Brent’s LibDem MP Sarah Teather has been appointed Minister of State for Children and Families at the Department of Education by David Cameron. Sarah will work under the new education secretary Michael Gove who had immediately renamed this department from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). Top. Priority. A surprise appointment? Others had suggested housing…. A quick search shows that Sarah has taken an interest in this area in the past - she has asked around 50 questions of (what was) the DCSF and taken an interest in education issues within other Departments....
Public sector newswires with insufficient to talk about have been waiting for news on who the new Housing minister would be, with Grant Shapps and Sarah Teather the most likely candidates. Housing is an issue Sarah has spoken about often in the Commons.
Over on the Brent Greens Blog, Shahrar Ali has posted a write up the results for the candidates at the Local Elections. The Greens stood the maximum number of candiates in each of the 20 wards in Brent and many of the candidates clocked up, several hundred votes, even reaching 840 votes in Kilburn.
The Local Election results 08/05/2010 from Brent Council.
Lab - 40 (21 seats gained)
Lib - 17 (10 seats lost)...
Brent Central is close. Just 1,345 votes separated Labour and the Lib Dems, around 3% or about 1.5 voters in every 50.
Would Brent Central Lib Dem voters punish Sarah Teather for a Lib/Con pact? In a briefing paper published today by the Fabian society, Brent Central is listed as a constituency likely to swing back to Labour at a second general election in 2010.
“As this table shows, there are 15 Lib Dem seats that would fall to Labour if just one-in-five of their voters switched to Labour....
I met this chap while out on the Unlock Democracy / Hang-em rally this afternoon.
Barry Gardiner’s £198,500 dwarfs Dawn Butler’s £66,000 expenses claims.