News story

18th May 2005

Promotion for Local MP in New Lib Dem Team

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has announced that local MP Steve Webb will be given a high-profile role in the party's newly-formed Shadow Cabinet. Recognising the Northavon MP's achievements as the Lib Dems' spokesperson on work and pensions for the last six years, Charles Kennedy has asked Steve Webb to take responsibility for shadowing the Department of Health - often one of the most controversial areas of government policy.

With a newly enlarged Liberal Democrat parliamentary party of 62 MPs, competition for places in the Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet is becoming steadily more intense, and the party leader has taken the opportunity to reduce the number of Shadow Cabinet members to form a core team with whom he will work more closely.

Commenting on the announcement, Steve Webb said:

"I am absolutely delighted to have been asked by Charles Kennedy to take on responsibility for shadowing the Department of Health. I am a passionate believer in the NHS but I also know from my work as a local MP how many problems there are with the health service as it is currently run. I am very much looking forward to holding the Government to account for their running of the NHS, not least in terms of our own hospitals here in South Gloucestershire.

"But I have also greatly enjoyed my work on pensions and benefits over the last six years, and local residents may be assured that I will continue to take a close interest in these matters on their behalf over the coming years".