the problems on the right footing from here on.
It will mean nothing to this government until Blair, Blunkett and Straw also resign and let Gordon Brown run the country.
Yes. He has made New Labour only too transparent. He had to go.
Whatever you may think of Byers, the problem will now be to provide continuity in getting the rail mess sorted out. As a commuter on I experience the lack of coherent long-term action on a daily basis. Whoever replaces Stephen Byers must know the industry and be able to push through realistic, long term and sustainable plans.
Talat Basharat, England
Byers is right to have gone, it's a pity he didn't do so earlier, but perhaps the government can get on with its programme now and concentrate more on getting its message across. I'll be interested to see what the Lib Dems and Tories do next now that they'll have to find an alternative public enemy figure.
He should have gone months ago. He has distracted the government already and damaged its standing seriously, leading to general questions about both its competence and honesty.
It is a shame Stephen has had to resign. However, the path is now clear for Peter to return.
No he was not. What has happened is that the press has conducted the latest round of "let's pick off the weakest minister" games, and he's clearly had enough.
Byers was right to quit. He has shown poor judgement too often to be credible as a cabinet minister.
Can Blair, Prescott, Straw, Vaz and Cooke now follow? This is the only good example ever set by a member of this Labour government.
Sarah Carless, England
Too right, he should have done the honest thing and gone a long time ago. Good riddance.
At long last! He was making the government a laughing stock.
I wonder what bad news the government is trying to bury today?
Has he really resigned? Or is this a Martin Sixsmith type "resignation"?
Is this a tactic to distract attention from our arms negotiations with a nation on the brink of nuclear war?
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