REID ALL ABOUT IT - HOME SEC SAFE

29-01-2007

John Reid's misfortunes have got the Conservatives and their allies in the media sniffing blood - but The Stirrer's Westminster sources have rubbished rumours that the Home Secretary is in line for the chop. As one well-placed Labour insider bluntly told us: “Tony Blair can't afford for another cabinet member to go.”

Reid made a rod for his own back when he succeeded Charles Clarke last May and famously described his new department as “not fit for purpose.”

Events since then have only confirmed that impression, but few serious commentators would blame him for the series of misfortunes that have dogged him over the last few months.

Despite Reid's initial promise that more offenders would be locked up, it's emerged that a prison ship was sold a few months ago without his knowledge; and now the lack of space in jails has led the government to “remind” judges that only those guilty of the most serious offences should be sent down.

That led one judge to set free a paedophile who might otherwise have been given a custodial sentence, and was followed by yesterday 's News Of The World scoop that the police have lost track of 322 previously released sex offenders.

All very bleak you might think for the bloke, who'sin charge of this mess. To cap it all, the head of the Youth Justice Board Rod Morgan has just quit, firing a broadside at the government's law and orderpolicy as did so.

Justification, you might think, for for The Sun's headline the other day: “John Reid's brain is missing.”

But it's not - far from it.

Reid has been up to his eyeballs in issues of terrorism and what the Yanks call “homeland security”. This latest series of crises, most of which ultimately date back to the time before he became Home Sec, only underlines his argument for a separate Interior Ministry, looking after major threats to the population.

That would leave another cabinet member arguing the case for prisons, law and order etc and managing a downsized department that wasn't too vast to control.

The civil servants who've been so angered by Reid's bullying manner and aggressive approach that they've started leaking against him may yet come to regret it if they are "re-organised" onto the dole queue.

His attitude has also alienated many of his Labour colleagues but even those who despise his populist, right-wing approach (and there are many on the backbenches) aren't about to turn on him yet - not for this anyway. Far less hisloyal and devoted friend in No 10.