Labour backbencher says Darling must prove he is in charge

Alistair Darling, the new Secretary of State for Transport, must prove "who is in charge" after he was publicly contradicted by Downing Street over the role of the Prime Minister's controversial adviser Lord Birt.

Louise Ellman, a Labour member of the influential Commons' Transport Select Committee, intervened after Mr Darling rejected Lord Birt's proposal for a widespread expansion in road tolls.

Lord Birt, a former BBC director general, has been asked to produce "blue skies" ideas for the future of transport over the next 20 years. Downing Street pointedly contradicted Mr Darling, praising the peer and insisting that "everyone values his work highly".

Yesterday Ms Ellman called on Mr Darling to clarify who was taking the lead on transport policy.

She told the BBC: "We have a new Secretary of State for Transport but no sooner has he taken up his position than he appears to be in conflict not just with Lord Birt who is advising the Prime Minister but with Downing Street itself.

"Alistair Darling has taken on a difficult brief. I think he has general support in taking that on but he does have to be clear about who is in charge. Is he going to dictate what happens on transport or is it going to be Lord Birt looking over his shoulder? He needs to know and the public needs to know."

Theresa May, the Conservatives' transport spokeswoman, said: "We are getting some mixed messages here. Alistair Darling has talked about the need to charge motorists and has spoken approvingly of congestion charging.

"He then rejected Lord Birt's proposals, but I see that number 10 has criticised him for that. He may be beginning to suffer from the problem transport has had for some time, which is that there an awful lot of people developing transport policy.

"What he has to make absolutely clear is whether he is the person in charge of transport policy or whether Lord Birt is."