Conservative minister Lord Marland resigns

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/08/conservative-minister-lord-marland-resigns

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A second Conservative minister has quit the frontbench in as many days.

Lord Marland, the business minister, told David Cameron he wanted to resign to resume a business career.

His resignation, due to be announced formally on Wednesday, comes after Lord Strathcylde, the leader of the Lords, resigned to start a business career.

Marland is a former Conservative treasurer and is liked by Cameron, but his departure hardly represents a catastrophic political blow.

He joined the industry department in the September reshuffle and is quitting just as the business deregulation and growth bill starts its passage though the Lords.

It emergedon Tuesday that the bill is going to face fierce resistance from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, especially its proposal to give workers shares in return for abandoning employment rights, a backdoor revival of ideas first generated by Adrian Beecroft.

The Liberal Democrats also rejected as draconian proposals in the bill tp strip some councils of powers over planning.

The shares-for-rights ideas are not thought to have the support of the business secretary, Vince Cable, and have been roundly rejected as irrelevant by most business organisations.

Marland, a businessman-turned-politician, was also chairman of the Business Ambassadors Group set up under UK Trade & Investment.

He was a founding director of the insurer Jardine Lloyd Thomson, and led a consortium that rescued the Hunter Boots wellington makers from administration in 2006.