Stephen Hesford: "an old fashioned point of principle resignation"
There will undoubtedly be whispers that MP Stephen Hesford has resigned so that he can spend more time preparing to defend his narrow majority in Wirral West.
That will be a side-effect of his decision, but I don't believe it was the over-ridding factor.
I have to say Mr Hesford is not someone I have dealt with very often, in fact today was the first time we've spoken, so I can't profess to say I know him very well.
But here are some observations.
He said it was a decision that he had made overnight. I got the impression the way Baroness Scotland had sought to play down the offence had played a part in his decision.
When I asked him if she was displaying arrogance, he said that word "shined a light" on the way it might have been perceived.
Mr Hesford is not known for being a rebel so his decision should not be seen as part of an attempt to destabilise Gordon Brown, for one thing he denies this outright.
Clearly he's not happy with everything, urging Gordon Brown to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and scrap the Trident programme.
But as the Guardian's Michael White points out "I resign because the boss wont" is unusual.
"Stephen Hesford's, in a smarter bit of the Wirral, was 1,097, smaller than in 1997 and a bit tight. The seat looks likely to return to the Tories next year - as such seats do.
"Hesford's gesture may help him sleep sounder and save him some votes, but he will probably be back at the bar next year. No seat in the Lords for him."
As Mr Hesford pointed out confidence in politicians is not particularly high at the moment, and when people see them effectively getting away with it (yes she was fined ã5,000, but most would expect her to resign, especially as she piloted the specific piece of legislation through parliament) all it does is damage all politicians in the eyes of the public.
Mr Hesford took the principled decision that enough is enough.
His party's inability to get a grip when issues like this crop up increases the likelihood that the electorate will also say enough is enough of the likes of Stephen Hesford in marginal seats and the Labour government when the General Election comes around.
UPDATE: I've just read this blog post from Paul Waugh of the Evening Standard, and it has made me think twice.
He writes:
A wee bit of research finds that Hesford threatened to quit over the Post Office sell-off earlier this year. That sounds like a man who was looking for an excuse to quit his PPS post. He is 1-10 to lose his Wirral seat, anyway.
Am I wrong to have given Mr Hesford the benefit of the doubt?
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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Credulous young journalists would do well to take Hesford's comments with a pinch of salt - or read some History first. There never has been a time when politicians have resigned principally on principle. There is almost always a high level of political calculation behind every voluntary exit. Politicians spin it otherwise. But among recent high-visibility quitters, neither David Davis nor James Purnell resigned without longer term calculations of advantage. Stephen Hesford is no different - except his ambitions are necessarily more short-term.
Im a labour supporter but Hesford will be no loss. Your not the only one who has had nothing to do with Hesford David. I think the whole north west region of the Labour party would be in agreement. 10k majority for Esther Mcvey here.