Norman Baker, British Liberal Democrat lawmaker, has resigned from his post as a Home Office minister. He cites working difficulties with his Conservative coalition partners. Baker, MP for Lewes, was appointed as a Home Office minister in October 2013.
Press TV reports:- Baker resigned on Monday after a disagreement with senior Conservatives over a three-month delay in publishing a Home Office report on foreign drug policies.
Backer accused them of delaying the report’s publication because its result could be a political embarrassment for British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Tory party.
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“If anyone is soft on drugs, it’s my Conservative colleagues because they are the ones who allow the process to go on whereby drug dealers continue to make money and people continue to get fined and carry on taking drugs,” he said.
The MP’s resignation highlights tensions in Cameron’s government just six months before the UK’s general elections.
During a recent interview with the Independent, Baker, who was crime prevention minister in the Home Office, censured his Conservative colleagues.
“They have looked upon it as a Conservative department in a Conservative government, whereas in my view it’s a Coalition department in a Coalition government,” Baker said.
The lawmaker also criticized his former boss Home Secretary Theresa May.
“I have had to work very much harder to get things done even where they are what the Home Secretary agrees with and where it has been helpful for the government and the department,” he said, adding, “There comes a point when you don’t want to carry on walking through mud.”
