'Liar' Byers to face the music

Humiliated Stephen Byers was today forced to the Commons to defend his conduct and his honesty over the departure of his departmental press chief Martin Sixsmith.

The announcement that the Transport Secretary would face MPs came from Downing Street - 24 hours after No10 had insisted there was no need for him to appear.

As the pressure grew, the Conservatives tabled a censure motion to dock Mr Byers's ministerial salary. Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, joining the Tories, said it was time for him to "give up the ghost".

Tony Blair continued to back his troubled Transport Secretary. Downing Street denied Mr Byers had misled MPs by telling them Mr Sixsmith had resigned when he had not. But fellow ministers and Labour MPs were counting the cost as the damage to the Government grew.

The latest victim of the fall-out today was a furious John Prescott. The Deputy Prime Minister saw his cherished and longplanned proposal to set up elected assemblies across England, to be announced this afternoon, eclipsed by the row.

The plan for local parliaments had been scheduled for a big press launch, with Mr Byers appearing alongside Mr Prescott in his capacity as Secretary of State for Local Government.

But this morning, Mr Byers was hurriedly dropped from the event and there were suggestions the entire press conference might be cancelled.

The Conservatives accused Mr Byers of lying during a statement in the Commons in February, when he repeatedly told MPs that Mr Sixsmith had resigned.

Two days ago, the Transport Department issued a statement acknowledging that Mr Sixsmith had never handed in his cards and voicing regret that the suggestion had ever been made.

By this morning, however, it was clear Mr Byers had no choice but to volunteer to make a statement or be forced to make one. The Tories, headed by Iain Duncan Smith, had demanded the Speaker's consent for an emergency question, certain to be granted had not Mr Byers volunteered.

Mr Kennedy voiced doubt over the Tory tactics in tabling a censure motion, saying it would simply rally the Labour majority to Mr Byers's side.

But he went on: "I do think it would be better for all concerned, himself included, for Stephen Byers to just give up the ghost on this one."

The Tory censure motion, in the traditional form of calling for a minister's salary to be cut, had read: "That this House believes that in view of the repeated misleading of the House by the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, and his refusal to accept personal responsibility for his conduct, his salary should be reduced by £68,861."

Any vote on such a motion would be certain to go the Government's way, and the betting was that the Transport Secretary would still survive, with continued backing from Mr Blair. But the toll on the Government was heavy and growing.

The Opposition's claims that Mr Byers had misled the Commons by claiming that Mr Sixsmith had resigned when he had done nothing of the sort dominated yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions, and saw an embarrassed Mr Blair under heavy pressure from both Iain Duncan Smith and Mr Kennedy.

Mr Blair told the Commons that Mr Byers clearly believed Mr Sixsmith had agreed to resign, while Mr Sixsmith disputed that he had, and that any dispute was in good faith. "Therefore the parties were not in agreement. Therefore, there had to be negotiation."

And he employed a tactic he has often used before, challenging the Tories to come back to the "real issues" of the day which affect people.

Byers: the charge sheet