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Well, I've always been pretty direct, admits the 'stiletto assassin'
PRIME Minister Gordon Brown might be forgiven for raising a wry smile at Caroline Flint's admission that she has "always been pretty direct".
His Cabinet reshuffle in the wake of a host of ministerial resignations was nearing completion last month when the Don Valley MP's fizzing letter was made public, accusing him of treating women as "window dressing", operating a "two-tier" government and "straining every sinew" of her loyalty by briefing against her.
In a day when resigning ministers tend to issue a benign letter to the Prime Minister – or even find it has already been drafted for them by Downing Street – the fiery outburst stood out like a beacon, earning Ms Flint unwelcome headlines as the "stiletto assassin".
She is no less direct now, standing by her comments and admitting she has no regrets. Now she wants to get on with the job of being an ordinary MP again.
Reflecting on the tumultuous week that saw Labour perform disastrously in local and European elections, a major Government reshuffle and Mr Brown surviving a leadership coup, Ms Flint insists: "I didn't go into that week thinking I was going to resign".
Talk of her and other ministers plotting was "absolute rubbish", she says, dismissing as "a complete fabrication" suggestions that she and female ministers including Jacqui Smith and Hazel Blears – who have both also now left the Government – were plotting against Mr Brown.
She said: "I find it amazing that men get together all the time in all sorts of different ways, but a few women friends get together occasionally for a dinner and a glass of wine and a chat and suddenly it's like, 'these women are dangerous, what are they up to?'"
But the rumours refused to go away. She was campaigning in her constituency on election day, June 5, where she was getting calls from London "regularly throughout the day", which led to the now infamous interview broadcast when polls closed at 10pm pledging her loyalty to Mr Brown.
"My party activists who were with me that day will know what pressure I was under," she says. "Late afternoon or early evening it was agreed – and Number Ten was supportive – that I would try to kill the story because actually the story wasn't true. So I did the interview to kill that story."
So it was surprising to observers that 19 hours later she had fired off her resignation letter. Downing Street insists she was offered a promotion, keeping her same job but being authorised to attend every Cabinet meeting rather than just when her brief was discussed. However, she says she was not satisfied her pledges of loyalty were accepted.
"During the call (from the Prime Minister] early on I really just felt I didn't have his full confidence and that for me meant that I didn't feel I could continue to serve as a minister. There's not a lot more to say about that. No big plan, no big conspiracy, that's it really."
She objects to suggestions she was acting disloyally, pointing to an impeccable voting record in support of the Government – and insists she has no intentions of being a trouble-causer now. Her energy is saved for attacking the Tories – who are dismissed as "pretty hollow" economically – rather than the Prime Minister.
She stands by her concerns that too few women are entrusted in Mr Brown's inner circle, but welcomes pledges to be more inclusive when the Prime Minister faced down critics in his own party.
Labour may have led the field in boosting the number of women candidates and MPs, but she says the party "should have done more" and insists Parliament is still a gentleman's club. "It is a bit perplexing that in countries like Pakistan there are more women councillors than in the UK. Good for them, but you'd think in this country we could be as good."
But now she is back to where she was after first becoming an MP in 1997 – a backbencher. It is something she has no qualms about. Being a constituency MP is a "touchstone" for whether Government policy is working out in the real world, she says. Already she has volunteered to be a patient for an NHS event this summer to test how services would respond to a major incident and is planning shifts with police and as a classroom assistant, while she says she has "unfinished business" on housing after her spell as a minister.
So can Labour win the next election? "I think we have a challenge," she says, insisting the Government must ensure the many policies unveiled to tackle the recession and tackle issues like a housing shortage are actually working.
"I've always liked to think of myself as a minister who likes to practically get my hands dirty in making sure we're delivering. If we're not doing that, the political decisions we make and the policies we put forward don't have any connection to people's lives.
"If you say things are happening but people can't see it in their own constituency, in their place where they live, in their neighbourhood, then people don't make the connection or they think that's just a lot of noise. We have to work harder at presenting policies in a way they connect to."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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