CLARE SHORT QUITS - IT'S OFFICIAL

14-09-2006

Birmingham MP Clare Short is standing down from parliament at the next election - newsforecast on The Stirrer two days ago. As she announced her decision, she delivered a ferocious blast at Tony Blair.

Short said the stage had come where she was “profoundly ashamed of the government.” And she accused Blair of making the world a more dangerous place, because of his “craven support for the extremism” of US foreign policy.

She also says that her support for a hung parliament means that she can no longer continue as an MP - although The Stirrer's sources suggest that she is unlikely to campaign actively for another party.

Short had previously said she wanted to see the Lib Dems hold the balance of power in a hung parliament and she is supportive of proportional representation as opposed to the first past the post system.

Always a controversial figure, Short served for six years as International Development Secretary, but quit after the Iraq war when she claimed that pledges to involve the UN in the reconstruction of the country had been ignored.

Politics aside, Short is known to have embarked on a serious relationship with Mo Mowlam's widower John Norton.

There might have also been a battle for her constituency, as new electoral boundaries mean that four Birmingham MPs - Short, Steve McCabe in Hall Green, Roger Godsiff in Small Heath and Lynne Jones in Kings Norton - are chasing three seats.