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| Aide quits over attorney general | Aide quits over attorney general |
| (11 minutes later) | |
| Labour MP Stephen Hesford has resigned as a parliamentary aide after attorney general Baroness Scotland was fined £5,000 for breaking employment laws. | Labour MP Stephen Hesford has resigned as a parliamentary aide after attorney general Baroness Scotland was fined £5,000 for breaking employment laws. |
| Mr Hesford, MP for Wirral West, has stepped down as parliamentary private secretary to minister Vera Baird. | Mr Hesford, MP for Wirral West, has stepped down as parliamentary private secretary to minister Vera Baird. |
| Baroness Scotland was fined after being found to have employed a housekeeper who was not allowed to work in the UK. | Baroness Scotland was fined after being found to have employed a housekeeper who was not allowed to work in the UK. |
| Opposition parties say her position is "untenable" but No 10 said it was an "inadvertent" mistake. | Opposition parties say her position is "untenable" but No 10 said it was an "inadvertent" mistake. |
| In a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown Mr Hesford said: "My decision comes about because as an aide to the Law Officers, whilst I have great personal regard for the Attorney General, I cannot support the decision which allows her to remain in office. | In a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown Mr Hesford said: "My decision comes about because as an aide to the Law Officers, whilst I have great personal regard for the Attorney General, I cannot support the decision which allows her to remain in office. |
| "In my view the facts of the case do not matter. It is the principle which counts, particularly at a time when the public's trust of Whitehall is uncertain to say the least. We have to be seen to be accountable." | "In my view the facts of the case do not matter. It is the principle which counts, particularly at a time when the public's trust of Whitehall is uncertain to say the least. We have to be seen to be accountable." |
| Speaking to the BBC's World at One programme, Mr Hesford said he saw the matter as "a personal honour situation". | |
| "The attorney general is the senior law officer, the chief adviser on legal matters to the government, and as a matter of principle I just think it wrong that someone who has the honour to serve in that office should remain considering the circumstances of yesterday," he said. | |
| "Almost regardless of the facts, if you have the honour to serve you also have the principle to uphold that if things go wrong you don't stay in [that] position." | |
| He said that Baroness Scotland was "otherwise a very good minister", but her position "at the top of the legal tree" was "a peculiarly sensitive one". |