Byers throws in towel

Beleaguered British Transport Secretary Stephen Byers finally threw in the towel today.

Mr Byers told a hastily convened news conference at Downing Street this afternoon that he was leaving because it was the ‘‘right thing to do for the government and the Labour Party’’.

Mr Byers insisted that though he had made mistakes ‘‘the people that know me best know that I am not a liar’’.

Tony Blair, in a statement issued through Downing Street, said he understood and respected Mr Byers’s decision.

The British Prime Minister said: ‘‘He has endured a huge amount of criticism, much of it unfair, whilst continuing to face up to the difficult policy decisions required within his department.’’

He added: ‘‘I am in no doubt that he will continue to serve his constituents and the Labour Party with commitment and conviction.’’

Mr Byers said he recognised that he had become a distraction for the government and that by remaining in office he would ‘‘damage the government’’.

The former minister, one of Mr Blair’s closest political allies, refused to take questions after delivering his short statement.

He announced his resignation in No 10 Downing Street, reading from a prepared statement to journalists who had been called there at short notice, many with no idea of what was to come.

The Transport Secretary had come in for harsh and sustained criticism since the Jo Moore e-mail fiasco.

Ms Moore, the minister’s spin doctor, sent an email on September 11 last year to colleagues suggesting that it was a ‘‘good day to bury bad news’’.

Ms Moore finally resigned, but only after Martin Sixsmith, the head of communications in Mr Byers’s department, became embroiled in the row.

At one point Mr Byers told MPs Mr Sixsmith has also resigned, but the minister was later forced to backtrack and admit negotiations were continuing.

The collapse of Railtrack in October 2001 and the Potters Bar train crash in which seven people died earlier this month further weakened his position.

And last week, Paddington rail crash survivor Pam Warren claimed he had misled MPs over the timing of the decision to place Railtrack in administration.