Morning:
9°c
Lord Darzi joins exodus of 'goats'
15 Jul 2009Lord Darzi, the departing Health Minister, is only the latest "goat" to quit the Government.
So-called because they were appointed from outside the ranks of Labour MPs and peers to Gordon Brown's "Government Of All The Talents" in 2007, they initially numbered four.
Ara Darzi, as the top surgeon was then known, was joined by former CBI chief Sir Digby Jones, ex-UN deputy secretary general Mark Malloch-Brown and former First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West as non-politicians in the Government.
All were awarded life peerages so that they could answer questions in the House of Lords.
Similar ministerial appointments came last year when Stephen Carter, the former head of Ofcom, was made Communications Minister, and ex-banker banker Paul Myners was appointed City Minister. They too were awarded peerages.
Little more than two years since Mr Brown took over at Number 10, however, only Lord Myners and Lord West remain of this group of unlikely Government frontbenchers.
Lord Jones of Birmingham was shortest-lived of the initial "goats", quitting as trade minister in October last year.
He has now been followed out of the door by three more in rapid succession.
Lord Carter's intentions to quit this summer became known in June, Lord Malloch-Brown announced last week he was leaving the Foreign Office and today Lord Darzi revealed he was departing the Department of Health.
Lord West is the only "goat" remaining of the initial four, appointed in the summer of 2007, when the new Prime Minister declared: "Our progressive ambitions for Britain will only be met in the mainstream centre ground where all the talents and energies of the country come together."
