Milburn quits the Cabinet in run-up to PM's reshuffle

HEALTH Secretary Alan Milburn today dramatically quit the Cabinet to spend more time with his family.

The Darlington MP paved the way for a major Government reshuffle by resigning from Tony Blair’s top team. In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said: "It has come down to a choice between my career in politics and my life with my family."

Mr Blair accepted the resignation with regret, as Mr Milburn made clear he wanted to spend more time with partner Ruth and their children in the north-east of England.

With the Scots-born Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine also set to step down, the way was clear for the Prime Minister to make major changes to his Cabinet. However, his plans to shake up the structure, as well as the personnel of the Cabinet and his ministerial teams, have been hit by two major rows.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has been resisting moves to take responsibility for criminal sentencing policy in England from his department and merge it with those parts of the Lord Chancellor’s department responsible for the administration of the courts, the civil law and the judiciary, creating a powerful English Ministry of Justice.

Mr Blair had planned to make Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, another lawyer, the man in charge of this department.

But Mr Blunkett has fought tooth and nail to water down the plan, which would have left the Lord Chancellor’s position much diminished as effectively just the Government’s senior law officer and chairman of the House of Lords.

And Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has been fighting hard to stop Mr Blair appointing a Cabinet-level Minister for Europe - possibly current Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who has been in charge of negotiations over the new euro constitution - feeling this would undermine his position.

Dependent on the future of Mr Hain are plans to merge the Scottish Office and Welsh Office into a single department covering the two nations, although Mr Blair may delay this until the situation in Northern Ireland, where devolution is currently suspended, is sorted out.

Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell is in the frame for either the new merged department or Minister of Europe if the shake-up goes ahead.

Mr Blair has to fill three middle-ranking jobs because of resignations over Iraq - Police Minister, Pensions Minister and Junior Health Minister - and there is expected to be a major shake-up of middle-ranking ministerial posts. The favourite to fill the job of Lord Chancellor is Home Office Minister Lord Falconer, another lawyer friend of Mr Blair’s, or Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

Leader of the Commons John Reid could be moved to defence if Mr Hoon is promoted and there is some speculation that environment and rural affairs supremo Margaret Beckett and her "green" minister Michael Meacher might step down.