Devoted to education but not at ease in the limelight

At first sight, the wholly unexpected resignation of Estelle Morris as Education Secretary looks almost reminiscent of that of Lord Carrington, one of the last cabinet ministers to resign for fastidious and entirely self-imposed reasons.

Lord Carrington left the Foreign Office in the Thatcher government for failing to predict an Argentinian invasion of the Falklands. Ms Morris had come under fire because she promised to resign back in 1999, when she was a junior minister, if the Government failed to meet its targets for the testing of 11-year-olds in primary schools.

The reality is a little more complicated. Nevertheless, her resignation, which shocked her cabinet colleagues and her opponents, did not, as most resignations do, follow either pressure from Downing Street or from anything like as harsh or sustained a media spotlight as afflicted, say, Peter Mandelson or Stephen Byers.

Ms Morris, the daughter and niece of former Labour MPs, was as popular in the party as she was among teachers. The latest spat over primary school tests had not even made the front pages, and when she first told Tony Blair she wanted to go, he urged her to reconsider.

As one of the few ex-teachers to have taken the job of Education Secretary, Ms Morris was wholly devoted to education, having spent almost all of her frontbench career in the same department. She had been widely tipped for promotion to cabinet after the 2001 election, partly because with her winning manner and obvious enthusiasm for raising school standards, she was a fresh and persuasive voice in what had become a decidedly technocratic government.

She slipped up last October when she denied she had made the resignation pledge back in 1999, and publicity for this yesterday ensured she would have been given a rough ride by her Conservative shadow, Damian Green, during Education Questions in the Commons today.

A cabinet colleague confirmed last night that the Commons session was a factor in the timing of her resignation, and it will now be taken by the Schools minister, David Miliband.

But there is little doubt that even despite her earlier travails over the A-level fiasco – in which she was broadly exonerated by Mike Tomlinson's report on the affair – she could have ridden out the storm with an apology. Other ministers have had lower periods than this, survived intact and gone on to be promoted further. And Ms Morris had a sufficiently high stock, albeit somewhat depleted, of that mysterious commodity, political capital, to have done just that.

In fact, it seems that an accumulation of events which had put her in the public eye, unfavourably in recent weeks, persuaded her to go. In her letter she said: "I am not good at dealing with the modern media."

This may have been as much connected to what colleagues said was media intrusion among members of her family as to the treatment she received over A-levels and primary school tests. Colleagues suggested, for example, there had been press inquiries about the schooling of her sister's children. While personally upsetting, this should have had no effect one way or another on her standing as Education Secretary. She has no children of her own.

Ministerial resignation letters often contain a mixture of self-pity and self-justification. By contrast, Ms Morris used her letter last night to own up to faults which had not been the subject of comment by others, saying that while she felt she was good at dealing "with the issues and in communicating with teachers", she was "less good at strategic management of a huge department and ... I have not felt I have been as effective as I should be, or as effective as I need to be".

What turns out to have been Ms Morris's low self-esteem as a Secretary of State may have been compounded by the irritation caused by over-zealous spin doctors who, of their own accord, sought to over-promote her role, not least in securing a 6 per cent increase in this year's public spending settlement. But she kept her worries deeply private. "She was obviously desperately unhappy but didn't feel she could share it with us," said one ministerial ally.

Ms Morris went so far last night as to say that she felt "in many ways" she had achieved more in the post of Schools minister than as Secretary of State. Although she was not generally seen as thin-skinned, one woman ministerial colleague said: "I think it all just got to her. It's very sad."

Her career is unlikely to be over. Mr Blair's promise to Ms Morris in his own letter last night that "I have no doubt at all that you will come back into government" was more definite than the indications he gave to Harriet Harman when he removed her from the Cabinet in his first term. And Ms Harman is now back in government as Solicitor General.

Mr Blair is unlikely to do without the services of an undoubtedly able and personable woman minister for long.

The exchange of letters

Estelle Morris's resignation letter to the Prime Minister:

"Dear Tony,

I am writing to confirm my wish to resign as Secretary of State.

As I explained when I came to see you yesterday morning, I am proud of the role I have played in the Government, both as Schools minister and as Secretary of State.

In many ways, I feel I have achieved more in the first job than I have in the second. I've learned what I'm good at and also what I'm less good at. I'm good at dealing with the issues and in communicating to the teaching profession. I am less good at strategic management of a huge department and I am not good at dealing with the modern media. All this has meant that with some of the recent situations I have been involved in, I have not felt I have been as effective as I should be, or as effective as you need me to be.

You were kind enough to say you wanted me to think about it further overnight and be absolutely sure that this is what I want to do. I have done so, and it is. I will look back with real pride at the role I have played in helping to raise standards in literacy and numeracy in primary schools, in the reform programme we now have for secondary schools, and indeed at all levels of education; and perhaps above all the enhanced status of the teaching profession. But I feel this is the right decision for me, and for the Government.

I also want to thank you personally for giving me the chance to serve in the Cabinet and also for being so considerate and understanding.

I believe passionately in what this Labour Government is trying to do and I will continue to support you in whatever way I can.

Best wishes, Estelle

The Prime Minister's reply :

"Dear Estelle,

It was clear when you came to see me yesterday that your commitment to education was as strong as ever. However, you raised your concern about your effectiveness as Secretary of State. I have no doubt you are doing an excellent job, as I told you, and have every confidence in you.

Though I regret it, I respect totally the decision you have reached, and the typically forthright and honest way that you communicated it to me.

I appointed you to the Cabinet because you had done such a good job as Schools minister under David Blunkett, and because I believed you were the right person to build on the successes of our first term in education. And despite recent difficulties, you can rightly leave with a sense of achievement over your 2002 Education Act which over time will help transform the quality of our secondary schools; the Green Paper on 14-19-year-olds and the vital review of higher education that we will be publishing shortly.

There is no doubt that schools have improved under your tenure, and that the high reputation you have in education circles is deserved.

Politics can be a tough and lonely job, and the pressures can be intense. I am sorry that things have not worked out for you as both of us hoped and wished when I appointed you.

I have no doubt that you will come back into government. In the meantime, I want you to know that I continue to hold you in the highest regard. You have been a great asset to this Government and can be very proud of your work.

Yours ever, Tony."