Tim Loughton has done his bit to fuel coalition tensions today. At the Conservative Renewal conference this weekend, the former children and families’ minister appeared to suggest Sarah Teather, the former Lib Dem families minister, did a poor job ‘because she didn’t produce one of her own’.
As Matthew Holehouse reveals at the Telegraph, Loughton made the following remarks he has claimed were ‘off the cuff’:
‘I guess I have form…particularly since leaving the DfE as minister for children and families so made my pronouncement on family policy. It’s not just that I have changed my mind when I was no longer minister.
‘The person who was actually really in charge of family policy amongst the ministerial team at the DfE was Sarah Teather. Which was a bit difficult because she didn’t really believe in family. She certainly didn’t produce one of her own. So it became a bit of a family-free zone.
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