Lynne Featherstone replaces Baker as Osborne mocks ‘conspiracy theorist’

Lynne Featherstone is to return to the Home Office to replace Norman Baker as Minister of State for Crime Prevention, Nick Clegg has announced.

This is interesting because Damian Green named Featherstone as one of the ministers who worked effectively rather than caused trouble. The minister herself said this afternoon that she has ‘always had a very constructive relationship with Theresa May’, so perhaps the deliberate strategy of antagonism is over for a while.

At least we know what the Tories think of Baker’s departure. At Treasury Questions today, George Osborne slipped in a cheeky reference to his former Coalition colleague, saying:

‘There’s now a vacancy, because the hon. member for Lewes has resigned, for a conspiracy theorist at the Home Office.’