Jess Bowie profiles Norman Baker MP

Is Norman Baker the ultimate poacher turned gamekeeper? Here is an MP who was, after all, a constant thorn in the Labour government’s side. Back in 2001, it was Baker’s terrier-like willingness to ask difficult questions which forced Peter Mandelson to submit his (second) resignation, and in 2007, he even wrote a book positing that the weapons inspector David Kelly hadn’t committed suicide but had been killed by Iraqi assassins – a murder supposedly covered up by the government.

No wonder the media reacted with mild hysteria when the maverick Lib Dem – who has represented Lewes since 1997 – was made a minister of state at the Home Office by Nick Clegg last October. Theresa May was “spitting tacks”, journalists gleefully reported as they waited for the fallout of this most eye-catching of political appointments. Surprisingly, perhaps, they are still waiting.

The most headline-grabbing moment of Baker’s Home Office tenure so far has arguably been his war with Whitehall over a bike. Baker had asked for a bicycle instead of a ministerial car, but his request was refused by civil servants who said a bike would be “an unacceptable burden”. A few months on, Baker has been granted permission to cycle instead of being chauffeured around.

Read on at Ethos Journal here

Ethosis aimed at public sector leaders, politicians, academics and policy specialists debating the future of public services today.