McGuire axed in Brown reshuffle

By Sunil Peck

The minister for disabled people, Anne McGuire MP, has told Disability Now that she is not bitter at being sacked in Gordon Brown’s ministerial reshuffle.

Ms McGuire, who had been a Department for Work and Pensions minister since 2005, was popular with many disabled people’s groups.

Sue Bott, director of the National Centre for Independent Living, said she was “very sad” to hear the news.

She said: "Anne had got a good grasp of disability issues. She was also somebody that you could talk to and you knew that she was listening."

But Ms McGuire told us: “Government reshuffles are part of the ebb and flow of politics and if you're in politics you have to recognise that these things happen.”

She said she hoped she had contributed to “maintaining the momentum towards equality for disabled people”.

She said her highlights were the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the government’s new independent living strategy, and “a wider recognition that disabled people should be judged on what they can do and not for what they cannot”.

She said she had been “overwhelmed” by messages from many in the disability lobby after the announcement of her sacking.

“It's been a great privilege to work with so many fantastic people over my time. I'll not forget working with them, I'll continue to be at their side as we move towards equality for disabled people.

"It's always sad to leave a job that you love and it's been a fantastic privilege to be the minister for disabled people.”

She said her three-and-a-half years as minister for disabled people was “without a shadow of a doubt…the most rewarding” of her 11 years as a minister.

She added: "The Prime Minister was very generous in recommending me for privy councillorship and also asking me to undertake a special project looking at how we involve voluntary organisations in the development of government policy, and I'll be working on that over the next year."

The disabled Labour MP Anne Begg, a member of the work and pensions select committee, said: "I'm really sad that Anne has gone because I thought that she was doing a great job as minister for disabled people and I know that she was well liked by the various [disability] organisations. She understood their concerns. I think Anne will be missed."

Ms McGuire will be replaced by Jonathan Shaw MP, who was previously a minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Mr Shaw, who will also retain his post as minister for the south east, is a former social worker and care assistant for adults with learning difficulties.

Another government figure popular with the disability movement, care services minister Ivan Lewis, has been moved to a post in the Department for International Development.

Mr Lewis, who has earned particular praise for his ministerial work from organisations for people with learning difficulties, has been replaced by Phil Hope, who was previously minister for the third sector.

The Department of Health has increased the importance of Mr Hope’s new portfolio, making him minister of state for social care (Mr Lewis was an under-secretary of state).